From Durban's streets to journalism's pinnacle

UNDER brooding skies streaked with light and dark clouds and the threat of drizzle, the journey's end for award-winning veteran journalist, retired editor and author Dennis Pather came on Saturday at a 160-year-old Durban church - a fitting farewell for a man whose life was inseparable from his hometown.

- MARLAN PADAYACHEE

A witty wordsmith to the end, Pather passed away peacefully on December 7, aged 80, after a long battle with heart ailments.

He had survived triple and quadruple bypass surgeries, yet his spirit remained undimmed. Even in retirement from the Daily News - the Grey Old Lady of 85 Field Street whose 140th anniversary he lived to celebrate - he continued to write incisive columns infused with dry humour, insight and anecdote.

Pather's body lay in state from 10am to noon at St Thomas Anglican Church in Musgrave Road, one of Durban's oldest places of Christian worship and a spiritual home he and his wife Kay, a former bank employee, cherished throughout their retirement years.

He was cremated later at the Stellawood Cemetery, where scores of colleagues, friends and former protégés gathered to pay their final respects.

Tributes flowed freely at both the funeral service and cremation, with speaker after speaker saluting one of the longest-serving editors in the Argus Company's Natal Newspapers and later Irish-owned Independent Newspapers.

Independent Newspapers chairman Dr Iqbal Survé joined a growing list of personalities and organisations - including the South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF) - in honouring Pather's contribution to the science and practice of journalism.

Pather carved out a rich and colourful career, becoming one of the rare journalists to edit nearly half a dozen titles across the Argus Company and Independent Newspapers stable.

Much-loved

His final WhatsApp message to this writer on Diwali hinted at the quiet toll of age, yet even then he remained intellectually sharp, continuing to produce sociopolitical commentary despite declining health.