Lynette Johns
FORMER Cape Argus assistant editor and ANC activist Joseph Aranes died of a suspected heart attack on Thursday morning.
Aranes, 51, mentored a generation of reporters who started their careers at the Cape Argus. He grew up in Bonteheuwel and became an ANC operative during the turbulent 1980s.
On Thursday, many he mentored took to social media to express their sadness.
Among them was multi-media journalist Dianne Hawker, who summed up what many of his former colleagues were saying: ”People who didn’t know him will never understand the joy that Joseph Aranes brought to our lives. He was a ridiculous person. He drank too much, smoked too much, swore too much and loved life too much. We loved him too.
“He always believed in me. In all of us. He encouraged us to grow beyond what we thought we were capable of.”
Western Cape ANC provincial chairman Marius Fransman said the party would remember Aranes for many things, but their best memories of him would be “his joy, not just for living but for life; his no nonsense, straight to the point attitude”.
Aranes joined the Cape Argus in 1992 and left the paper in 2009.
He leaves his wife Cathy and daughter Thandi.