Don’t use comrades’ funerals as platforms to perpetuate disunity – Zuma

President Jacob Zuma attended the unveiling of the tombstone ceremony for the late Minister of Public Service and Administration, Collins Chabane, on Saturday, and used his final moments on the podium to express his happiness that the ceremony had not been used to fight political battles.

Zuma’s comment was met with applause from the attendees. He went on to say, “A new culture that we must persuade one another not to do: to use a funeral of a comrade; to use memorial services to fight our political battles. It is wrong, it will never be right, no matter how you feel.”

Zuma continued, “You can’t use a comrade when he can no longer talk for himself. To use him, however much he adhered, or she adhered, to the principles and values of the ANC, unlike today where there is no leadership. You can’t do so. That’s terrible politics, in fact, dangerous politics.” This was met with cheers from the audience.

He further encouraged those present to, “Be brave and confront a comrade if you have got problems with a comrade. Don’t use the comrades who have died as a platform to perpetuate disunity.”

Last week, The Citizen reported that political analyst professor Andre Duvenhage said, “[Ahmed] Kathrada’s funeral was used to openly and strongly attack Zuma.”

He added, “The reaction from most of the mourners who were clapping their hands when former president Kgalema Motlanthe was speaking, especially the part where he was quoting Kathrada’s letter where he asked Zuma to step down, says a lot.”

Last Saturday, Kathrada’s widow Barbara Hogan lashed out at government for cancelling an official memorial service to honour the memory of the anti-apartheid stalwart and reiterated her call for President Jacob Zuma to resign. Speaking at the fully-packed Johannesburg City Hall, Hogan said Zuma had “gone rogue” and his government was afraid of honouring Kathrada – who spent 26 years on Robben Island – even when he was dead.

Then, speaking at a memorial service in Pretoria on Wednesday evening in honour of ANC struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada, former finance minister Pravin Gordhan criticised Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini over her handling of the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) grants saga, saying she lacked humility to take responsibility for her wrongs.

Earlier in his speech on Saturday, Zuma paid tribute to the late Chabane, saying, “To me, he was like a son; he was like a young brother; he was a dependable comrade.”

Chabane and two body guards were killed in an accident on the N1 highway in Polokwane, Limpopo, in 2015.

Watch the YouTube video of the SABC’s live broadcast of Zuma’s speech at the unveiling of the late minister’s tombstone:

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