Member of Parliament shares her passion through poetry
Joanmariae writes about what inspires her and about things she has witnessed.
Member of Parliament Joanmariae Louise Fubbs has an ambitious career in the political landscape of SA and has taken all her experience and accomplishments and turned it into poetry.
She has now published her second poetry book, A new dawn for Humanity.
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Fubbs is the chairperson for the portfolio committee on Trade and Industry and currently serves on the National Economic Transformation extended committee.
She has been an experienced public representative since 1994 in Gauteng Legislature as chairperson of finance and economics and later became a Member of Parliament in the National Assembly in 2004.
“I am the founder and the chairperson of the Centre for Education in Economics and Finance Africa. It is a non-profit organisation,” said Fubbs.
Her qualifications include BA Political Science and Psychology, BA Honors Degree in Clinical Psychology, MSc Development and Planning, Postgraduate Diploma in Economics Principles and MSc in Public Policy and Management.
Fubbs is a Bedfordview resident and a past teacher at St Benedict’s College.
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At the time she was teaching at St Benedict’s College, the school welcomed eight learners from Soweto during the 1970’s School Riots.
During this difficult time, Fubbs opened her home and gave those learners a place to stay.
“All the boys got top results at that time, having been first put down to what was called Junior Matric. Among them are two engineers, a doctor, two lawyers and a journalist,” said Fubbs.
In 1994, Fubbs was a victim of a bomb blast along with a friend and driver on the Sunday before the first democratic elections.
“I lost most of my sight in my right eye,” said Fubbs.
Fubbs first wrote poetry as a young woman in Botswana on a mine named Orapa Mine near Francistown.
Staffrider in South Africa published her first two poems.
Her poetry book, A new dawn for Humanity, was inspired by the religious song Thuma Mina and the likes of music from Hugh Masekela.
Some of her poems are inspired by her work she has done in Johannesburg and the streets of Cape Town as well as meetings in the financial and media landscape.
“I have always loved poetry, the succinct and unique expressions and its capacity to express our emotions and how we feel about life,” said Fubbs.
Fubbs is particularly proud of her poems Emptiness Eclipsed, Freedoms Children, Wageless Veterans and Healing Fires and Friendship.
She has written all of these poems all at once, after reading a news article about the fires around Plettenburg in 2017.
“In my earlier journey I worked with other workers through National Union of Mineworkers and the poems about workers were written either from personal experience or what was shared with me,” said Fubbs.
When coming to her writing process, she writes about what she experiences or something that she has heard that impacts her.
“I keep a book beside my bed and also take it wherever I go. Some poems I change many times before it is the final one,” said Fubbs.
Fubbs said that some of her poems take 30 minutes to complete while others might take an hour, and she usually writes on a plane.
She has also written poems about her family.
Her husband, John Leslie Fubbs, had a stroke and thereafter she wrote the poems titled Yesterday is lost today is here and What is Love.
Exclusive Books at Bedford Centre launched Fubbs’ poetry book on December 4.
Her book can also be found at Exclusive Books, Brooklyn Mall in Pretoria.
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