Government remembers 'man of the people' Jackson Mthembu at memorial service

• Government Communications and Information Services hosted a memorial for the late Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu.
• Mthembu was remembered as a warm and hardworking person.
• The Zoom meeting experienced a number of technical difficulties.

Ending the spread of the coronavirus "will be a befitting tribute to Minister [in the Presidency Jackson] Mthembu", Deputy President David Mabuza has said.

Mabuza spoke on Monday during a memorial service on Zoom shoddily organised by Government Communications and Information Service.

The memorial, which started almost half an hour late, was riddled with interruptions of people joining the memorial without muting and at times speakers who were supposed to be heard, were muted by the GCIS host.

Eventually Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Thembi Siweya, who conducted proceedings, had to apologise for leaving some of the speakers off the two-hour memorial proceedings due to time constraints.

Mabuza said Mthembu left South Africans with hope when he said soon after he tested positive for Covid-19 that as a people, South Africans can overcome Covid-19.

He said Mthembu had overcome a lot of pain in his life, like the deaths of his mother and eldest daughter, and he himself had survived an armed robbery and many hardships under apartheid "but today, we tragically lost him to this invisible enemy".

Public Service Minister Senzo Mchunu described Mthembu in a colourful way.

"I would like to elevate him as a man of the people above any room temperature, but as a real people's person, because the people are the first law. They are the alpha and the omega. We must always obey their interest."

Mchunu also referred to Mthembu's views on the battles within the governing party.

"In our regular conversations it became apparent to me that Jackson believed that the so-called divisions in the ruling party (the ANC) were by and large artificial and self-designed, depending on your attitude towards corruption, greed and wrongdoing."

Mchunu and Mthembu were both key campaigners for President Cyril Ramaphosa ahead of the ANC's 2017 elective conference.

READ | 'I have lost a dear friend' - Cyril Ramaphosa says goodbye to Jackson Mthembu

ANC MP Mondli Gungubele said Mthembu "never belonged to any grouping" but served the institution where he was employed. "Let's take it forward and adopt his spear properly," Gungubele said.

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor said the Cabinet was weaker without Mthembu. She praised the role he played in co-ordinating Ramaphosa's infrastructure programme around the continent, and for helping people to meet timeframes.

"We will miss his jokes, we will miss his laughter. He lived a life bigger than any person is required to live."

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