The third installment of the Spek en Boontjies series. For this talk we have been lucky enough to secure the literary trio Warren Conrad, Michael Weeder, and Dougie Oakes who will be sharing their writing and experiences of being a ‘youth’ in 1976.

Warren Conrad "I was born in Simonstown. My parents - Andrew and Gladys Conrad. My sister Valda, lives in Melbourne.

I am married to Lea and we have 2 sons – Jamie (25) and Reece (24). We live in Rondebosch. Lea is an attorney and a director of companies and my boss.

White Economic Empowerment forcibly removed us from Simonstown in 1968 when I was 12. We moved to Retreat, I went to SP and stopped going to church. I started working the Dockyard in 1974 and passed a trade test in 1977 and left in 1978. Simonstown breaks my heart – over and over again.

I worked construction for Murray and Roberts until 1984 when I started an Engineering degree at Wits. I ran a swimming club in Newclaire, was an avid SACOS supporter and was politically active. I graduated in 1988 having dopped 3rd year. I continued working for M&R in Johburg. Lea and I got married in 1993 – smart girl. In 1996 I moved to the Saldanha Steel Project site as Engineering Manager. Jamie was 9 months old and Lea was pregnant with Reece.

I left M&R when the project ended in 1999 and became CEO of Proman - main projects GrandWest, CTICC, CTIA, VodaCom Village, Sun City and V&A Clocktower. In 2004 President Mbeki asked me to come to Pretoria for 6 weeks to set-up a project. I left in 2007.

I taught Project Management at UCT and UWC between from 2007 to 2016, while

I ran my own consultancy. Projects include MyCiti, CPUT and UNISA. In 2016 I joined Lea’s strategy business.

I am on the Board of The Hope Exchange, a homeless service NGO; and IMAD – jazz education NGO - Langa, Lansdowne, Gugulethu and Khayalitsha. I advise both NGO’s on strategy.

For fun, I write, cook, drink and walk dogs."

Dougie Oakes

"In 1976, my impossible dream had long kick in – it was to be a sports journalist.

But my problem was: where?

Journalism in the 1970s was, to all intents and purposes, a whites-only occupation – even at the Cape Times and the Cape Argus.

Of course, there was the Cape Herald, aimed at the ‘coloured’ market. But it was a small paper, with a small staff. I had applied there once – unsuccessfully.

When I landed a freelance gig with the Sunday Times Extra, covering hockey at Clover Crescent for R2 a report, I saw it as a ‘foot-in-the-door – and threw everything into producing good reports for Herman Gibbs, who managed the sports pages, and the larger-than-life Howard Lawrence who ran the Extra.

So, I missed the struggles and pain of 1976.

And then, suddenly, at the end of 1977, another vacancy came up at the Cape Herald, I applied, and to my shock I got the job.

In 1978, I started working under Lennie Kleintjies – and was immediately put on the hockey and swimming beats. They weren’t exactly beats I would have chosen, but, hey, I was in, and I worked really hard to get my stories noticed on the sports pages.

About a year, after starting at the Cape Herald, my hard work started paying off: I was sent for six months to participate in the Argus Company’s cadet school. To my surprise, I ended up as the top cadet in a class filled with graduates from Rhodes and other universities, who were employed by all the company’s other newspapers.

My reward was a seven-month stint at the Argus Company’s London Office.

Suddenly, I was a foreign correspondent.

And what an incredible experience, it was. I covered everything – including a royal wedding, unrest, an IRA bomb attack in the centre of London, tracking down a missing mom for a troubled son in Cape Town, and an interview with the great West Indian cricketer, Viv Richards.

When I returned to South Africa, I was appointed sports editor, and later news editor of the Cape Herald.

The 1980s were difficult times for a journalist. The fight against apartheid had intensified – and the fight by the apartheid government to stay in power was vicious.

Together with a wonderful team of reporters, we did everything we could to record the struggles of the people in the townships, and to bring the news to the people…."

Meet the speaker: Michael Ian Weeder 'loves sunsets and coffee-tasting ice-cream. And crayfish daltjies. He is married to Bonita, whom he loves very much. They have three grown children: Chiara, Andile and Khanyisa. Michael adores them and doesn't mind if they never repay any of all the Steers steaks money they owe him. He tries to be faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ, a revolutionary of body, mind and spirit. Over the years he has experienced the Unfolding Mystery we call God, as one who loves us with the tender of care of a mother. And that of the Spirit which is Holy and Divine.

Michael believes we should consider living life according to one of the maxims of Goethe, namely that "people are to be loved and things to be use. Immorality stems from people being used and things being used." And we, of course, must be loving unto all creatures.'

Spek en Boontjies

2021-06-15

Spek en Boontjies

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Spek en Boontjies: Warren Conrad, Dougie Oakes, Michael Weeder.

Spek en Boontjies: Warren Conrad, Dougie Oakes, Michael Weeder.

Spek en Boontjies: Warren Conrad, Dougie Oakes, Michael Weeder.

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