The Rise And Fall Of Genevieve Marais

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31002, 7 March 1966, Page 2

The Rise And Fall Of Genevieve Marais

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) ACCRA, March 6. A Ghanain Jill of all trades has become—suddenly and irrevocably—the mistress of none, United Press International reported.

Genevieve Marais—a handsome coloured girl who arrived at Accra 10 years ago from South Africa as a political refugee and rose to be the most feted and envied woman in Ghana—appeared at Accra police headquarters flanked by policemen and is now in “protective custody.”

As on many other occasions, this former friend of the deposed President Kwame Nkrumah drove away in a gleaming scarlet Thunderbird convertible. Wearing an expensive, Paris designed dress, this time she did not smile at the barrage of television cameras, photographers and reporters. Her face set and her fingers interlaced, she quietly obeyed the policewoman’s instructions to get in the back seat of the car. It was her own car—a £lO,OOO present from President Nkrumah last December.

Curious soldiers and policemen craned their necks to gain a better view of her. Some shouted comments, flashguns popped and cameras whirred, but Genevieve did not react. Nothing had been said. No questions asked. But her glistening Presidential Christmas present had been impounded. Television Director Miss Marais’s rise to fame in Ghana is comparatively recent. It was only last year, when she was surprisingly appointed director of pro-

grammes for Ghana’s new television service, that people began to ask who she was. She had no previous television experience—though she apparently handled the demands of the job successfully —and most of her previous experience had been in the teaching field. Then word began spreading that frequently she was seen sitting with the Presidential party at lavish functions held in President Nkrumah’s fortified palace, Flagstaff House. Miss Marais arrived in Ghana with her father when she was in her middle twenties. She did not talk much about her life in South Africa, where she was born and gained a university degree, but acquaintances said she had left for political reasons. Journalism School She started life in Ghana as an official of the Education Department and then was appointed as English tutor at the School of Journalism. Many of Ghana’s young journalists were trained by her and they speak of her as “a jovial, playful” personality who was friendly and popular. She resigned the post some years ago to take a commercial post with an Italian-run building and terrazo company. When the company’s director, one Signor Brunno, was deported in 1964, she ran the company and showed remarkable ability as a business woman.