Like most of my colleagues, and now the community of Benoni, I was shocked to hear that our editor Kevin van der List had called it a day after two years in charge of the Benoni City Times to pursue a new business venture.
When I first walked into the BCT office at the Northmead Square (almost five years ago) I didn’t realise that ‘Uncle Kev’ and I would become more than just colleagues.
I knew this cuz from our Benoni High School days, but we were more school acquaintances than anything else.
Anyway, we became great pals and embarked on countless random missions around Benoni to find all sorts of interesting story leads and photo opportunities.
In fact, we became partners in crime, representing the City Times wherever we went.
We became like Laurel and Hardy, Batman and Robin, Starsky and Hutch, Pinky and the Brain, Dr Dre and Eminem and uh … Toks en Tjops.
Heck, we even travelled down to KwaZulu-Natal together last year to cover the Comrades Marathon and take the BCT brand beyond the East Rand borders.
READ about that here:
Two years as an editor is a short period in the greater scheme of things, a mere smidgeon in the 97-year history of Benoni’s favourite community newspaper, but, Uncle Kev has, in my opinion, made an impact that won’t be easy to forget.
Always approachable, amicable and amiable Kev enveloped himself into his work and always had an ear for anyone who walked into his office.
That’s probably why his cellphone was constantly blaring from the countless contacts he had made in the community.
You could also always bank on a few laughs coming from his office, probably from one of his lame, punny jokes.
Kev would spend hours checking, double checking, triple checking and sometimes quadruple checking his and his staffs’ work.
He would tell me about having nightmares about imagined mistakes on the front page and waking up in cold sweat.
“There’s no such thing as a perfect newspaper, but we can try,” he would say.
Kev was responsible for ushering in the new-look, more modern City Times layout and worked his behind off to see that the whole community is represented in his paper.
Kev always trusted me with my decisions and would often join me at my various weekend jobs, just to have a cold beer at the cricket or to become better acquainted with local sportspeople.
Some of you might even remember him pedalling around on a bicycle at the Robor Scaffolding Marathon to capture the event from all angles.
I often mock him for asking people too many questions or for getting too excited (like a giddy girl) about a big story, but that’s what a good journalist does, right?
He always backed my decisions and supported me with any of my wild, crazy ideas (like deciding to run the Comrades Marathon this year).
I still wonder how he put up with me when I threw my little tantrums.
I am now the last of the males in the City Times office (not necessarily a bad thing if I were a lion) and will have to get used to all the oestrogen around the place.
I’ll miss the jokes, the #LGKev_Ed adventures and having a confidant on hand.
Thanks for what you have done for me.
Thanks for what you have done for Benoni.
LG
* Please note that this is an opinion piece and that the views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Benoni City Times or Caxton Newspapers.
Check out some other blogs from this writer:
LG’s Blog: Cough, cough… Comrades is around the corner (I just died)
LG’s A to Z of a South African road trip
LG’s Blog: Things I’m learning while learning to run really far, like really, really, really far
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