A state funeral will be held for KwaZulu-Natal’s first premier, Dr Frank Mdlalose.
This was announced made on Monday by the current provincial premier, Sihle Zikalala and this comes after he led a delegation to mourn Mdlalose’s passing at his Newcastle home.
It could be recalled that the 89-year-old statesman died from COVID-19 complications on March 3. Addressing the media after visiting the Mdlalose family in Madadeni township in Newcastle, Zikalala said;
“We would like to thank the president for granting and confirming our (provincial government) request to honour him (Mdlalose) with a state funeral. We are truly grateful to the president for that. We cannot do enough to honour Mr Mdlalose.
We thought it important to respect him with a send-off that is dignified for the role he played, firstly, in the development of the province, but in particular in working towards achieving peace in KwaZulu-Natal. Around 1992-93, he worked with former president Jacob Zuma under the banner of the Peace and Reconstruction Foundation, working to ensure stability in the whole of the province.
We commend him for that work, but also we commend him for the manner in which he led the first cabinet which saw all parties working together, coming together (to) ensure that they built government from scratch and that they reached out to service the communities.”
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