Garth Japhet, heart and soul adventurer, on how stories make us human

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Enthralled by the fictional exploits of a doctor striving to save lives in the African jungle, Garth Japhet grew up with a bright and shining ambition in mind. He, too, wanted a career in the noble field of medicine. There were just two little obstacles in his way. His marks at school were middling at best, and more importantly, he fainted at the sight of blood. 

But somehow, he winced and scraped his way through med school, and in the 1980s, running a clinic in rural KwaZulu-Natal, he discovered that the truth of medicine is a lot tougher than the romanticised fiction of his boyhood. In the midst of raging battles between political factions, he struggled to cope with the influx of refugees, and he worried too that he was sending his patients straight back into the war-zone, instead of making a fundamental difference in their lives.

Back in his home city of Joburg, he was gripped by an “existential crisis” so severe, that he consulted, in turn, a priest, a career counsellor, and a psychiatrist. From that turmoil was born a vision of his true calling, as an agent of positive change and an evangelist of hope. His platform was a TV drama series called Soul City, which proved to be a phenomenal success in its evocation of everyday South African life and its underlying message of primary healthcare.

This was followed by Heartlines, which puts the focus on values in society, as brought to life by such powerful movies as Beyond the River, in which two men from vastly different social and cultural backgrounds tackle the Dusi canoe marathon together.

Proving that a combination of inspiration, motivation, and entertainment is a good prescription for building a better nation, Garth is a true South African role-model and activist whose ultimate quest is to get us to share our stories and learn from each other. He sat down with Ruda to share the challenges and triumphs of his remarkable journey.

Hello and very warm to another session of the change exchange. My guest today, Garth Japhet, the founder of Soul City first and then later Heartlines. And we’ll be talking about all of that of course, and they are the moving force behind Beyond The River. If you haven’t seen it go out tonight and get it. Garth, you’re so welcome.

Thank you so much Ruda.

Happy to have this conversation. Did I leave something out?

Not at all. No. No.

Why medicine?

Um, I …I … Everything that I like doing is not medicine. So when I was a young boy, I…my inclination was with the arts language etc. and I had quite a troubled sort of school time. I managed to drop out of nursery school and then dropped out of grade one and went to an all-girls school for two years then I managed to go back to grade two and told that I needed to repeat grade two. Then managed to get to high school where I managed three schools in a year. And so on and so on. So as sort of growing up, I felt like I’d failed then I, you know, so I think a lot of real need to prove myself in some way. But on the other hand, there was a real, in my family, my dad had been very socially active and so the concept of making a difference was so ingrained and also from a young age, I was quite aware of the issues in South Africa and thought that I was going to do law and that law would be a good way of dealing with it and then…

When did you go to university? Which era are we talking about?

From 82, well 81 to 87.  But then I started reading a series of books. I read a lot I was sort of and escaped into the world of story and books and read the series called the Jungle Doctor. It was written by a missionary doctor who was very, it was a very romantic book or a series of books of this guy doing amazing things and crossing swollen rivers and land rovers and saving people and doing operations by candle light. And I suddenly realized that that’s what I wanted to do. I think it was the romanticism of it is what were really sort-of attracted me plus the fact that as a so spotty teenager, the concept goes that girls like doctors.

But it must have been hard because maths and science were not your … your strong suits.

No, and in fact I went to a career counsellor and they said listen you’ve got lots of options, you Know, particularly in the arts but don’t do medicine. And I used to faint at the sight of blood. Um, but I think I was so for all of these reasons 2) for wanting to make a difference b) it was about self-esteem and all sorts of things that I absolutely set my mind on doing it. And so I sort of engineered through volunteering at hospitals and doing all of other things and at that point they used to take a small group of people that didn’t achieve academic criteria but on another level they thought you know were worth a bash and that was me.

But it must also have taken a hell of a lot of just grind in the six years.

It absolutely did. I mean the number of times that I, I mean the first three years in particular, absolutely hated with a complete passion. I mean doing, you know, hours of anatomy and whatever and so but I suppose I it was one of those things I sort of thought I could do no other and until I’d seen it through I do know and miraculously, I sort of got through. Although I got 53% for anatomy and left out the head so always used to say to people there isn’t anything wrong with your head. I’m not the doctor for you when I studied.

When you, when you started working it was in a Township. Was it Alex or Soweto?

I actually started down in KZN. I was down it was in the Edendale Valley and it was an obviously very interesting sort of 87-88. It was a period where…

Rough times?

Ja, and I ended up sort of in the community and there was the Inkatha/ANC violence and so I stayed there for a while and my sort of first exposure to sort of real issues was when there was this what they called the seven-day war where suddenly there were 15,000 refugees in that Valley with Inkatha/ANC and I suddenly aged 27, ended up being the medical person responsible for these people. And ja, so that was the beginning that I came back to Joburg and I had my first, sort of esoteric or existential crises.

Talk more, what do you mean?

Well, I mean I realized already that essentially the difference that I wanted to make and clinical medicine were two different things.  I never wanted to work in a private hospital or have my own GP practice so the context that I wanted to work in was with people who really needed me and yet in that context you unfortunately a much more like a vet just a stream of humanity. And you take, they come in and then you send them straight back into the context that had created the problems in the first place. And I realized then, you know, eight or nine years down the line that my idea of being a doctor actually was not the thing. And then clearly because it had been such a struggle I had a complete all fall down.  I went into severe depression and had to come back to Joburg and actually gave up medicine for about a month and went and got into an MBA etc. and I went to a career counsellor, a priest and a psychiatrist. The career counsellor told me that I should perhaps try and find within medicine something that might work. The psychiatrist told me that I was depressed which I sort of knew and started to treat me and the priest basically was more around trying to make some sense out of suffering and giving a bit of a worldview that from which I could work and I wasn’t particularly, you know, I was religious but not particularly. But, you know, it was the starting point of a journey for me.

So, where did the idea of Soul City originate?

Well, I then sort of what…after going… I went to Baragwanath for a while and did Neurology thereafter having not studied the brain. I did neurology and I had started, during my time in Edendale I had started to think how do we get information to people before they come through the doors. And I wrote for the local newspaper The Echo and I suddenly had this idea what about taking this concept of getting information out of there.

Can I just go one step back. You said that you were sending people out into the same circumstances that had created the problem. What do you mean with that?

Well I mean for instance you know I often quote the example of diarrhoea in childhood which then and I think probably still now, is one of… it… it was the top killer of children under the age of five. Now no child should die of diarrhoea because it’s completely preventable it’s about dehydration and with salt sugar and water you can make a plan. And so, you know, I was seeing things like literally on a daily basis kids coming in at literally at death’s door and realized that getting to the mothers the families with basic information would prevent that. That was just one example and it was…

Putting a Band-Aid on something much deeper?

Ja, and then obviously there structural issues and I remember very much at med school sort of the concept that the biggest shifts in health have not had anything to do with modern medicine. The biggest shifts in health have all been around safe water, sanitation, housing and nutrition, and education. In terms of life expectancy and general health, modern medicine is a blip in terms of those things.

So back to Soul City…

Ja, then I had this this idea while I was sitting in Baragwanath then I suddenly had this idea what about writing for some newspapers but doing it in a way that was really interesting and, you know, not just an article.

Pontificating?

Ja, so I went I knocked on the door of Dr. Aggrey Klaaste, at the Sowetan, however as I was sort of a 28-year old doctor and to his everlasting credit he heard me out and said fine. And so I started a column which was then syndicated in The Star called the Healthy Nation and in this I began this concept of story where I would ask a question to myself, I would say, um, Mrs. Zama from Soweto asked me X, I don’t be asking myself, and then I would explain for instance high blood pressure using the analogy of a bicycle tire or a car tire saying if you pump it up too hard you can have an accident. So I was using analogies and stories and on the day of that… the circulation of The Sowetan used to go up and I’m sure it had to do the fact that it was also the horse racing results.  I’m very happy to take a little credit then I moved from there after six months I moved to Alexandra Township where I was now working at Alexandra clinic and again existential crisis, you know, I’m still here and I’m feeling better but I still don’t know what I’m going to do. And I literally had a sort of one of these sort of brain moments while sitting on a pavement in Melville after a beer or two and suddenly had this idea of what about taking this concept that had been using with print and taking it into other mediums and, you know, and what about doing it across all three mediums: prints, radio, television and doing it at prime time doing it when people weren’t were listening and watching rather than it’s sort of 2 in the afternoon.

Ok, so an idea is one thing?

Yes.

How would you get from there to finding money, finding the platform, finding the team?

Ja, well I suppose one thing that I, you know, had learnt is that if I put my mind to something that that the door had to shut in a very, very significant way for me to give it up. So I and then I was very fortunate and so the first people I went to with the idea was Aggrey Klaaste and Rory Wilson who was the manager of The Sowetan and they… I said look I’ve got this great idea but I need your help and backing and they said ok, we’ll pay your salary at the clinic for three months and in that three months you can see whether you can expand this idea. And um… so I owe Aggrey Klaaste as he is the genesis of soul city. And in that three months I knew nothing about media, nothing. And the only media bit I knew was advertising agencies and so I walked into, I don’t know how many ad agencies, and said listen this is my idea and this is a great idea we love it and when you’ve got it we will definitely get our people to support you. So…so… and then again one of these sort of God incidences where… where I was literally sitting in the clinic and this package arrives for me and it’s from a production house,  I didn’t even know that the production house existed,  with a full proposal to me for… for a series. At that point I was thinking game series, I was thinking, you know, question and answer. It was a woman called Hanneke Pieterse and she and her partner had had been playing in this field of using entertainment and so they became one of the cogs. And then also, in that time I was again, remember this is now early 90s and I’m sitting at Alexandra clinic which was essentially deeply connected to the ANC health desk. It was very much it was an NGO in the health space and so my director Tim Wilson was very much in contact with a range of different players and he was hugely supportive and connected me through to some other people who then I managed to pick up a grant from the IDC. It was a hundred thousand rand and with that hundred thousand rand I went to see a guy called Derek Yach and he said to me you’ve got to go out there and travel the world and find out what else has happened, you know.  So I literally climbed on a plane and I would go from one spot to another I went to the US and I would, you know, go to Johns Hopkins University because I’d heard that they’d been using entertainment and then I’d go from there to Stanford and then I’d go from there and I flew to Europe and in all of that time suddenly I realized two things. One is that people had used entertainment before and they’d used drama and so my game show idea went to… went to the wall. And the other thing that I learnt in that time was well, was that everybody had taken an issue and created an intervention. And I think the idea or the uniqueness of Soul City globally actually was that it right from get-go it was never going to be one issue it was about creating a platform that over many years would become part and parcel of the fabric of South African life and lend credibility to those issues. And then the other sort of God instance, I get back, I now find out from my colleagues at Alex like what is the most-watched TV drama or soapie and it was the thing called As Good Is Nice. And I went and I said well who wrote it and I then went to go and see this guy Richard Beynon who was the writer and I went to see Richard. I said this is my idea, you know, I want to do a drama I’d already realized I wanted to make it sort of based out of a clinic you know because the other thing is hospital dramas do well and so Richard was the creator of the Soul City universe and Alexandra clinic and Alexandra was Masakane. In fact, Soul City initially was called Dark City because the slang name in those days for Alex was dark City because it was dark and dark in other reasons as well. And then the other real God instance was…was this doctor heard of what I was doing and walked through the door literally and said to me I’m coming to work with you even if you can’t pay me. A doctor called Shereen Usdin and she had a public health background and had been involved in progressive health and media and written extensively and she brought a whole part to Soul City that I just didn’t have. And so in fact she is the co-founder of Soul City as you know. And then because we were in Alex, we managed to pick up bits and pieces of money from UNICEF. UNICEF allowed us to make a pilot and on the basis of that I’ve managed to get the SABC to agree to broadcast.

So it’s really one step and the next and the next and it’s never clear when you start, you just… you just take a stick.

What was clear was the end vision. Ja, and I think when I talk to people about visioning, you know, that sometimes I often talk about it like an elephant an elephant knows where they need to go and usually they bash through the bushes but then when they get to an Amarula tree or I mean, a baobab, they actually go around the baobab. And so, that’s what I believe, keeping your end goal in sight but changing direction and being pragmatic about how you get there.

And was there a moment when something happened, I don’t know, when you were watching television or something and you realised there is now a whole community out there – it is happening?

Ja, it’s been a funny thing, I’ve always felt a little bit…um…it feels like a separate thing. And that’s been a good thing because I never… it enabled me to move on so I never was so like integrally ingrained so I was able to manage soul city in way that allowed other people to grow.

So few founders can do that. How did you manage to hand it over so successfully?

Ja, I think it’s because of that I don’t think…I don’t think I took a huge personality out of Soul City and I wasn’t…I was quite happy to let other people front run often. And so, we had a very strong and long-term management team who. You know, there wasn’t if you put the words Soul City and Garth Japhet together in the public domain there wasn’t an immediate connection. And often that is the case and because of that when the founder leaves…

It falls apart.

It falls apart. Because…maybe I was just lazy and I was happy to go. No, I really am and it was actually too much hard work to constantly be out there. And I’m very happy in the role that I believe, you know, I’m called to which is about, you know, I’m tremendously fortunate to have. The gift of being able to have a vision that able to put the dots together to get there.

What made you decide that it was time to move on and what was the founding vision of Heartlines as opposed to Soul City?

Well, you know, Soul City had and you know, again these things are circumstantial but it had just been birthed at a time where first of all big international donors had come in to South Africa so if I’d had the idea three or four years before that I don’t think Soul City would have seen the light of day. And then, you know, unfortunately the AIDS epidemic hits and because of that there is a huge amount of money around HIV and around communication which takes Soul City from there and just catapults it in terms of its scope and its and part of the…the sort of funding we were getting was also to go regional and to move across 10 countries.  And we also set up with Wits school of health education where we start to train people from across the region in this methodology and just coming back to our methodology what is different between Soul City and anything else is that we are because of our research and clinical background is that everything we do is research based and so it takes us two years to develop a new series and the script writing is only a small part of it. Anyway sorry, I’m diverting but that was the success of Soul City. Funny enough, by the time we got to a new series which would always when it was on would be, the second or first most-watched program on television. We knew that it was going to resonate with our audience because we’d done this research so it got to this point where it was a big organization. It was and I knew already that I, you know, it had got to a point where it was becoming just a bureaucrat raising money and I had very competent colleagues and I felt that I wasn’t the right person necessarily to run a big organization with all which is mainly about money and HR. And another part of me was, you know, Soul City was very much around the big social and health issues from a health lens and on a personal level I felt very strongly about the fact that also Soul City’s well known amongst black South Africans as Coca-Cola. White, Coloured and Indian South Africans hardly know Soul City. And I felt that the big issues we deal with as a country tie our entire population to engage whether you are rich or poor, black or white, whatever. So I wanted a platform that would speak into the lives of everybody regardless of creed and your colour. And I also wanted to um use the example that or the opportunity to particularly mobilize the faith-based sector, you know. It outstrips everybody in terms of reach and you know, whatever you have you think about, you know, religious structures churches and mosques, theory of what most of them preach at the heart is very pro-social. It’s about, you know, integrity and honesty and compassion and helping your fellow man etc. And yet, there’s this gap between what many people believe and what we do. And so the idea was to take everything I’d learnt around telling stories as a way of inspiring people and dealing – and there’s a good reason why story  and maybe we can get to that – but is take that and inspire people to be their better selves, to live out their faith or their values or whatever. And in doing that, you know, we would deal with some of these structural issues such as violence and against women and corruption and, you know, greed.

And so what just…outline what Heartlines has actually done and the resonance you found?

Then again, I was lucky enough, I went to board and said to them listen this is where I want to go but I don’t want to leave Soul City until such time until it gets to a point where I feel like it’s got great funding and whatever so four years before I left Soul City, I founded Heartlines and ran them both concurrently which allowed me not to take a salary from Heartlines. And the first intervention as historic, a thing called Eight weeks, Eight values, One national conversation and we produced eight television films which were again historic because every channel on the SABC television uh, 1, 2, and 3 would show the same film in the same week. So, in the week of compassion, we would show the film on compassion on all three and then we would drive radio as well as print and concurrently we created resources that could be used by faith groups by…by schools to watch the thing and take it in and create debate.

And did it work?

It absolutely did. And again, 10 or 11 years later those resources and those are still widely used in prisons, in workplaces in faith groups with young people and then we went on and we again sort of had to decide what’s next and we did a series called Hopeville which was around values in action. And all of these have done very well, I mean the Hopeville one won the premiere European prize for television called the Rose d’Or and then we moved on to looking at values and issues which was our next foray was into a feature film called Nothing For Mahala. And we, connected that to money -values in money, honest in earning, integrity, self-control in spending and generosity in giving. Ja, and then more recently it’s been Beyond The River.

Beyond The River is now garnishing accolades everywhere.

Ja.

But you didn’t just want to make a successful film. What was it about?

G: No, so…about four years ago, I think, a lot of what we as a group do now is to deal with issues that are both social important but we feel passionately about and feel very much the post-94, there hasn’t really been a way of the everyman dealing with issues of race and reconciliation. We had the TRC but, you know, beyond these sort of bringing in very expensive facilitators into your company. How do you deal with these issues and it’s obviously becoming more and more of an issue, again. And the idea was what do you do if you’re an everyman and you actually want to do something so we did it as we always do, a big research process and we looked around the world but we couldn’t find anything at scale to deal with difference. You know, lots of little interventions and we came up with this idea called What’s Your Story and What’s Your Story is that – it’s a very simple concept which I believe is why it’s so powerful – is that when I hear Ruda’s story, you become human to me. When I look at Ruda, you’re a stereotype of a white female but when I hear your story you become a human being. And the idea behind What’s Your Story is to facilitate stimulate, encourage millions of South Africans to reach out to the people around them that look the same as them so white, black, whatever but also who are different. So, we’re not saying reach out to a black person or a white person, we’re just saying reach out to the people in your day-to-day life and get to know a little bit more about them. And Beyond The River, the way in which I like to talk about our methodology is about like a Christmas tree. The bigger the Christmas tree we create the more things we can hang on it and Beyond The River is the Christmas tree for What’s Your Story. And so What’s Your Story, we’ve creates resources that are used on churches which is around allowing all who’s in this congregation to take this habit of getting to know people’s story into their work life, their home life even as so much as getting to know your grandmother’s story or your parents story. And another pillar is a leadership intervention where we take leaders away who are deadlocked around issues and mainly deadlocked because of race or ethnicity or gender. And day one is , let’s place everything aside and let’s get to grips with each other and it’s been amazing. We’ve worked with the advertising industry, banking association, worked with churches…

I have this concept that we all grow-up in boxes, we can’t not. Your parent’s friends look like them. They look like you and as you grow older you choose your friends because they speak the same language, they laugh at the same jokes, they shot for the same team and unless something kicks you out, you will just stay in your box. A story does that, a story makes the other person more like you than different.

There’s good neuroscience around that when I started to tell you a story, there’s actually a connection that develops between our brains at a subconscious level and that’s why fact doesn’t change people and emotion does. And story is the heart of emotion, you know, a good story will tug with your heart strings. And so, the objective here is that not everybody becomes friends because I don’t think that’s realistic or necessarily hangs on to it but it’s simply to build understanding and understanding is the bedrock of trust which is the next level up. And sure some people might get to become more friendly, you know. We’ve done it in our own offices now the last couple of years and it has been quite remarkable how even in our so-called progressive organisation we all walk around with our stereotypes because you’re white middle-age guy means that and because you’re a black guy it means that.

And your next idea is around absent fathers?

Ja, so, you know, first of all to say What’s Your Story for me as a project with a beginning and no end and we want to bookmark the month of September every year for Heritage month. Find out your heritage by speaking to people about their stories so it becomes as much as braai day and it becomes a part of the fabric of our country to do this. So…um…not to minimise at all so we will be focusing on a big way on that but going forward…we will be… the next thing that we will be looking at is the concept of fathers who are present but absent or fathers that are just absent and the extraordinary impact it has on children. Um, and this doesn’t undermine the role that single mothers play or that single parents of any form but the research is so compelling. I mean, in the US alone, over ninety percent of kids in juvenile facilities come from father absent families so whether that physically absent or emotionally absent but absent. So, this is, there is a connection back to abuse and there is a connection back to violence, you get, particularly with young men you get hyper-masculinised. Young men want to play out this masculinised figure particularly because of the fact they lacked this male, it doesn’t have to be father, just men more involved in the lives of children. Educational entertainment also big impact and on teenage pregnancy, you know. So the difference with this is that we will probably work in more than one country, we will probably work across seven or eight countries, we’ll make a series of television films again which will be three or four from South Africa, one from Zimbabwe, one from Mozambique, Namibia etc. And then, the way we do this is by creating resources that can be used by churches, by schools, by companies to take the…it’s a terrible analogy but it’s an air attack…to the films and then it’s the ground forces which is equipping the troops to take the message forward.

How and why did this start?

Ja, I started it for good as well which so I’ve been very aware for the fact that…that…I am aware because I am in the NGO space of the extraordinary work that’s happening out there. Amazing work and amazing organisations and yet I was also aware of the fact that most people don’t know about these organisations or people or whatever. I thought, you know, it was a synergy of how you put your values into action and if I can’t find the right place for me and so many people had this question, you know, what do I do?  And yet, you don’t need to re-invent the wheel there are so many people doing stuff that need your help. And the idea was that I was thinking about new media digital media, thinking well if the next generation is cellphone digital media, how do we use this platform potentially to connect people who want to help to people who need the help and through a painful series of iterations. First of all, I took the arrogance of having started two organisations and said well, if I’ve done it before then I can do it again. My recipe was simple: have the idea, raise the money, find the right people and so I’ve had the idea, raised the money and then thought well let’s just hand it over to a bunch of IT guys and get them to build this platform. And what a disaster, I mean it was a complete mess and you know, I learnt that IT is not about throwing money at a platform. It’s…it’s a completely different medium and um…so it took about five years of literally almost giving up to then really the big breakthrough was about understanding that in fact for a digital platform that now connects causes to people and that has a business model underneath it so it’s actually a for-profit business which Heartlines is the key shareholder. It’s business model is it takes the platform of connecting need to opportunity – it’s a dating platform and it brings it into companies like BrightRock and enables them to select organisations that they want to help. And then in real time, the organisations can create needs and in real time people can respond to those needs rather than picking up the phone and saying it’s Mandela Day, what do you want us, you know, can we help you. Um, the big thing was realising that it wasn’t right for a social person to right an IT platform; it was…the right thing was a IT person, a tech entrepreneur to run it with input from the social set. And so, I found the guy who had been innovating in the tech space built a whole lot of things for something good into something that is actually very viable. 13 big companies used for good as their thing and over 11,000 actions in terms of connecting people to causes and about 200 actions per week where people are doing things.

And now Garth story, you’ve been with your wife Jayne now for how long?

Ja, ja, 20.

And how did you know she was the one?

Well, she became one of my closest friends and I think that’s a great recipe but beyond the fact that she looks great and I love her for that. Um, you know, there was a synergy of um…um…she’s also a doctor, in terms of our worldview; she has a very similar worldview. She works now she does two areas: one is palliative care which is hospice and the other is HIV and she works in a clinic down in the Cape.  And so I think that a great basis for a relationship is mutual respect and a shared worldview.

And how do you manage on a practical level to keep the connection when both are so busy?

Look, like anything, I think it takes work and focus. I think we both are very aware of the fact that if we don’t focus on our relationship and, you know, apart from the fact that we carve our time to go have our dinners and things, you know we’ve been on a number of marriage weekends and, you know, as much as we work on our careers the reality is, I think, love is a feeling and a decision.

Absolutely. It’s an act of will to a very large extent.

Ja, and there are many times where I’m sure she has hated me with a passion. But it’s a commitment and you know, when I got married, I got married for good. And it’s an act of the will as well as an emotional act.

And you have two children; they are 16 and 12 now. How did they change you, do you think?

Well, I had them when I was a bit older so I nice thing is that I’m able to still be very active with them therefore you often become very friendly with the parents of your children’s friends and so we have a group of friends who are quite a lot younger than us which is great. And then, I am very aware of the fact that one should not do what I say and do what I do.  And so trying to be the best role-model to my kids, I think will be more important than what I say to them. So, in that way the responsibility – I want to change the world and I can’t deal with what’s at home then I’m a hypocrite.

You said that your father had a huge impact on your worldview. Do you also have those conversations with your kids and talk about the world and where we are in it?

Absolutely. Strongly I agree and I believe in this concept of to whom much is given, much is expected. And I have been given much and my kids are getting a lot and I think that they are grateful from a very young age and that they are very aware of their privilege in society and what that means in terms of being a contribution. So, I think both of them are showing signs of a future that is not just about themselves but is about realising that life is more about then what’s in it for me but understanding that we have a responsibility to our people, our planet, our world.

What made you decide to relocate to Somerset West?

Um, when I was down in KZN, I love the energy of Johannesburg, but really from a young boy onwards I love nature and I love getting out. I also like greenery. And so…

The Cape’s not very green at the moment.

Although it’s a lot greener than here. Going down to KZN and being in Maritzburg for those three years and being able to finish work and go into the mountain or windsurf on the dam just was a very happy place for me. And so, I swore that I’d never come back to Joburg but 20 years later I was still here. And then I got really good friends who lived down there. Doctors who were in my class at med school and so it becomes that I got to know Somerset West and the fact that it’s right there next to the sea and mountains. It’s a little bit smaller and I realised that I would never make a difference unless we did something and part of the compromise was the commute.

And what’s the best thing about getting home on a Friday evening?

Well, it feels like coming back on holiday so every time I climb off that plane, you know. Even after six or seven years it feels like I’m on holiday. And the other thing I think that there are real disadvantages to the commute both from our relationship point of view but the advantage is that I’m much more present when I get home. I think if you’re at home all the time, you just take being at home for granted. Um, I try, to be more focused and present in terms of being a father and a husband.

And then the physical space, how did you choose that home?

Strangely it chose us and through friends of friends, they were renting out their house and that was convenient because we didn’t know we were going to make it down there so we rented this house and I’d never have chosen it if I’d looked at it. And then, we lived in it and it worked. It’s not a big house, it’s not a fancy house but it’s in a nice place and it’s got a lovely view. It’s worked for us and so we ended up buying a house that we had never seen and we just moved into.

Is there something that you take with you, maybe a photograph that you put next to your bed or something that makes it now your space?

So, probably the closest thing to that is my office here where I’ve got lots of photographs of my wife and family and friends. Otherwise, I read a lot and my books are in my space and as much as love a physical book, the kindle is amazing because I can just travel with it. When I hear of a book, I can literally download it at that moment, I mean it is just that amazing so ja.

Garth, thank you very much and all the very best of the father project. I think it’s incredibly important so good luck.

  • This interview first appeared on the Change Exchange, an online platform by BrightRock, provider of the first-ever life insurance that changes as your life changes. The opinions expressed in this piece don’t necessarily reflect the views of BrightRock.
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