TONY HALL
Nelspruit, 7 Feb 2008
by Hugh Lewin
Thank you, Chris and Andy and Phil. It’s a great honour to join you on this sad, sad day – and to bring you a few words of support and tribute from some of Tony’s friends who can’t be here today.
Firstly, an important present for you, received a few minutes ago from ANC head-quarters, “in deepest sympathy”: a condolences card, signed with three names: Motlanthe, Mantashe and Zuma. Tony would have appreciated that.
I don’t think any of us have yet quite realised that this has happened - for instance, today’s the day, as I discussed with him only last week, that Tony planned to visit Jo’burg again - but we certainly do realise how difficult this-all must be for you, the family.
We come with heavy hearts and much sorrow - to bring you, the family, our heart-felt sympathy. It must seem strange and hard for you all (which I’m sure was not Tony’s intention) to have almost a re-run of Eve’s funeral so soon. But I suppose what none of us should forget – and what the past week has again emphasised - is the fact that Eve and Tony were very much a unit: in every sense, they went together, so is it any wonder that, at the end, they have gone together? Perhaps that’s Tony’s reminder to us. And in thanking him for that reminder (and hoping we can cope with it) I’d like to recall some of what I said about him less than two years ago, on his 70th birthday.
That was the day to say Thank you to Tony as one of the true friends of the struggle. Not just the South African struggle – it’s the struggle for a decent life for all, wherever. Tony was such a wonderfully warm-hearted friend and struggler. A friend with a special sense of humour and a very particular sense of honour and justice, of courage and integrity. And – like all good journalists – he had the curiosity and tenacity of a ferret.
I've been lucky to have known Tony for quite a long while, and to have worked with him often. Like once upon a time on the middle-eastern magazine "Eight Days", based in London. And then “Africa South & East”, first in Harare and then, happily, in Johannesburg. On both of these publications I had the chance to see Tony playing The Boss, the Editor – where I came to admire his capacity to handle the people around him – an often weird variety of people, in more ways than one – and how he always handled every one of them with his remarkable blend of skill and kindness and encouragement and grace.
Here’s a message which tells something of that side of Tony, from Terry Bell in Cape Town:
I owe an extraordinary debt to Tony Hall. Both to him and the late Joe Gqabi. They set me on the political trajectory I began in 1961 and, I hope, continue to this day.
I met Tony in the large, draughty Germiston city hall early in 1961. I was the very junior reporter on the local “Germiston Advocate” assigned‚ because the chief reporter, an alcoholic, had passed out, to cover a Group Areas Board hearing.
I didn’t have a clue what this was all about, but at the bare wooden Press table I met Tony Hall from The Star and Joe Gqabi of New Age. I knew The Star. I’d never heard of New Age.
Two days later I had been fully briefed on the iniquities of the Group Areas Act and much else besides. Tony and Joe gave me a crash course in politics outside of the narrow, white working-class world in which I had grown up.
That Tony and Joe took the time to brief a school-leaving junior reporter from the heartland of Afrikaner conservatism, Edenvale, says much about both men. Tony helped to change my life.
Joe was assassinated in 1981. And now Tony is gone. Hamba Kahle, comrade. We will miss you.
And Tony the writer. When he and Eve first moved to Matumi, they joked with the idea of writing the Nelspruit equivalent of “A Year in Provence”, filled with stories of rustic eccentrics, peculiar passers-by and recalcitrant boreholes. Well, we’ll sadly not have that, but we have not been disappointed. Far from it. Over the past ten years, our lives have been enriched by a treasure–trove of emails; Letters to the Editor; and articles on the Internet from Tony, if not also from the Halls together.
Reading Tony’s prose is a bit like watching Wimbledon, especially on the Centre Court of the Mail & Guardian letters page. That opening ace! Those witty back-hands. The cool passing shots. And the final smash. And – of course - when T Hall was joined by E Hall, you had an unbeatable doubles pair. As Costa commented not so long ago, in response to a particularly memorable musing from Matumi:
This posting from Tony and Eve is the best defence of the current administration and its policies that I have read. From the quiet beautiful bush, they have tackled all the current political issues with creativity - [and, being Costa, he adds] even though they have failed to persuade people like me that their curative nostrums are useful.
That’s Costa Gazi (once Gazides) who also cannot be here today. He writes:
I remember Tony with great affection. He was one of the handful of whites who supported the liberation struggle in those early dangerous days. He was the solid rock behind Eve’s activism and remained committed to that cause right up to the end. He hoped that the new leadership of the ANC would revive the spirit of the Freedom Charter but will sadly not be here to see if that will happen.
Hamba Kahle, Tony, from your old comrade, Costa.
While we don’t have the Matumi memoirs, we do, as Phil points out, have Tony’s 2020 “vision”, which still needs to find its place. The sparkling proposals in this document highlight another of Tony’s remarkable characteristics: his marvellous refusal to shut up. He has raised the awkward questions; he’s reminded us of where we came from, and where we thought we were going. In addition … well, we're actually a pretty parochial lot, aren't we, this side of the Limpopo? What Tony and Eve also managed to do was to re-kindle and nourish within us a passion for the rest of Africa. They reminded us that we are part of a rich and wonderful continent. That's quite an achievement.
To end. Another struggler, Dave Evans, wrote this week from deepest Wallasey, Liverpool:
We're shocked and can hardly credit it. Tony seemed so
healthy the last time we saw him. We've not met the family - but please convey our sympathies. A fine man, none better, and part of a wonderful couple - in every way, from politics to hospitality ... commitment, integrity and a capacity for fun and joy. The loss to all of us is immense. Irreplaceable, both.
Yes, indeed. And as Sherry – who is here – has written so beautifully, we all say to you:
Be strong, support one another and have courage in the coming months.
Thank you.
Nelspruit, 7 Feb 2008
by Hugh Lewin
Thank you, Chris and Andy and Phil. It’s a great honour to join you on this sad, sad day – and to bring you a few words of support and tribute from some of Tony’s friends who can’t be here today.
Firstly, an important present for you, received a few minutes ago from ANC head-quarters, “in deepest sympathy”: a condolences card, signed with three names: Motlanthe, Mantashe and Zuma. Tony would have appreciated that.
I don’t think any of us have yet quite realised that this has happened - for instance, today’s the day, as I discussed with him only last week, that Tony planned to visit Jo’burg again - but we certainly do realise how difficult this-all must be for you, the family.
We come with heavy hearts and much sorrow - to bring you, the family, our heart-felt sympathy. It must seem strange and hard for you all (which I’m sure was not Tony’s intention) to have almost a re-run of Eve’s funeral so soon. But I suppose what none of us should forget – and what the past week has again emphasised - is the fact that Eve and Tony were very much a unit: in every sense, they went together, so is it any wonder that, at the end, they have gone together? Perhaps that’s Tony’s reminder to us. And in thanking him for that reminder (and hoping we can cope with it) I’d like to recall some of what I said about him less than two years ago, on his 70th birthday.
That was the day to say Thank you to Tony as one of the true friends of the struggle. Not just the South African struggle – it’s the struggle for a decent life for all, wherever. Tony was such a wonderfully warm-hearted friend and struggler. A friend with a special sense of humour and a very particular sense of honour and justice, of courage and integrity. And – like all good journalists – he had the curiosity and tenacity of a ferret.
I've been lucky to have known Tony for quite a long while, and to have worked with him often. Like once upon a time on the middle-eastern magazine "Eight Days", based in London. And then “Africa South & East”, first in Harare and then, happily, in Johannesburg. On both of these publications I had the chance to see Tony playing The Boss, the Editor – where I came to admire his capacity to handle the people around him – an often weird variety of people, in more ways than one – and how he always handled every one of them with his remarkable blend of skill and kindness and encouragement and grace.
Here’s a message which tells something of that side of Tony, from Terry Bell in Cape Town:
I owe an extraordinary debt to Tony Hall. Both to him and the late Joe Gqabi. They set me on the political trajectory I began in 1961 and, I hope, continue to this day.
I met Tony in the large, draughty Germiston city hall early in 1961. I was the very junior reporter on the local “Germiston Advocate” assigned‚ because the chief reporter, an alcoholic, had passed out, to cover a Group Areas Board hearing.
I didn’t have a clue what this was all about, but at the bare wooden Press table I met Tony Hall from The Star and Joe Gqabi of New Age. I knew The Star. I’d never heard of New Age.
Two days later I had been fully briefed on the iniquities of the Group Areas Act and much else besides. Tony and Joe gave me a crash course in politics outside of the narrow, white working-class world in which I had grown up.
That Tony and Joe took the time to brief a school-leaving junior reporter from the heartland of Afrikaner conservatism, Edenvale, says much about both men. Tony helped to change my life.
Joe was assassinated in 1981. And now Tony is gone. Hamba Kahle, comrade. We will miss you.
And Tony the writer. When he and Eve first moved to Matumi, they joked with the idea of writing the Nelspruit equivalent of “A Year in Provence”, filled with stories of rustic eccentrics, peculiar passers-by and recalcitrant boreholes. Well, we’ll sadly not have that, but we have not been disappointed. Far from it. Over the past ten years, our lives have been enriched by a treasure–trove of emails; Letters to the Editor; and articles on the Internet from Tony, if not also from the Halls together.
Reading Tony’s prose is a bit like watching Wimbledon, especially on the Centre Court of the Mail & Guardian letters page. That opening ace! Those witty back-hands. The cool passing shots. And the final smash. And – of course - when T Hall was joined by E Hall, you had an unbeatable doubles pair. As Costa commented not so long ago, in response to a particularly memorable musing from Matumi:
This posting from Tony and Eve is the best defence of the current administration and its policies that I have read. From the quiet beautiful bush, they have tackled all the current political issues with creativity - [and, being Costa, he adds] even though they have failed to persuade people like me that their curative nostrums are useful.
That’s Costa Gazi (once Gazides) who also cannot be here today. He writes:
I remember Tony with great affection. He was one of the handful of whites who supported the liberation struggle in those early dangerous days. He was the solid rock behind Eve’s activism and remained committed to that cause right up to the end. He hoped that the new leadership of the ANC would revive the spirit of the Freedom Charter but will sadly not be here to see if that will happen.
Hamba Kahle, Tony, from your old comrade, Costa.
While we don’t have the Matumi memoirs, we do, as Phil points out, have Tony’s 2020 “vision”, which still needs to find its place. The sparkling proposals in this document highlight another of Tony’s remarkable characteristics: his marvellous refusal to shut up. He has raised the awkward questions; he’s reminded us of where we came from, and where we thought we were going. In addition … well, we're actually a pretty parochial lot, aren't we, this side of the Limpopo? What Tony and Eve also managed to do was to re-kindle and nourish within us a passion for the rest of Africa. They reminded us that we are part of a rich and wonderful continent. That's quite an achievement.
To end. Another struggler, Dave Evans, wrote this week from deepest Wallasey, Liverpool:
We're shocked and can hardly credit it. Tony seemed so
healthy the last time we saw him. We've not met the family - but please convey our sympathies. A fine man, none better, and part of a wonderful couple - in every way, from politics to hospitality ... commitment, integrity and a capacity for fun and joy. The loss to all of us is immense. Irreplaceable, both.
Yes, indeed. And as Sherry – who is here – has written so beautifully, we all say to you:
Be strong, support one another and have courage in the coming months.
Thank you.
Comments
Post a Comment