When a 21-year-old John Alfred Sherry left Malta alone in June 1959, he would have never imagined that one day he’d set up his own company in South Africa and lead arms-deal negotiations with country leaders – including Dom Mintoff and Saddam Hussein.

Now, aged 81, Alfred Sherry – who moved back to Malta – has documented his life story in a motivational memoir titled It Can Be Done.

In his book he talks about the life and business lessons learned and shares insight into the can-do attitude that worked for him.

Born in Tarxien in 1938 to Charles and Josephine Xerri, he always dreamed of moving to London. 

So, in 1959, on completion of a telecoms apprenticeship, he packed his things and followed his dreams. 

He spent 11 years in the UK working for STC, a telecommunications company, and got married.

The birth of his son in 1962 was the catalyst he needed to take life more seriously and he soon found himself nurturing ambitions to run his own company.

“I was a happy-go-lucky type of guy. When my son was born, I had to fill in a form that said: Father – John Sherry, occupation – wireman… I said to myself: by the time my son goes to school I’ll have a better title. That became an obsession. It was a motivator. I wanted him to be proud,” he says.

So, when he was eventually offered a post in South Africa, he seized the opportunity. 

Some years later, he left the company he worked for to set up his own ICT company Jasco Electronics, where he still does consultancy work.

Negotiating arms deals

A few years after setting up Jasco, in 1976, Mr Sherry won a tender to supply equipment to Armscor (Armaments Corporation of South Africa) – which at the time was the procurement agency of the South African Defence Force charged with modernising the arsenal of defence against the challenges of the UN embargo due to apartheid.

Armscor wanted to establish a platform in another country to assemble the G5 product, an artillery gun capable of shooting a missile a distance of up to 42 kilometers. It would create about 100 jobs. 

Mr Sherry was brought in to help Armscor reach out to the Maltese government and a meeting was set with Prime Minister Dominic Mintoff.

During the meeting, held in Malta in 1983, Mr Mintoff pointed out that there was no link between Malta and South Africa and explained why: “And I bet you are thinking it’s because of apartheid. Well it’s not. It’s because years after the war Malta was in trouble and we needed to export people. So, we wrote to America, Australia, Canada and South Africa. They all wrote back giving us quotas except for South Africa, who ignored us as if we were blacks,” Mr Sherry writes in his book.

Mr Mintoff told Mr Sherry that the government was interested in manufacturing the weapons in Malta and even had an arms’ testing site. Negotiations progressed and Armscor experts visited Malta and concluded that some manufacturing could take place on the island.

In 1983, Mintoff said his government was interested in manufacturing weapons in Malta and even had an arms’ testing site

Then, Mr Sherry writes, the Maltese government made a list of demands: it wanted control over all exports and wanted to decide which countries not to sell to; after 18 months the whole weapon was to be produced in Malta; it requested 10 per cent of all equity and that 500 jobs would be created within 18 months. 

“The government of Malta basically had to provide a substantial number of jobs to justify such a tricky and sensitive project, while the South Africans – as keen as they were at the time for this to work – could not justify the creation of so many jobs; nor could they practically hand the product over to be made in Malta,” Mr Sherry writes, as he explains how the demands could not be met. 

So, Armscor decided to take the offer to Iraq, that had been at war with Iran since 1980. 

In September 1984, the Iraqi government signed an agreement with South Africa – but only after Mr Sherry had a brief meeting with Saddam Hussein and was warned to keep it secret. 

He only spoke about the details in his memoirs, 34 years later. 

Lessons learned 

During his life, Mr Sherry was honoured with a Knighthood in Malta and, as a hobby, went on to set up the biggest private waterfowl collection in the world, claiming a Guinness World Record title in the process.

Everything he did, he did with integrity and to the best of his ability. 

“I believe in a strong work ethic and the importance of integrity. I did an arms’ deal for the government – and I didn’t bribe anyone,” he says, as he explains that the years have taught him the value of good selling skills. 

“Nothing happens till somebody sells something. Everything in the world is dependent on someone’s selling skills – whether it’s a doctor with the right bedside manners or a journalist asking the right questions,” he says.

“If you do your job to the best of your ability, then the next opportunity will come.

“Do what you’ve got at hand as well as you can but don’t take anything for granted… we’ve all got hang ups and fears – it’s about not letting them take over. 

“Nothing is easy – and in business it’s the same. As for having your own business – most important is the ability to make decisions. Many people fail because they’re afraid of making decisions. You may be wrong. But if you know why you made that decision, then you can change it,” he adds. 

The book can be bought from https://www.it-can-be-done.com/ or from leading bookshops in Malta and Gozo.