South Africa’s people are crying out to the nation’s leaders to do ”whatever it takes” to put an end to crime, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said at the funeral of renowned historian David Rattray on Thursday.
No fewer than three staff of the Anglican Church have recently fallen victim to crime, the Right Reverend Rubin Philip added, in reiterating the call for government action on crime.
A six-man gang shot Rattray three times on Friday night in a hold-up at his Fugitive’s Drift lodge.
The police announced on Thursday that two men had been arrested and would appear in court on Friday on charges of murder.
So many people converged on the Michaelhouse School chapel in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands for the funeral that hundreds had to watch the service on a big-screen television in a marquee outside.
Among the 1 500 mourners were Buthelezi, Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils and KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele. There was also a large contingent of journalists and photographers — many of them from Britain.
The family is thankful for the media’s sensitivity in their coverage of the killing, said Rattray family spokesperson Mark Read. ”I have never come across a man who loved his country with such depth,” he said.
A simple pine coffin that graced the centre of the chapel was wheeled out after the service to the tears of Rattray’s wife, Nicky, and his sons Andrew, Douglas and Peter. Rattray was to be cremated.
”He went to great lengths to include all,” Andrew told mourners in a tribute to his father, a keen angler, in which he spoke of their many good times together.
Rattray had been a ”divinely gifted citizen of this country”, Read added in his eulogy. ”This man leaves behind a family, a community and a nation bereft.”
Ambassador
South African Tourism Services Association (Satsa) CEO Michael Tatalias said at the weekend that Rattray had been one of South Africa’s greatest ambassadors, and that he had performed an immense task in telling the story of South Africa and in particular the Zulu people.
”He reinvigorated the genre of bringing history vibrantly to life by telling the compelling stories of the many human faces of the old history of the region.
”He was a huge catalyst in the development of battlefields tourism in South Africa, and put the story of the new South Africa and her people’s complex past into the forefront of the minds of people around the world,” Tatalias said.
His talks enthralled and captivated people from all walks of life, from princes to schoolchildren, and gave a positive new perspective on South Africa.
”His personality, energy and passion stood head and shoulders above the average, and those of us lucky enough to have heard him speak, work with and know him, can count ourselves to have been very privileged indeed. This is both a personal tragedy for the family [and] a huge loss to our industry,” he added. — Sapa