Photograph of Laurie and Georgina Jaffee's visit to Russia to meet relatives who are also descendants of Joffe Marks. Luibov Solovieva (middle) Lena Kaplan standing and Sasha Berger.
Georgina Jaffee was born in Johannesburg in 1956.After matriculating in South Africa, she completed her A levels in England. She commenced tertiary studies at the University of Witwatersrand, but transferred to the University of Toronto where she completed her Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees. Returning to South Africa in 1982 she worked as a journalist and researcher for Work in Progress, convened and coordinated the first South African Review for the Southern African Research Services, and then lectured in the Sociology Department at the University of the Witwatersrand. The primary focus of her research and publishing was on women’s issues, trade unions, co-operatives and industrialization. In 1989 she founded Cope Affordable Housing (COPE), a non-governmental organisation which developed social housing in the inner-city of Johannesburg. COPE played a major role in formulating new housing policy for the first post-apartheid government.Georgina worked for a number of years as country representative in South Africa for Rooftops Canada, an NGO providing technical support and services for the social housing sector. She received two international awards for her work in this field. She later qualified as an executive coach, providing coaching services to both government and non-governmental organisations. During this time, she also wrote a biography of her great-great uncle, Joffe Marks, A Family Memoir.She has served on numerous boards, including those of the Social Housing Foundation, COPE, and Tolego Eco Village. She was involved in founding the Social Justice Initiative which raises funds to strengthen implementation of the South African Constitution. She continues to serve on the SJI board. In 2012 she moved from Johannesburg to Cape Town, where she currently resides.