President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered eulogy at the funeral service of Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi earlier today. He described Buthelezi as a leader who loved his country.
Ramaphosa said that it was not only the Buthelezi family and the Inkatha Freedom Party that are in mourning, but many others who respected and loved him. "We are here to bid farewell to a man who had a vision of a shared, common future. This was his enduring preoccupation even in the latter years of his life," the president said. He quoted Buthelezi in one of his speeches where the late Zulu Monarch prime minister said: "We have our own history, our own language, our own culture. But our destiny is also tied up with the destinies of other people. History has made us all South Africans.' The President said that some of the lessons to take from the life of uShenge was that as a leader, he was willing to collaborate across the political divide. "At a political level we did not always agree. We often found ourselves on opposing sides of one or another issue. He never shied away from a harsh word, a criticism or from voicing his dissent," Ramaphosa said.
AN ADVOCATE FOR TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP
Deliverying the eulogy to thousands of mourners, Ramaphosa described Buthelezi as a passionate advocate for the institution of leadership and especially traditional leadership, for women and for rural communities. "Shenge fought for the preservation of not only Zulu custom and culture, but all indigenous cultures in South Africa. He respected all Kingships and traditional leaders," he said. Talking about Shenge's love for arts and culture. Ramaphosa acknowledged his part in the TV series Shaka iLembe, that tells the history of King Shaka and the formation of the Zulu Kingdom. "Aware of the deep well of knowledge that he possessed, the producers of the show sought counsel from uShenge and the late iSilo samabandla King Goodwill Zwelithini. His contribution to this production is one of the many cultural endowments that he leaves behind for the benefit of future generations," he said. "He was also a champion for the rights of women and rural communities," he added. Buthelezi was buried today in Ulundi.
