Highly regarded journalist and columnist Jeremy Gordin was murdered at his Johannesburg home on Friday night in what has variously been described as a ‘robbery gone wrong’ and a ‘home invasion’.
Gordin was reportedly on his own at the time, his wife Deborah being in Cape Town visiting family.
News24 reports that his family grew concerned when Gordin failed to respond to messages on Friday night. A friend gained access to the Gordins’ Parkview home, which had been ransacked, and discovered his body.
TimesLIVE reported last evening that police spokesperson Col Mavela Masondo was not immediately able to provide details.
Gordin, a former associate editor of The Sunday Independent and a former editor of the Daily Sun, ran the Justice Project at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Journalism.
He was a widely read and highly regarded columnist on Politicsweb.
Fellow columnist William Saunderson-Meyer tweeted: ‘Shocking news of the murder of @Politicsweb fellow columnist Jeremy Gordin. Condolences to his family and friends at the death of a true mensch.’
According to TimesLIVE Gordin was born in 1952 in Pretoria and educated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as Unisa. He began his journalism career in 1976.
In 2007 he was named the Mondi Shanduka Journalist of the Year.
He co-authored two books of investigative journalism, The Infernal Tower and A Long Night’s Damage, but is most widely known for his biography of former president Jacob Zuma, Zuma: A Biography.
He also wrote three volumes of poetry.
He is survived by his wife, Deborah, and their two children, Jake and Nina.