Operating out of an unpretentious brick building in Newark, surrounded by New Jersey's malodorous swamps, Charles W. Engelhard, 43, has built himself into one of the most powerful businessmen in South Africa. Last week came his biggest breakthrough: the diamond-and gold-mining aristocracy, headed by Harry Oppenheimer's De Beers companies, included him in the formation of a giant, $285.6 million investment company, the largest that has ever set up to develop South African industry.
The South Africans could hardly do otherwise. In the last 13 years Engelhard has elbowed his way into control...