Former Cabinet minister Dr Piet Koornhof has been cremated in Stellenbosch in what was apparently a hush-hush service, News 24 reported on Thursday.
Koornhof died on Monday at the age of 82.
This follows reports that Koornhof’s former partner, Marcelle Adams, who was planning to fly to Cape Town from Germany, cancelled her plans on Wednesday afternoon after learning of the cremation.
However, Dr Gerhard Koornhof, his eldest son, told Die Burger on Wednesday: ”There was nothing secret about it and no one was excluded. It was a practical arrangement that we made to give everyone an opportunity.”
”I phoned Johan [Koornhof’s youngest son] and told him I was running around to arrange everything to go to Cape Town, because I wanted to pay my last respects to Piet.
”He said the service had taken place on Wednesday. I was very disappointed to hear that,” the report quoted Adams in Bad Endorf, Germany, as saying.
Adams said she had told Koornhof’s twin 10-year-old sons, Danie and Samuel, about their father’s death, after finding it too difficult to do so on Tuesday.
”They were heartbroken.”
Gerhard Koornhof said Adams had been informed on Tuesday morning about the cremation.
He said his mother, Lulu Koornhof, had decided there should be a private cremation service for the immediate family.
Koornhof asked that people respect the decision about the cremation.
He said that, as his father had asked, there would be a memorial service.
This was scheduled for the Dutch Reformed Church in Tamboerskloof, Cape Town, at 11am on Friday.
Adams now hopes to get a flight to be able to attend this service, the report said. – Sapa