President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that the late Professor Sibusiso Bengu, the first Minister of Education in democratic South Africa, will receive a Special Official Funeral Category 2.
Bengu passed away on 30 December 2024 at the age of 90.
President Ramaphosa has expressed his deepest condolences to the family and friends of the Professor, who served as South Africa’s Ambassador to Germany from 1999 to 2003.
Bengu’s Special Official Funeral Category 2 will be held at the University of Zululand in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday, 10 January 2025.
Proceedings will include ceremonial elements rendered by the South African Police Service.
President Ramaphosa has directed that the National Flag be flown at half-mast at flag stations around the country from Tuesday, 7 January 2025, until the evening of the funeral.
Last week, President Ramaphosa praised Bengu as a pioneering leader in the country’s democratic governance and administration.
He highlighted Bengu’s role in transforming education during the first Government of National Unity, a time when there were significant divisions regarding the extent of the transformation.
“Under apartheid, the injustice of unequal education had been at the core of consigning most citizens to intergenerational economic exclusion, poverty, and indignity,” President Ramaphosa said.
He also highlighted that the Education Act, formulated under Bengu’s leadership and adopted by the country’s fledgling Parliament, was a cornerstone of its liberation and unleashed the human potential of all South Africans.
The former Education Minister is recognised for leading the unification of 17 fragmented education departments into a single system, and addressing the structural inequalities of apartheid education.
Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Blade Nzimande, said Bengu also played a pioneering role in facilitating the transition from the Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa to the now National Student Financial Aid Scheme.
“In Prof Bengu, our country has lost not only one of its most committed educationists but also a model public servant and patriot, who even when his own health was waning, continued to serve his country and people with dignity and integrity. It is therefore no exaggeration to declare that Prof Bengu was one of those who laid the basis for our democracy,” the Minister said.
Bengu is survived by his wife, Mama Funeka Bengu, his daughters, son, and grandchildren. – SAnews.gov.za
