Up close and personal with Barry Bothma, Caxton Greater Joburg North’s longest serving employee
Layout artist Barry Bothma, has been with Caxton for 30 years. He was recently rewarded for his committed service and shared his journey over the years with our readers.
Barry Bothma, Caxton Greater Joburg North’s current longest serving employee, grew up in Springs. At the tender age of 16 he ventured into the workforce with an entrepreneurship at Robertsons Printers.
“Here we did printing using a hot metal compositor – it was tedious work but I learned a lot in my five years there, ” said Barry.
After 5 years with Robertsons Printers, he decided to tour Europe. “I was working since 16 and decided to go out and have some fun, see different places and learn about new cultures.”
A year later Barry began working at Brinrodd Press in Benrose, and after yet another year he joined Constable Printers in Boksburg.
It wasn’t until 1983 that Barry joined Caxton. “I started at the Industria office and here we used to place wording and actual photographs onto pages with a wax machine. We even manually cut pages and developed photographs in a dark room,” he reminisced.
Barry left Caxton briefly in 1985 to tour the Mediterranean and returned to Caxton, this time at offices based in Savoy Estate. “Here we worked on all the Joburg North papers. I think we had 8 papers back then, all done manually. There were no computers back then,” added Barry.
In the 1990’s Caxton Joburg North moved to its current offices in Craighall Park and occupied what is now known as the ‘Magazine building’.
“When we moved to Craighall Park, I was appointed as production manager for a few months. This was just before the change over to computers, and I quickly realised that I was not the management type. I hated telling people what to do, so I stepped down and carried on with the job that needed to be done. We had a cool branch manager at the time, Ron Jordan, who was pretty understanding,” said Barry.
A few years later there was a massive fire in the now staff-parking-lot. According to Bothma, this used to be a college and it was burnt to the ground. “Caxton then bought the lot and built the building we work in today,” he said.
Barry now does page layout for 13 newspapers across Joburg North.
“I have enjoyed my 30 years with Caxton. We have definitely been on a journey together. What I love the most is how flexible and understanding management has always been,” said Barry.
When asked if he had any advice for the newcomers to the Caxton family, Barry said that he believes people have good and bad days and that nothing should be taken too seriously. “It is, business after all,” he concluded.
After retirement, which is not anytime soon he says, he hopes to travel again and visit friends he has made along the way.
Edited by Ingrid Pepler
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