Echo/Ridge’s group manager in Secunda will retire in Hartebeespoort

SECUNDA – Ms Janett Wansbury (60), group manager of the Echo/Ridge Times newspaper, bids Secunda farewell this week.

She will make her final trek to Hartebeespoort Dam after seeing her youngest daughter and son-in-law, Ms Jani and Mr Barney Muller, off when they leave for Finland early in January.

Ms Wansbury, who was known as Zaayman for many years, called Secunda home for more than three decades.

“Secunda might not have been the prettiest town, but I love this place dearly, because of the amazing people who live here. In this community you matter as a person, and not simply just considered as a number.

“It was indeed an honour to live here,” she said.

The ups and downs in Ms Wansbury’s life are intertwined with this community.

It was in this town where she raised her children, celebrated the birth of her two grandchildren, saw members of her staff grow up and start their own families, sought refuge and solace when she became a widow at a young age, found support and friendships when she battled cancer and finally found a new love.

Ms Wansbury’s career in the newspaper industry began when she and her late husband, Mr Gerhard Zaayman, moved from Kempton Park to Secunda in the early 1980’s.

Their eldest daughter, Carmen (now Fletcher), was a mere baby at the time. When given the chance, Ms Wansbury exchanged her scrubs as theatre nurse for a career as an advertising sales representative at the then Highveld Ridge newspaper.

Several years later she moved up to the position of advertising manager, then branch manager and ultimately group manager over Ridge Times, The Echo, Standerton Advertiser and the Highvelder.

Ms Wansbury was the manager at the time when the Highveld Ridge and The Echo – a household name that has been in existence for longer than a hundred years – amalgamated under the Caxton banner in 1995.

Her colleagues recently held her in esteem at a farewell party held in her honour. She was hailed as a leader with vision, compassion and strength.

According to Ms Wansbury, change is the one thing that we can always count on.

“Although I personally found it hard at first to find my feet in the new digital era, the media is definitely changing fast and it is very exciting. I love the energy that comes in when the younger generation joins us as colleagues.”

Ms Wansbury said good leaders invest in their team by encouraging them to always look for new challenges and ways to improve their work and life skills.

She is sad to greet Secunda, but is excited about their future prospects of changing their plot into a partial guesthouse.

“My plans for now is to go rest, learn to play golf, and start a vegetable garden.”