‘Consummate mayor’ Magid left his mark on Johannesburg

Eddy Magid, the former mayor of Johannesburg who passed away last week at the age of 97, left a legacy of significant and lasting contributions not only to Johannesburg, but to Israel and the local Jewish community.

“Previously disadvantaged”, a term coined in post-1994 South Africa for people commonly known as “have nots”, is hardly the way people think of Eddy, who was also a successful businessman. But that was how his life began.

Born in Benoni in 1927, his humble beginnings were typified by new immigrant parents battling to make a living. His father initially sold shoelaces and shoe polish from a tray strapped around his neck to try to earn some money.

Through sheer guts and determination, Eddy rose to great heights, making his mark wherever he devoted his considerable energies and talents.

He showed his leadership ability early as a prefect at school, also excelling academically and at sport.

His enthusiasm for Zionism as a young leader in Betar led to him giving up his early accountancy studies to volunteer to undertake a hair-raising road trip by truck with some colleagues aiming to drive to Palestine, as it then was. They got as far as Khartoum, where an accidental injury to one of their number cut the venture short, and Eddy had to make his own way back to South Africa.

Undeterred, he finally arrived in Israel as a foreign volunteer (machal) shortly before independence in May 1948. One day, while they waited in barracks outside Tel Aviv for a posting and training along with volunteers from several countries, the Israeli officer in charge introduced an Englishman, asking which of them spoke English. The South Africans put up their hands, and were told to join the Englishman, who turned out to be one of the few British officers who supported the Jewish state.

He brought two stolen British tanks with him. That was the start of the Israeli armoured corps, which until then consisted only of a few half-tracks and primitive small tanks.

The British officer whipped the volunteers into shape and not long afterwards, they formed part of the Israeli forces that took Lydda Airport, now Ben Gurion Airport, before moving south to conquer Beersheba and even part of Sinai.

Returning to South Africa after the war, Eddy reconnected with the love of his life, Ann Brown. They married in 1951.

He soon went into business, beginning with a small bottle store in Blackheath, where they lived, eventually becoming a director of a listed wine and spirits company, apart from other business interests.

Blackheath and the neighbouring Northcliff fell outside the Johannesburg municipal area at the time and had no fire service. Eddy began his work for local residents as a result, becoming a part-time fireman. He followed this with several years as a city councillor, before becoming mayor of Johannesburg in 1984 and 1985.

He was the epitome of a traditional mayor, down to his perfectly coiffed white hair and trademark handlebar moustache.

Always independent, after his mayoral year, Eddy declined several offers of “higher” political office as a member of a political party.

He and Ann, who passed away in 1994, were always proudly and actively Jewish. They were leading members of the Northcliff Shul. Eddy was on the fire engine when the shul burned down in the 1960s.

He served for several years as a member of the executive of the South African Board of Jewish Education, and was instrumental in negotiating the purchase of the land on which King David Victory Park now stands.

The school opened in 1960, with Eddy and Ann’s two sons, Harold and Steven, among the first pupils.

As he grew older, retirement simply wasn’t a word in Eddy’s vocabulary. At 60, he began a 15-year career in property development. When he was 62, he became a member of the South African Institute of Town and Regional Planners, now part of the South African Planning Institute. He remained a member until he was over 90. At age 75, Eddy opened his own office as a town planning consultant, called Digam Town Planning and Investment Consultants. Digam, of course, is Eddy’s surname written backwards. Even in his 90s, he went to work every day.

Eddy is survived by his two sons, Harold in Johannesburg, and Steven in Atlanta in the United States, five grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in several countries.