SLAIN Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates goalkeeper and captain Senzo Meyiwa will be buried next to another South African hero tomorrow.

The sportsman will join former Drum journalist Nat Nakasa, whose remains were recently reinterred at Heroes Acre in Chesterville, Durban, nearly five decades after his death and burial in New York.

Both men died under tragic circumstances in their 20s. Nakasa was 28 when he died in July 1965 and is widely revered for his work as a journalist and columnist, while Meyiwa was murdered just over a month after celebrating his 27th birthday on September 24.

KwaZulu-Natal premier Senzo Mchunu said Meyiwa deserved a dignified and memorable sendoff.

"Senzo's death shouldn't dim his light," Mchunu said.

He said Meyiwa was a hero who had done what many have not been able to.

Mchunu promised a funeral of integrity, as Meyiwa deserved.

The KwaZulu-Natal premier said his administration had written to President Jacob Zuma requesting that Meyiwa be granted an official funeral but there had not been a response.

KwaZulu-Natal arts, culture, sport and recreation MEC Ntombikayise Sibhidla-Saphetha was leading the team organising Meyiwa's funeral and has been a regular at the family's home on Mgaga Street, Umlazi.

Gauteng premier David Makhura pleaded with angry South Africans not to take the law into their own hands.

"We're getting communities to assist but we don't want communities to take the law into their own hands," Makhura said.

He said there were many people volunteering information to the police and cooperating with them and the team of private investigators hired by the Meyiwas.

Yesterday, Makhura, acting Gauteng police boss Lieutenant-General Tebello Mosikili and the province's community safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane briefed Meyiwa's mother on the circumstances of her son's death and the progress of the investigation.

Makhura declined to answer questions on the investigation, saying the focus should be on burying Meyiwa and on finding the criminals who are all out to halt the country's progress.

- sidimbal@sowetan.co.za