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Publication

NOSEWEEK

Page

7-8

Date

Sun 01 July 2018

AVE (ZAR)

19368.79

Editorial

Asentimental momentIs- MONTH,- wHEN- NosEwEEK

celebrates its 25th anniversary, Ifeel entitled to be a bit sentimental;to remember those early days whenmost of our subscribers were friends

- or soon became friends; when we nowand then stuffed magazines into envelopesfor posting at the kitchentable.Publication was erratic nos

for the first few years,particularly when the lyingmillionaire dentist fromPennsylvania, Dr RobertHall, kept us distractedby suing us for a millionfor humorously revealingthe truth about his life ofill-funded fakery. (He lostthe case after two years ofpreparation and a seven-week high court trial, andhis offshore trusts ended uppaying R2 million in costs.MHDSRIP.)The- inspiration_ we

derived from the UK's Private Eye wasmost obvious in our first 40 issues whenour covers, in imitation of theirs, weresatirical. Shortly before the first Noseweekappeared, Jane Raphaely, founding editorof South Africa's most popular women'smagazine, Fairlady, decided to see howmany male readers she could recruit byplacing a picture ofMadonna, dressed onlyin a few leather straps, on her cover.Issue One of Noseweek

went on sale with Jane'shead (and pearls) phot-shopped on to the full-frontal nude body of afamous- French- artist'smodel posing for themore famous, earnestlystudious-looking artist,Matisse. In a bubble sheasked "But doctor, will itimprove my circulation?"It did ours.Another had Tony Leon,

on a visit to the Sothohomeland, echoing John FKennedy's famous Berlinspeech. His bubble read"Ich bin ein Quaqgua ",unexpectedly on point now, consideringthe latest newsworthy controversy aboutracist labelling. On the cover of nose36we

uosmorsmsmscosiig'sJaneOutofControy)

October 2001 / Issue 36 / R19.80 incl vat

had friend Patricia de Lille clutching mythen still infant daughter, cutely askingher: "Isn't it time you started your ownparty?" Hullo-o.But our content was not satirical, which

was a problem: too many South Africansdid/do not understand satire; they missed

the joke and took our coversliterally, then to accuse usof purveying fake news.Those who did get thesatire, promptly decidedthat the outrageously truestories we carried weremere satire too, written forthe laughs.Most prescient of all

from those early storieswas the lead in Issue One,which revealed how SeaPoint property millionaireNorman Benjamin, a smallman with a quaintly folksymanner of speech, coupledwith a touch of Yiddishhumour, lost a couple of

million on an offshore scheme that someshady German businessmen persuadedhim would assist him in getting a fewtax-free millions, undetected, to his "poordaughter Rosemary" in Texas.After getting reassuring legal advice

from two of South Africa's largest lawfirms, Sonnenbergs (now Edward NathanSonnenbergs, also known as ENS) andWerksmans, he signed up for the elabo-

rate- offshore- structureand hidden contracts. Butall that good legal advicedid not protect him frombeing fleeced of everythingby his German partners.Undeterred by what the SAauthorities might do whenthey learned of the scheme,he issued summons againstSonnenbergs and told allin the Cape Town highcourt. Nobody noticed -until a year later whenNoseweek_ reported_ it,quoting_ verbatim- fromthe court transcripts andcourt records assembledfrom three continents, the

scheme having been so devised that thetax and exchange control authorities inany one country could not get to see the

mourwo@i

Editorial

full picture.His quaint, sometimes outrageous,

manner of speechwas so entertainingthat when quoted verbatim, manyreaders assumed it was us beingsatirical; a send-up. The men fromSonnenbergs and Werksmans took thegap and laughingly told their friendsand clients how amusing they found thesatire in South Africa's latest magazine.The only one who was not amused

was Rosemary in Texas. She telephonedfrom Texas, demanding to know whatI held against her. Had we been at

school together? Had she perhaps donesomething to offend me at school? Iwas still trying to work out what thiswas all about - I had never set eyeson Rosemary - when, clearly deeplyinsulted, she shrieked the answer: "I.Am. Not. Poor!"I had to explain to her that it was her

caring father who had spun the men atthe Reserve Bank that story in an effortto persuade them to be indulgent of hiswrongdoing. They were.Eventually we got the message: sadly

no more satirical covers.

Today, 25 years later, NormanBenjamin's story is eerily echoed inour story on page 12, although thereis nothing amusing to be found in theBrakspear's story ofNedbank's offshorechicanery; of how Nedbank assisted byits lawyers -yes, the same Sonnenbergs- has lied and cheated them out ofeverything; "We have not only lost all weowned, but also ten years of our lives,"says heroic 84-year old widow DorothyBrakspear, representing herself in theJersey court as she's unable to affordlegal assistance. - The Editor