Background
Robert Stephens was born on February 20, 1905, at Laingsburg in South Africa about 150 miles east of Cape Town.
Robert Stephens was born on February 20, 1905, at Laingsburg in South Africa about 150 miles east of Cape Town.
Educated at Laingsburg, Rondebosch Boys High School, and the Diocesan College at Cape Town. In 1923 he went to the University of Cape Town where he gained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1926. His academic ability won him a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University, England where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Forestry.
In 1929 he took a job as research officer with the South African government’s Department of Forestry. He began with silvicultural research, turned next to wattle research at Pietermaritzburg, and then worked on timber research at the Forest Products Research Institute, Pretoria.
His research was interrupted by military service with the South African army in Egypt from 1939 to 1942. Five years after returning to the Forestry Department he resigned from South African government service in 1947 and moved into the timber business in Swaziland.
He established Peak Timbers Ltd at Pigg's Peak in the north of the country and was chairman of a steadily expanding business until he retired in February 1968.
He set up two other business concerns: United Plantations (SA) Ltd, and Coral Stephens (South Africa and Swaziland).
In 1956 his political activity began with membership of the European Advisory Council. He won a European reserved seat as a United Swaziland Association candidate in the June 1964 elections and obtained a place in the Legislative Council. In the 1967 elections he was again successful and he repealed his victory in the elections in May 1972 which resulted in his appointment as Finance Minister.
A white South African-born professional forester who was in the service of the South African government for 18 years. Over 50 years of age when he turned to political activity, Stephens was 67 when he was made a cabinet minister. His main qualification for handling government revenue of £10 million a year was his financial expertise as chairman for over 20 years of a large timber company which he founded in Swaziland.