Mourners, including government officials and African National Congress (ANC) leaders, have started to arrive at the Siyabonga Sangweni Sports Complex in Kwambonambi, KwaZulu-Natal, for the funeral service of South Africa’s ambassador to France Nathi Mthethwa.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver the eulogy at the funeral service.

Mthethwa was found dead in a Paris hotel’s inner courtyard after allegedly falling from the 22nd floor more than a week ago. His body was repatriated on Friday.

ANC NEC member Dr Malusi Gigaba has reflected on the work he has done alongside Mthethwa in the province in the 1990s.

“We formed the ANC Youth League after years of unbanning. When we started in 1990, there was no branch of the ANC Youth League anywhere in Southern Natal. We worked tirelessly to rebuild the structures of the ANC Youth League. By the time we got to the first regional congress in 1991, there were only five of us remaining in the leadership of the ANC Youth League. And we were looking forward to the Congress because that’s when a new leadership would be elected, which would reinforce us. The most important thing is we rebuilt the ANC Youth League from zero,” says Gigaba.

Gigaba credits late Ambassador for building ANC Youth League

‘A unifier’

Meanwhile, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli has described Mthethwa as a unifier in the politics of the province. In the 1960s, the apartheid government banned several anti-apartheid movements like the ANC. The party then sought to mobilise along cultural lines and tasked its then Youth League member, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, to form the then Inkatha Yenkululeko Yesizwe.

Ntuli says he is one of the beneficiaries of Mthethwa’s legacy.

“When it comes to peace in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, uNyamboze played a massive but quiet role in ensuring that there is peace and stability in the province. Hence, we are the beneficiaries of that kind of peace. And we have taken that forward, wherein you see the IFP and the ANC working together, even in the government provincial unity. And in some of the local municipalities, also at a national level. You’d recall that the late Prince Mangosuthu, in fact, was advocating for reconciliation between the two political parties. And we are taking that one forward. Hence, uNyamboze was also contributing quite strategically, ensuring that it is achieved.”