CITYLIFE/ARTS tribute to Maria McCloy: You came. You lived. You conquered. You left.

The creative and cultural industry public relations specialist and fashion designer passed on at Milpark Hospital on Tuesday as a result of heart failure.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

She came. She lived. She conquered. She left.

The death came like a shock. Sure, all deaths are unexpected. But hers was both unexpected and a shock to her family, close friends and the sectors she worked in, straddling fashion, journalism, PR and being a DJ. Maria McCloy appeared to be enjoying her life, especially in the past few years, with her creative work having found space in the sector.

After all, late last year, she held a huge celebrations that took place at her home, at clubs and close friends’ homes, marking her 50 years on earth. The celebrations, say those who were invited, were so great that people are still talking about those parties. It is therefore understandable when others I the face of her demise are concluding that it was if she was saying goodbye to her friends.

It is not possible to think of Maria as a one dimensional creative. She was not. Journalist. Fashion designer. Public Relations Specialist. Maria was all these things. At the time of her death, it seemed that she had gotten her life together. She had gotten her groove together.

She was one of the busiest PR persons in the creative sector. Her fashion design business had stabilised and solidly in place. Her work as a DJ was getting increasingly respected.

However, it was her role as a PR person in the creative sector where she was increasingly making an indelible mark. Festival producers relied on her as she made sure that their message reached the right platform. Those of us in arts journalism knew that you would not struggle to get information related to an event she was working on. Media releases, pictures and requests for interview appointments with artists she was working with, were handled professionally and in time.

But, then death came and took her away. Personally, I had known Maria from those glorious days of Yeoville in the 1990s, from the time she started her journalism career as an intern reporter at the then Weekly Mail (Mail & Guardian) after graduating from Journalism School at Rhodes University.

Our paths crossed in the streets of the old Yeoville. Its light dimmed bars, trendy restaurants, vibrant clubs and cosy bars, as well as at media conferences. We were young and happening at the right time in the history of a country transitioning from an oppressive apartheid past into a full democracy with unlimited opportunities for big dreamers like Maria and freedom.

Though her time in mainstream journalism was short, she was so good that she left a mark. Thereafter, she co-founded an online publication that focused on youth culture, titled rage.co.za, with her long-time friend Kutloano Skhosana. Their friendship having started in a lecture hall at Rhodes University where they both studied journalism. Their online publication was very much ahead of its time, as it was launched at a time when online publications were still a faraway idea to most of us. The publication became a respectable voice in the market, particularly among the youth.

It then morphed into a fully-fledged production company Rage Productions, which produced musicians and TV lifestyle programmes, consolidating especially the position of McCloy as an important voice in the life style segment of the entertainment industry in the country.

By the time both the TV production company and the music recording company had run their courses, Maria had already made her name in the country’s lifestyle and entertainment sector.

Fashion design followed and she was respected for her wide range of fashion products she produced and unleashed onto an unsuspecting market. She disrupted the fashion market with her products, especially her famous colourful shoes and accessories. Embraced by the market for their Afrocentric flavour, McCloy was the go to person for those who liked to look and feel good, especially at functions as her fashion items became popular across age, race and nationality.

Her fashion items were as elegant as they were streetwise. Items one would wear to attend a VIP event in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, as one would be adorned attending a street event, such as a bash or a festival.

However, in the last few years, Maria had extended the scope of her professional life by successfully launching herself as a creative and cultural industry public relations specialist. She got busy in that competitive area, sometimes working on several projects at the same time, but still executing all well.

In all of this, one thing that Maria had mastered are the streets of Johannesburg. She could walk the streets and knew some of the most obscure places that hosted anything remotely trendy and cultural.

Maria was as comfortable with the street people of Johannesburg CBD, as she was with the cigar smoking suits of Hyde Park, Rosebank or Morning side. IN her life, she lived across the restricting boundaries of class and race, a feat only achieved by a few in contemporary South Africa.

Maria was widely travelled too. Born in the UK to an Irish man and a mother from Lesotho, McCloy lived in several parts of the African continent, Lesotho, her home country, South Africa and Nigeria among others. That experience mainly informed her fashion sense that she turned into a vibrant and successful fashion business.

It is hard for many that have known her to accept that the stylish lady is gone. Reported to have died of heart failure at Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, where she was admitted, she has left behind two sisters and a mother. A father passed on a few years ago.

Personally I had last seen Maria at a book launch last week at Wits, where we briefly greeted each other after the launch, after which we minded our own business. However, on Monday, she contacted me inquiring about whether there was an opportunity to do ticket giveaways in CITYLIFE/ARTS for the forthcoming festival Say Africa, produced by Bassline and scheduled to take place at Constitution Hill, marking Africa Day on May 23, 2026.

It is now hard to take it in that the last discussion I will ever have with Maria in this life as was that Monday. No more emails and WhatsAPP messages she would send me weekly to get stories about this or that festival she would be working on onto the pages of CITYLIFE/ARTS.

May your soul rest in peace Maria McCloy. You came. You lived. You conquered. You left.