The philanthropist Gary Lubner has shed new light on his continued commitment to funding progressive causes in his native South Africa and his unflinching support for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
Lubner, who retired as chief executive of Belron, best known for its Autoglass window repairs in 2023, after moving to London 35 years ago, said he felt a “deep obligation” to help South Africa after growing up with privilege during the Apartheid era in a white, Jewish family.
In an interview with The Times, the Alyth Synagogue member, revealed how he came to be friends with Nelson Mandela and was invited onto the board of his charity in the 1990s.
“I spent quite a lot of time with him,”Lubner revealed. “He used to come over. I used to take my kids to meet him … Mandela loved kids. He had been without kids for 27 years, so he just loved being with kids.”
Former South African president FW de Klerk (right) shakes hands with fellow Nobel Peace laureate Nelson Mandela (L) in Cape Town in March 2006 (Photo: Reuters/Mike Hutchings)
Asked if a sense of Jewish obligation drove his support for the anti-apartheid movement, Lubner added:”I don’t think it’s atonement, but I have this deep obligation that I want to help the country that helped me to get where I’ve got to … I had free education, I had an unbelievable university education, but I had all of that because I was white.”
He also suggested there had been an attempt to rewrite history in terms of the scale of Jewish support for opponents of the racist apartheid regime.
Lubner told The Times:”I know now that the Jewish community says we were very much on the side of anti-apartheid, I can tell you quite categorically: they were not.”
It is confirmed that around 70 per cent of money from Lubner’s charitable foundation This Day continues to go to projects in South Africa.
While in the UK Lubner has given £5 million in donations to Keir Starmer’s party over the past four years, and money also to progressive organisations like Yachad, who campaign for a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Asked about his backing for Starmer he told the Times:”I know his values. I know he believes in the same things that I do …”
He added:” My support for Labour is long-term. I want them to be in power for the next term, and hopefully the term after that.”
