ERA is deeply saddened by the sudden death of Cassim Boorany. Cassim had been on the executive of ERA since 2015 after he had been brought in as an IT expert to help assess all the proposals ERA received from potential fibre service providers. After Vumatel was appointed, he then assisted with the tough job of trying to get residents to give their support to the initiative.

He held the dual portfolios of IT and deputy chairperson and in these roles showed his strong commitment to the community.

“He was a pillar of support in the heated discussions around the proposed development on the corner of Gleneagles Road and Barry Hertzog Avenue,” remembers Geraldine Connell, a past chairperson of ERA.

With his IT know-how, he helped coordinate the huge number of objections (more than 2400) to the Gleneagles/Barry Hertzog development that then had to be submitted to the City. (ERA is still fighting this case at the City’s Tribunal hearing)

Cas often worked behind the scenes – the new website is thanks to him. He worked on the complicated aspects – the set up, the design, the look-and-feel, so that as IT ‘non-experts’, we could take it over and just add new bits to it. Likewise the mailchimp system where we have a database of residents and objectors that we can easily communicate with, is also due to him.

When Covid lockdown hit us all, he organised an on-line AGM so that the AGM could go ahead as required by the Constitution.

He was always the one we turned to when we received an e-mail in IT gobbledygook which he then interpreted for us and advised us on what to do.

Nothing was too difficult for Cas. He always had exciting ideas about how to solve a myriad of problems. Sometimes the solution that he was going to provide could take a long time. This was because his commitments and interests extended across a wide field. For the past 10 years Cas had been involved in workplace investigations, forensic analysis of computers, smartphones and tablets. He was also an arbitrator and mediator and had chaired many disciplinary enquiries and in other situations, represented parties in disciplinary enquiries. Despite all this work he was also studying for an LLB. Little wonder that it could take a while for him to deliver what ERA wanted at no cost to the organisation.

Even though he had resigned towards the end of 2020, he had just recently shared all the IT passwords that ERA would need with us and had assured us that he would always be there when we needed. Such a gesture indicates his generosity of spirit.

Cas was a principled person and had strong views on things and how things should be done. He was not afraid to call us out when he thought we were not taking all issues into account and he always offered additional insight that we often didn’t have. The drafting of a Code of Conduct for Exco members is also thanks to him.

ERA is the poorer for his passing. We will miss him in so many ways. ERA extends our deepest sympathy to his wife and family.  

27 January 2021