A blank page spoke volumes for Martin Williams whose integrity, service, and vision enriched Johannesburg and its readers.
This paper’s tribute to Martin Williams last Wednesday, where his column would normally have run below the cartoon on the opposite page, was simultaneously poignant and profound.
It was a blank space, his normal byline on the left and an injunction below to imagine Martin’s vision for Johannesburg. It was so much more than the usual platitude.
That’s the power of print, even when nothing is said, it speaks volumes.
Martin deserved that – and so much more.
He was old-school, cutting his teeth on The Witness, a wonderful iconic institution in KwaZulu-Natal before coming up to the Reef like so many before him.
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He served The Citizen with honour and dignity.
There are many kinds of newspaper editors; it is often said that the only difference between God and a newspaper editor is that God never thought she was a newspaper editor.
You get the pompous and overbearing, the robust publish-andbe-damned swashbucklers and then you get the cerebral and measured.
Martin was the latter. No pushover, he was a person of fixed convictions buttressed by a determination to serve by telling the story and because of that, his words carried as much weight, if not more, than his peers shouting from the parapets of their publications.
His commitment to serve was borne out by his decision to accept a nomination to serve as a city councillor, which he did faithfully for more than a decade after retiring from journalism.
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If newspaper editors need brass necks and the constitution of an ox to get through the day, city councillors need even more, especially in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, where the keyboard warriors and Karens will ping your WhatsApp with a tsunami of tribulations and pet peeves at all hours of the day, expecting you to work miracles with officials who often make home affairs look like a paragon of efficiency and commitment.
Martin would work miracles. He’d get drains unblocked and potholes fixed, he’d cross swords with those who needed challenging and he’d skewer sacred cows, too.
But in all that, he would never lose his sense of decency; never let his position go to his head. He was a true servant leader until the very end.
We are all a lot poorer for his passing but – whether we were his ward constituents, the readers of his column or just his fans – we are richer for having known him.
Rest in peace, Martin Williams.
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