Pretoria - Deputy Minister of Public Service and Administration Ayanda Dlodlo has described the late Minister Roy Padayachie as a committed patriot, who "died with his boots on".
The minister passed away in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Friday, where he was attending the African Peer Review Mechanism meeting of the Select Committee of Focal Points.
Padayachie joined the Public Service and Administration Ministry in October last year, he was previously Minister of Communication and before that Deputy Minister for Public Service and Administration.
"Padayachie understood the department and was very hands on, he died without a scandal, a committed patriot and distinguished member of the African National Congress," Dlodlo said.
She said it was regrettable that the minister died out of the country but praised him for dying in the line of duty. "He died with his boots on," Dlodlo said.
The Deputy Minister expressed her deepest heartfelt condolences to the minister's family and friends.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Dr Zweli Mkhize described Padayachie as a leader, a community activist and struggle stalwart in a statement on Sunday.
He said community development was always on top of Padayachie's agenda.
"He was a trusted community leader who served as a crucial link between various communities and government, over the past two years. Padayachie has been working with the provincial government, together with a number of community organisations, unveiling memorial plagues across the province as part of our celebration of the arrival of Indians in the country.
"Roy served the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) with distinction, the NIC was an effective instrument that mobilized Indian workers to strike in the sugar-cane plantations, coal mines and factories.....these strikes weakened the apartheid machinery," Mkhize added.
The Premier said that the minister was determined to eradicate corruption in the civil service and he will forever be credited for his contribution towards good governance.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions in a statement said Padayachie died as he lived - working hard for his country and his continent, while on an official visit to Ethiopia.
"He devoted his life to serving his people, especially the poorest and most oppressed."
President Jacob Zuma said on Saturday he was saddened by the tragic loss of the minister. He said no amount of words could express the loss that the Government and people of South Africa felt.
"On behalf of myself, the Cabinet, Government and the people of South Africa, I would like to express our inner most sense of loss and despair at the passing of Minister Padayachie," said Zuma.
"I know no life of his spent outside the pursuit of the goal of a democratic, free, united and prosperous South Africa. It is sadly a great measure of his dedication and personality that he was to meet his destiny and fate in pursuance of a better Africa and a better world, a goal he dedicated his entire life for it to be realised and achieved," said the President.
He said South Africa had lost a worker, an academic, a cadre and a soldier for a better South Africa.
"May his family be consoled by the work he has done for the country and its people," said Zuma.
