Jeremy Gordin (1952‑2023) entered the Daily Sun in 2012 as a caretaker editor‑in‑chief, tasked with holding the fort until a permanent appointment could be made. He never intended to be a temporary figure. Short‑tempered yet fearless, Jeremy made it clear from his first day in the general office that he was there to run the newspaper, not to linger as a token manager waiting for conditions to improve. For the staff on the floor, he became an oasis in a desert, injecting passion, urgency, and a renewed desire to contribute to a great newspaper—emotions that had been absent for a long time.
For many years, the Daily Sun had a reputation for being different: a private enclave where “inside members of the family” thrived, yet outsiders struggled to understand its culture. Jeremy stood apart. He not only grasped the publication’s ethos, he embraced and loved it, restoring dignity to the newsroom after the death of founder Deon du Plessis. Though he was the boss, his authority stemmed not from title but from a commanding presence that extended to the Media24 boardroom in Cape Town. He returned from those battles scarred but never ceased fighting.
In Yiddish terms, Jeremy was a mensch. I often saw him walking his blind, deaf staffie along Tyrone Avenue in Melville or Parkview, the two waddling together. He held strong opinions and could be sharply critical in public without insulting anyone—a true fighter to the end. Barbara Ludman, who worked with him at the Daily Sun, summed him up: “He was very supportive of his reporters, cared deeply about journalism, and could tell a story better than anyone I knew.” That is how we will remember him.
Jeremy’s career spanned decades. He had previously served as deputy editor of The Sunday Independent and led the Justice Project at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Journalism. A regular contributor to Politicsweb, he was born in Pretoria in 1952, educated at UNISA and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and had been a journalist since 1976. Tragically, he was killed during a robbery at his Parkview home on a Friday night. A friend who arrived at the house found it ransacked, locked from the outside, and Jeremy’s body covered—a mark of respect after a violent, disrespectful act.
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