Academic and political commentator Sipho Seepe says he used to carry his kid brother, Jimmy, to kindergarten. This weekend, he will carry his coffin.
Jimmy, City Press‘s highly regarded political editor, died this week of a stroke at the relatively tender age of 41. “He was my intellectual sparring partner too,” said Seepe.
Born and raised in Naledi, Soweto, they were each other’s keeper. Sipho arranged for Jimmy to go to the University of Nebraska to study for a degree in journalism and mass media. While in the United States, he also mingled with African National Congress representatives.
Seepe joined the radical “alternative” newspaper New Nation shortly after his return from the US in 1990. “He was very sharp. You could see he was quite hungry to make a contribution. We thought his exposure to the international community was a potential asset,” said New Nation‘s acting editor at the time, Gabu Tugwana.
“He was always the last person to leave the office and … he would be the first to arrive, regardless of what time he’d left,” Tugwana said.
Seepe moved through the Sowetan before reaching his final journalistic home at City Press. As a political journalist, he won respect across the political spectrum. While the journalism fraternity mourned the death of one of its own, Sipho celebrated his life. “It has been a wonderful 41 years as his brother,” he said this week.