A state funeral and private burial will be held respectively in Pretoria, Gauteng, and Bloemfontein, Free State, on Saturday for the late former state president Marais Viljoen, who died in Pretoria last week, according to the South African government news agency, BuaNews.
Viljoen was the country’s last ceremonial president and was succeeded in 1984 by executive president PW Botha, who died last year. Viljoen died as a result of heart failure at the Muelmed Hospital in Pretoria on January 4 at the age of 91.
He served as president from June 1979, replacing BJ Vorster.
According to BuaNews, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka would attend the funeral on behalf of President Thabo Mbeki, who would be attending the ruling African National Congress’s 95th anniversary celebration in Witbank, Mpumalanga, on Saturday.
The funeral service will be held at the Pretoria east Dutch Reformed Church at 9am. His remains will then be flown to Bloemfontein from the Waterkloof Air Force Base at 11.45sm for a private burial at 12.45pm.
As per his family’s wishes, the state funeral would be limited but there would be a military detachment at the Waterkloof and the Bloemspruit Air Force bases. — I-Net Bridge