Pretoria - The Pretoria News family will always remember former editor Valerie Boje as an exceptional editor, mentor, friend, mother and the go-to social worker to everyone who walked through the newsroom doors.
Those were the few words that long term colleagues and the executive leadership of the Pretoria News, used to describe Boje and her contribution to the newsroom during their visit to her Garsfontein home earlier today.
Pretoria News Editor Piet Rampedi alongside executive editor Kennedy Mudzuli and a handful of colleagues visited the family to officially pay their last respects to the paper's longest-serving editor.
Speaking of his own journey working alongside Boje since joining Independent Media in 2011 and taking over the baton earlier this year, Rampedi said the veteran journalist literally took him by the hand and helped guide him to lead the Capital City's paper.
"We want to say to the family your loss is our loss. Professionally I was still looking forward to her mentorship which she had dutifully played for the past six months. Like the family, we are equally shocked and shattered at the news of her passing."
"We know that no amount of words can replace the loss you are feeling as a family, however, we want to say we share the loss and the pain."
Colleagues and friends of former Pretoria News editor Val Boje shared fond memories during a visit to the family home in Garsfontein. Here here husband Roy Devenish speaks. @IOL #PretoriaNews #Tshwane #Pretoria pic.twitter.com/NNtqj6dfuZ
— Pretoria News (@pretorianews) October 6, 2021
Former colleague and long term friend John Topping said he had been blessed to share an instant connection with Boje from the moment he met her when she joined the paper in 1980.
Topping said despite the turbulent times they experienced in the newsroom, he was proud of how they dealt with each other on a simple human level and how the Devenish family had all but become one through the years.
He said through the years Boje exemplified the essence of the Pretoria News in the 80s as she was hands-on in most aspects of the paper even writing the headlines.
Colleagues and friends of former Pretoria News editor Val Boje shared fond memories during a visit to the family home in Garsfontein. Here her father John speaks on the occasion. @IOL #PretoriaNews #Tshwane pic.twitter.com/65Wjh7sds6
— Pretoria News (@pretorianews) October 6, 2021
"She mentored me even though I arrived there three years before her and I am happy that we could argue but she remained a good solid person. She was dedicated completely to what she did and she wanted things done right hence she would get emotional."
"Hearing the news of her passing is an impossible feeling to explain. She was a special person and I hope God will be with her and hope she never dies."
Pretoria News