SPECIAL OFFICIAL FUNERAL

SERVICE FOR

Dr Zola Skweyiya
Saturday, 21 April 2018

14 April 1942 – 11 April 2018

 Obituary of Dr Zola Skweyiya
Dr Sidney Themba Zola Skweyiya (nom de guerre: Zola Bona and Martin
Lwangu-Lwangu), was born on 14 April 1942 in Simon’s Town, near Cape Town.
He received his primary education in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth as well as
Retreat in Cape Town. On completion of his primary education, he received a
scholarship to proceed to Lovedale High School in Alice in the Eastern Cape
– where he was first introduced to political activism when he participated in
school boycotts in protest against the imposition of Bantu Education in 1953.
The experience convinced him of the need to foster unity among the oppressed
masses in South Africa and he subsequently joined the African National
Congress (ANC) in 1956.

At Lovedale High School, Dr Skweyiya met and worked with Mr Govan Mbeki,
whose commitment to action and sound knowledge of rural politics had a strong
influence on his political outlook. He later enrolled at the University of Fort Hare
to study for a law degree that was not completed for political reasons.

When the ANC opted for the armed struggle in 1960, Dr Skweyiya became one
of the active organisers for Umkhonto weSizwe, which made him a target of
the security forces. He fled to Tanzania in 1962, where he underwent military
training in Kongwa.

Later, he proceeded to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and

specialised in communications. Upon his return from the USSR, he was first
based in Tanzania and later at the ANC Head Office in Lusaka, Zambia.

In 1968, Dr Skweyiya was sent to the University of Leipzig in the German

Democratic Republic. He graduated with a Doctor of Laws degree in 1978.

Upon his return from the German Democratic Republic, he was deployed in
different capacities in the ANC. In 1982, he set up the first ANC office in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia and became its representative at the then Organisation of
African Unity (now called African Union).
The 1985 Kabwe Consultative Conference of the ANC resolved, among others,
to revive the legal unit to deal with the legal matters affecting the ANC. Dr
Skweyiya was recalled by the ANC from Addis Ababa to set up the Department of
Legal and Constitutional Affairs. President OR Tambo charged this department
with the responsibility to develop constitutional guidelines that would serve
as a lodestar to the ANC in the future drafting of a democratic South African
constitution. He carried out this responsibility with distinction and commitment
that later contributed to the existence of a transformative constitutional state in
South Africa.

Having been exposed to human rights and diplomacy issues at the United
Nations (UN), he was committed to the existence of justice within the ANC and
democratic South Africa. When the ANC at the Kabwe Conference resolved to
establish the Officer of Justice position, Dr Skweyiya was appointed and in this
capacity, he made sure that justice prevailed.

Dr Skweyiya returned to South Africa and led the Department of Legal and
Constitutional Affairs. He was also appointed as the Chairperson of the
Constitution Committee of the ANC, which served as a research and consultative
think tank for the development of the post-apartheid constitution. It was in
this context that he assisted in the setting up of the Centre for Development
Studies at the University of the Western Cape as an institutional agency to carry
out research and publish an occasional paper series on transitional politics,
and their impact on constitutional and legal dispensations. It was through the
instrumentality of these papers that the evolving thinking in the ANC on its position
on constitutionalism and its transformative character were disseminated to the
public for debate and information. In this respect, he authored and published
papers on, for example, the land question, judiciary, local government and
constitutionalism.

Dr Skweyiya participated in the establishment of the South African Defence

Fund. From 1990 to 1995, he was President of the Board of Trustees of the
National Commission for the Rights of Children, and this demonstrated his
compassion and belief in social justice.

He was elected to the National Executive Committee of the ANC at its first
conference after it returned from exile. In 1991, he became a member of the
National Working Committee of the ANC. He was elected to these positions at
subsequent ANC elective conferences until 2012. He was a member of the ANC
negotiations committee on the post-apartheid constitution at the Convention
for a Democratic South Africa. He also served as the Chairperson of the ANC
National Disciplinary Committee.

Dr Skweyiya was responsible, as coordinator, for setting up the ANC Civil

Service Unit in 1990, which trained and educated anti-apartheid activists in
preparation for careers in the future public service. These developments were
timely because the ANC had to, at the same time, engage President FW de
Klerk’s government on issues pertaining to the civil service. The Public Service,
as Dr Skweyiya viewed it, “was central to the governance of the country, its
stability and efficient as well as effective delivery of services to all South Africans
regardless of race, class and gender”. Therefore, he ensured that the bilateral
discussions and multiparty negotiations on the civil service were comprehensive
enough to improve the lives of all South Africans, especially the dispossessed.

He was a strong advocate for the education and relevant training of public
servants. These had to incorporate the notion of Batho Pele (People First). He
was determined to establish a humanitarian public service grounded in the new
constitutional values informed by social justice and egalitarianism.

In 1994, President Nelson Mandela appointed Dr Skweyiya as the first post-

apartheid Minister of Public Service and Administration. The first challenge he
encountered in this job was the fact that his Ministry had no department as all
the departmental staff resorted under the powerful Public Service Commission.
He had to establish a new department from scratch. This, however, provided
him with an opportunity to infuse the Public Service with black South Africans
without having to deal with the nightmare of getting rid of the old order public
servants whose jobs were constitutionally guaranteed by the sunset clauses of
the Constitution.

The second difficult task was to knit together a fragmented public service that
was dismembered by apartheid. This task was not only made difficult by the
number of different civil services, which were 14 at the time, but also by the
fact that these civil services were at different stages of development. This
mainly found expression in the varying efficiencies, competencies and salary
dispensations that characterised these civil services. Notwithstanding these
mammoth challenges, Dr Skweyiya’s inherent drive and uncompromising
commitment to service made it possible for him to complete the rationalisation
process within the prescribed time frames.

The White Paper on the Transformation of the South African Public Service
was developed and adopted to lay the foundation for the legislative changes
designed to align the Public Service with the values and ethos of the new
constitutional dispensation. Dr Skweyiya was central to the drafting and adoption
of this document.

He was founder member of the Commonwealth Association for Public

Administration and Management and served on its first Board. He strongly
supported the establishment of the South African Association for Public
Administration and Management that has successfully published a nationally
and globally accredited competitive Journal of Public Administration.

Dr Skweyiya was the Minister of Social Development from 1999 to 2009. He

was the champion of South Africa’s comprehensive social protection system.
Under his leadership, the Department of Social Development (DSD) developed
one of the world’s largest social assistance programmes. For him, children’s
rights were non-negotiable. His push saw the Child Support Grant extended to
children up to the age of 18 years, as defined in the Constitution. He was also
passionate about the rights of older persons and people with disabilities. Hence,
in the 15-year review of the DSD, the South African Government concluded that
the social assistance programme was its most effective anti-poverty intervention.
Dr Skweyiya established the South African Social Security Agency to administer
and manage a singular national social assistance programme to cater for the
poor and vulnerable in our society. He emphasized collaboration with other
government departments. He chaired the Commission for Social Development
in the UN, actively brought together Ministers of Social Development in the
Southern African Development Community region, and was also elected
President and Chairperson of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation’s Management of Social Transformations Programme, which
spearheaded the Regional Fora of Ministers of Social Development in all
regions of the world.

He initiated collaboration between his department, the University of Oxford

and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. This resulted in hundreds of senior
policymakers in national and provincial government departments being trained
in evidence-based policymaking.

Upon retirement from active politics, he was appointed South Africa’s High
Commissioner to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In
September 2011, he was bestowed with the Freedom of the City of London. In
May 2011, the University of Oxford established a series of annual lectures titled:
The Dr Zola Skweyiya Lecture on South African Social Policy.

Dr Skweyiya is survived by his wife, former Ambassador Thuthukile Skweyiya,

three sons (Vuyo, Khethaukuthula and Vukani), two daughters (Phila and
Mandisa) and 12 grandchildren.
 Funeral Programme
Saturday, 21 April 2018

PART ONE

Family Valedictory Service at home

5 Jollify Ring Road
Mooikloof
Pretoria East

06:00 Family Prayer: Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana

07:30 Draping of the casket

07:45 Cortege departs for the CRC Church, Cnr Solomon Mahlangu
Drive and Lynnwood Road, Silver Lakes, Pretoria
 PART TWO

Funeral Service at CRC Church, Pretoria

08:30 – 11:00

Programme directors:
Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
Premier David Makhura

08:30 National Anthem: SANDF

08:35 Congregational Service: Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana

09:05 Reading of obituary: Ms Mandisa Radebe

09:15 Musical tribute

09:20 Tribute: Mr Pallo Jordan

09:25 Tribute: Adv Sandile Nogxina

09:30 Musical tribute

09:35 Tribute by family representative: Mr Vuyo Skweyiya

09:40 Tribute by representative of the Veterans: Ret Gen Wilson
Nqose

09:45 Tribute by family friend: Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma

09:50 Tribute: Prof Stan Sangweni

09:55 Musical tribute

10:00 Eulogy by His Excellency President of the Republic of

South Africa, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa

10:30 Funeral prayers and sermon: Bishop Mpumlwana

Benediction

Commendation rituals

SANDF Ceremonial Guard of Honour

10:50 Cortege departs for the Pretoria East Cemetery

 PART THREE

At the cemetery

11:50 Immediate family and President Ramaphosa seated
Removal of National Flag from the coffin by the Military and
handing over to the family

Last Post and Reveille sounded

SANDF bearers and Ceremonial Guard of Honour withdraw

Committal: Clergy

Vote of thanks: Mr Temba Skweyiya

Benediction
 Pall-bearers:
Home to hearse: Family

Hearse to marquee: Veterans

Marquee to church: SANDF

Church to hearse: SANDF

Hearse to cemetery: SANDF

National Anthem
Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika
Maluphakanyisw’ uphondo lwayo,
Yizwa imithandazo yethu,
Nkosi sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo.

Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso,

O fedise dintwa le matshwenyeho,
O se boloke, O se boloke setjhaba sa heso,
Setjhaba sa South Afrika - South Afrika.

Uit die blou van onse hemel,

Uit die diepte van ons see,
Oor ons ewige gebergtes,
Waar die kranse antwoord gee.

Sounds the call to come together,

And united we shall stand,
Let us live and strive for freedom,
In South Africa our land.