Yusuf Fakier was laid to rest this morning. He passed away yesterday (Saturday 2 January 2021) and was buried by Muslim rites by 11am the next day (Sunday 3 January 2021). He was 67.
Uncle Joe, as he was known to everyone, was the longest-serving employee of the One City Events Company which organised the Cape Town Festival and a host of other activities under the banner of the One City, Many Cultures Project, including community festivals, youth workshops and dialogues.
His Janazah was held in accordance with COVID-19 regulations. The men gathered in the backyard of the house in Ormskirk Street, Woodstock, where he had been living for years with his teacher wife, Firdose, and children. After the short prayers, the body was carried to a van parked in the street outside the property and transported to the Mowbray Muslim Cemetery. Normally, at Muslim funerals, men carry the body a distance, taking turns as a show of respect, before the body is put on a van, if the cemetery is too far a distance to carry. Normally, there would also be a stop at a local mosque before the trip to the cemetery.
At the cemetery, the three young men who would get into the grave to place the body, in accordance with Muslim rites, had to put on protective full-body plastic suits. They had to sanitise before and after, and in between.
A cemetery official stood at the gate to make sure that no more than 20 people attended the graveside service.
At the end of the short funeral service, a relative announced that there would be no traditional meal at the family home because the family had to isolate in line with the COVID regulations.
The funeral began with the Janazah prayers at home at 10am. It was all over by 11am.
For many years, Joe was officially the office manager of the One City Events Company, but he was much more than what the title suggested. He was the engine of the festival and the company, making sure that we complied with all government requirements, whether this be taxes (including PAYE, VAT and UIF) and sorting out things like event insurance and other logistics. He also kept a tight eye on expenses, which is necessary in an events company.
When we were forced to curtail our activities a few years ago because of a lack of funding, I had to take the difficult decision to let all our staff go, employing everyone on a project basis only, but I tried to hold on to Joe for as long as I could because he was the one person with historical knowledge of just about everything related to our projects.
In the last few years of the project, when it was often just the two of us, Joe became a good friend and confidant. He was someone I could talk to about many things, including the state of our nation and the need to end the inequality and intolerance in our country.
I often wondered how Joe, a devout Muslim, coped with working in an environment where most of our staff and the people we worked with on different projects, were eclectic and diverse. But this was part of our mission, to bring together people despite their perceived differences, something Joe understood better than many.
We came from different political backgrounds, but we shared a common desire to make our country the best it can be. We shared our frustration with inefficiencies in government and the total disregard for the arts displayed by government and corporates.
Grant Bolters, former operations manager of the One City Events Company, remained close to Joe long after both were no longer with the company. He described Joe as having “the kindest nature. He was so gentle of spirit”.
Yusuf Ganief, former CEO of the company and the festival, said he and Joe were childhood friends.
“I met him in the late 1960s when I joined the spiritual group that his father led as an imam. We made dhikr (sacred chanting) every Saturday night. His father was a spiritual healer and was responsible for me doing solo recitals since age 10.
“Joe was always a bit shy and introverted but had a lovely sense of humour. We were domino partners when the family played every Sunday afternoon and he was quite formidable with his memory for numbers, which probably explains his occupation for many years as a computer programmer.
“What made Joe special to me as a friend was his loyalty, work ethic and his dislike for gossip. I never heard him talk bad about anyone. He was a dedicated Sunni Muslim who lived a silent, introverted but purposeful life, devoted to his beliefs, his family and always ready to support his friends. Over the last year he battled with leg problems and constant pain. May his soul fly in joy as the river joins the ocean once more.”
Ncebakazi Mnukwana, a board member of the One City Events Company, said that Joe had been the institutional memory of the Cape Town Festival. She said it was important for me to go to the funeral, despite my COVID-19 fears. “You said goodbye to a lot of things today.”
Joe’s health had taken a turn for the worst a few years ago and he had to have an emergency quadruple heart by-pass operation, which forced him to give up smoking, his one vice. He had smoked an unhealthy packet a day until then.
When I chatted with him on WhatsApp in July last year, he told me that he was struggling with his knee after a fall a few months previously. “I developed gout as a result, and it is still badly swollen.”
I told him that we should get together once the COVID-19 pandemic was over. Unfortunately, that day will now never come. The pandemic has robbed me of a friend, colleague and a comrade, but it robbed our country of a patriot and a humble servant.
(Written especially for this website on Sunday, 3 January 2021)
Joe Fakier a few months ago. Picture by Grant Bolters.
