Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Potter a local ‘boytjie’ committed to Africa
SOUTH AFRICANS far and wide paid tribute to Luke Potter, 40, the South African British national killed in this week’s Nairobi terror attack, but our government has barely acknowledged his existence – even though he was a local “boytjie” committed to the less fortunate.
“Luke Potter might have held a British passport but he was always a South African at heart,” tweeted his old university friend Gareth van Onselen, head of politics and governance at the Institute for Race Relations.
“The most generous, compassionate and gregarious kind of person you could ever hope to meet. The kind of person you wish every person was like.”
By contrast this week, the South African Department of International Relations referred all inquiries to the British Foreign Office. “Confirmation was received about the dual national; the British Embassy is handling the matter,” said spokesperson Ndivhuwo Mabaya.
Yesterday in response to the information that Potter was South African-born and bred with a social conscience, Mabaya added: “We extended our condolences to his family.”
Meanwhile, tributes posted on social media revealed the substance of the 2008 Wits University MBA graduate who was working out of Nairobi as programme director at the London-based Gatsby Charitable Foundation.
“A truly good person who generously lent his hand to Africa,” tweeted family friend, John Brand, a leading mediation attorney from Johannesburg. “My deep condolences to his parents, Meave and Charles, and to his sister, brother, daughter and all his other family and friends. The dreadful evil of terrorism is driven home when it strikes family or friends...
“He was a gentle soul… he was South African-born and bred. He loved doing uplifting work for the poor communities. Africa was his calling. He loved working in Africa and had a love and passion for working with people in Africa.”
Potter was the eldest of three children of Meave and former Wits University associate professor Charles Potter, who now practises as an educational psychologist in Craighall Park.
He leaves a 10-year-old daughter in South Africa and was engaged to a foreign national living in Nairobi. His family did not want to release her name or nationality.
Potter also left his mark at the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. “We are all shocked and saddened by the news that Luke Potter was killed in the violent attack in Nairobi,” said Professor Nick Talbot, executive director at The Sainsbury Laboratory, one of the Gatsby family of charities.
“These charities all have, at their heart, a commitment to try to make the world a better place. Luke Potter was deeply committed to development in Africa. He oversaw Gatsby’s forestry and tea portfolio, including its forestry programmes in Tanzania and Kenya, and tea programmes in Tanzania and Rwanda. This work is improving the lives of people in these countries, providing opportunity and hope for the future.
“Luke’s work was helping some of the most vulnerable people, living in low-income countries… This will be his legacy. We deplore the senselessness of his death and the violence and extremism.”
Speaking for Potter’s family who are “in a total state of shock”, his maternal uncle Doug Band said: “Luke was a loving father, son and partner and a friend to so many.
“We are all devastated at his tragic, untimely death and wish to cope with our grief in a private manner at this most difficult time.”