PICTURES: Family, friends pay tribute to Pam Golding
Mourners filled St George’s Cathedral to capacity yesterday, many spilling out on to Wale Street at a memorial service for a pioneer in real estate and women empowerment, Pam Golding.Among them were her friends, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who said a prayer during the service, businessman Patrice Motsepe and his wife, Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe, Mayor Patricia de Lille and Associated Magazines founder Jane Raphaely, another female entrepreneur.
Mayor Patricia de Lille and Leah Tutu were among the many mourners who attended real estate businesswoman Pam Golding’s memorial service yesterday. Pictures: Henk Kruger/African News Agency (ANA) Also in the pews were former competitors in the property industry, including Anne Porter, chairperson of Knight Frank South Africa, who went head to head with Golding in their youth to carve their own slices of the property pie.
Mourners heard how Golding loved to tell a tale about her early days in the patriarchal property industry in the 1970s.
The life of property icon Pam Golding was honoured yesterday. Picture: Supplied“Ladies,” a male boss liked to say to the female estate agents, "these are tough times. Use your tissues twice.”
They were indeed tough times in the industry, especially for a woman who decided to go it alone, but the stuff Golding was made of came to the fore.
The service was officiated by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.“Mom just got on with it,” said her son Peter Golding in his tribute. He said she was a pioneer who fought for women’s equality and was a well-respected businesswoman.
Golding had no start-up capital when she began her business from the garage of her Newlands home in the 1970s, but went on to build an empire that today has 300 offices in Africa as well as Europe and Mauritius.
Motsepe, who flew from Johannesburg with his wife for the service, described Golding as “a special and unique woman who touched the lives of so many she had a way of making order out of disorder".
“She was an optimist and she would look at challenges and problems of this country and try to find solutions. She had hope and was inspiring.”
Moloi-Motsepe described Golding as “a warm, loving and compassionate woman” and an outstanding businesswoman.
Tutu said Golding was “an amazing human being”.
The Rev Duncan Mclea, who delivered the sermon, spoke of Golding as one who made people feel “special and safe”.
“Considering her work entailed being with people during one of the biggest events in their lives - buying a home - these were important traits to support them.”
Her son Dr Andrew Golding took over the reins of the company after Golding retired a few years ago.
Yesterday, paying tribute to his mother, he said it was hard to capture 90 years in five minutes.
He said he made his tribute with a profound sadness but also with honour. She had touched and influenced many lives, and “her spirit lives on”.
He felt it in the people he met “who led inspiring lives, those who lived with courage, humility, a sense of humour and tenacity”.
He felt his mother’s spirit when he encountered warm personal acts of kindness, graciousness, friendliness and a naughty flirtatiousness.
“She had the ability to turn adversity into strength and was generous to a fault.”
Three of her grandchildren paid tribute to her, highlighting the lighter side of their grandmother, who loved to sing and dance.
The most constant advice she gave her granddaughters?
“Find yourself a Cecil.”
Cecil was Golding’s husband for more than 60 years and an important part of her road to success. He died in 2014.
It was of Golding’s love of dancing that many mentioned in their tributes, and how, even in her older years, with her floral walking stick and finding it hard to walk, she would glide when the right music was played.
vivian.warby@inl.co.za