Born in Pretoria, Grobbelaar attended the Observatory Boys' School, then worked for South African Railways.
He completed an apprenticeship as a boilermaker, then returned to work for the railways before becoming a hotel manager.
In 1963, he was appointed as acting general secretary of the Trade Union Council of South Africa (TUCSA), winning election to the post on an ongoing basis the following year.
[1] Under Grobbelaar's leadership, TUCSA admitted unions of black workers,[2] and grew to a peak membership of 478,420 in 1983.
Grobbelaar also served on various government committees, and a perceived closeness of TUCSA to the government led many black workers to form independent unions.