The funeral of the late Transport Minister Dullah Omar will take place in Rylands, Cape Town on Saturday afternoon, it was announced on Saturday morning.
Omar died in the Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic at 4am on Saturday morning –just days short of his 70th birthday — after a 15-month battle with Hodgkins Disease, a form of cancer.
He was admitted to hospital this week with respiratory problems.
Briefing the media, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, who had been at Omar’s bedside for most of the past three days, said the funeral would be a combination of an official funeral and burial by Muslim rites.
A series of memorial services would be held next week, and official flags would be flown at half-mast until Thursday.
Western Cape African National Congress leader Ebrahim Rasool said the funeral would commence at 2pm with visitation to the Omar residence in Rylands, according to Muslim tradition.
Following the prayers for the exit of the house, at about 2.45pm, the funeral procession would proceed to the Vygieskraal Stadium for the funeral ceremony.
President Thabo Mbeki, currently on the campaign trail in the Western Cape, would be the main speaker, before Omar’s body was carried to the Vygieskraal Cemetery for a private burial.
Rasool said it was Omar’s wish to have a ”very simple burial”, and to be laid to rest in a simple grave, the same as any other Muslim.
The funeral will be broadcast live on SABC television.
Paying tribute to Omar, Manuel said Omar’s life was ”truly exemplary”, and as an attorney of the people, the law he practised was law in the service of the people.
His work as justice minister, from 1994 to 1999, saw the substantive transformation of the justice system in South Africa.
He had carried on in the same vein and with the same intensity as transport minister from 1999 to the present.
Although he had experienced serious health problems for some time, including various heart-attacks, ”the story that needs to be told is that he never gave up,” Manuel said. – Sapa