Endearing tale of journey from District Six to corridors of power
A SPANNER
IN THE WORKS
Pat Fahrenfort
Umuzi
REVIEW:
Shirley de Kock-Gueller
IF THIS were a simple memoir,
it would be about a woman’s
journey via District Six and
Athlone to the factory floor and
then the corridors of power,
and the exploitation she felt as
a factory worker which turns
full circle into the exploitation
that comes of corruption. But
this is so much more than a
story of hard work and disillusionment.
Fahrenfort is a joy to read.
Her descriptions of people
make one’s heart soar, even
laugh out loud. She’s got a
wicked sense of humour (she
refers to the “r” in Proes Street
as being the most important
one in Pretoria).
Her outspokenness is
endearing, especially if you
know the person she’s talking
about. Her description of former
journalist turned academic
Tony Holiday is so on the
mark. She has a wonderful ear
for dialect and pronunciation,
noting, for instance, Jakes Gerwel’s
description of UWC,
where she also worked, as the
“intellactual home of the laft”.
This renders the book almost
auditory, while another
strength is her ability to create
visual images. She describes
her mother in her “working
class regalia – overall, slippers
and rollers in her hair”, vividly
capturing a familiar picture.
Fahrenfort knew adversity
in abundance, yet there’s very
little self-pity.
She was in a clinic for the
first few years of her life and
had a bad accident later. She
was sent by her strong and
canny mother to work in order
to help support the family when
she was just 15, without even
being able to go back to school
to tell her friends she wouldn’t
be returning.
She lost her much-loved
father to suicide, and later suffered
from depression.
She also spent a lot of time
in job-hunting queues. And,
though the work she was
obliged to do was in many cases
mindless, her mind was far
from worthless and she
embarked on a path of growth,
working her way up, via the
University of the Cape Town
(her descriptions of her colleagues
are jaw-droppingly
frank), the University of the
Western Cape and then in government.
However, most of her education
happened on the factory
floor, and she notes that she has
often been “the wrong colour”
for many jobs – from the age of
15, to when she retired in democratic
SA.
Her discretion is commendable
in most places, but tantalising
in others. Most people, even
in the index, have first names
only, and her husband’s name
comes only several pages after
she mentions marriage. The
husband is dispatched when
she realised she had “no talent
for marriage”.
Her relationship with her
daughter Rene is barely
touched on, except where she
tells us that, finally, she had a
house and a car, and that “the
attention and care I should
have given to my daughter I
was now lavishing on my wonderful
granddaughter. I didn’t
want to miss out on a childhood
again”.
Fahrenfort is inventive,
hard-working and honest, a
quick learner, capable and
multi-talented – once even
moonlighting as a cabaret
dancer.
Her book is irreverent, her
spirit infectious, her style
engaging. Above all it is a tribute
to a necessary “spanner in
the works”.
This is a social history well
worth reading.
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