Jacquie Golding-Duffy
Mduduzi ka Harvey (31), a local government reporter at Business Day and former Mail & Guardian trainee died on Tuesday from respiratory failure in the inten
sive-care unit of Hoogland Medical Clinic in Bethelem.
Ka Harvey suffered head and chest injuries in a car accident near Harrismith o n June 21.
Ka Harvey joined the Mail & Guardian’s journalism training course in 1994 and is remembered by then-training officer Lesley Cowling as an enthusiastic repor ter with drive. “He worked very hard to learn what he could and gather the nec essary experience to equip him for journalism,” Cowling said.
“An admirer of the Drum generation, it’s ironic how he, too, died young.”
Part of the Black Journalists’ Group, an informal social group which meets to discuss the advancement of journalism, Ka Harvey always identified the need fo r young journalists to be empowered and to empower others.
He will be remembered as a go-getter with a humorous spirit.
Don Mattera, former Mail & Guardian chief training officer and a trustee of th e Southern African Newspaper Trust, was teacher, friend and mentor to Ka Harve y.
To Mattera, Ka Harvey, better-known as “Mdu”, was a rising star.
“He was determined … an achiever who never forgot his township roots. He alw ays kept the township language alive and was respected by the old-timers of So phiatown,” Mattera said.
Ka Harvey went to school in Swaziland, and was active in student politics at t he universities of Transkei and Bophuthatswana.
“Journalism has lost a good prospect, a gem, a polished diamond which was disc overed and cleaned by the Weekly Mail. … At a sad time like this, we lose o ne of our precious gems who are taken elsewhere to shine,” Mattera said.
Ka Harvey was engaged to Kenyan journalist Kathleen Openda and is survived by his parents, Kaizer and Patricia Mokoena-Harvey.