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Plea to mourners to behave at funeral

COMING HOME: Moses Mabhida's family members view the body after its exhumation at Lhanguene Cemetery in Maputo. After being re-embalmed, it was brought home to South Africa this week and will be reburied in Heroes Acre in Slangspruit, Pietermaritzburg. Pic: Thembinkosi Dwayisa. 21/11/2006. © Sunday Times. Moses Mabhida's family members left right, Nomagugu Mngwengwe(Niece), Mahadebe who had spiritual contact with Mabhida, Linda Mabhida and Mbekezile Mabhida(Grandsons) viewing the body after the exhumation at Lhangweni Cemetry in Maputo.
COMING HOME: Moses Mabhida's family members view the body after its exhumation at Lhanguene Cemetery in Maputo. After being re-embalmed, it was brought home to South Africa this week and will be reburied in Heroes Acre in Slangspruit, Pietermaritzburg. Pic: Thembinkosi Dwayisa. 21/11/2006. © Sunday Times. Moses Mabhida's family members left right, Nomagugu Mngwengwe(Niece), Mahadebe who had spiritual contact with Mabhida, Linda Mabhida and Mbekezile Mabhida(Grandsons) viewing the body after the exhumation at Lhangweni Cemetry in Maputo.

Canaan Mdletshe

Canaan Mdletshe

People attending the funeral of the late ANC and SACP leader, Moses Mabhida, have been warned to behave themselves.

The ANC and its alliance partners said they expected disciplined behaviour from mourners.

Mabhida died in exile in Maputo, Mozambique, in 1986 after suffering a heart attack.

He was 63.

He was general secretary of the SACP, and a member of the national executive committees of the ANC and the South African Congress of Trade Unions.

He was buried in Lhanguene in Maputo in a state funeral by the first president of Mozambique, Samora Machel.

Last week the KwaZulu-Natal government, the ANC and the Mabhida family started a process of returning his remains for a reburial on his home soil.

The reburial is scheduled for tomorrow in his hometown of Pietermaritzburg.

He will be laid to rest at Heroes Acre, outside Imbali township.

President Thabo Mbeki, ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, provincial premier Sbu Ndebele and Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi are among the dignitaries expected at the funeral.

Today a Moses Mabhida Lecture will be held at the Durban University of Technology.

The secretary-general of the SACP, Blade Nzimande, will give a talk.

And tonight a night vigil will be held at the Harry Gwala Stadium.

ANC and SACP provincial secretaries Senzo Mchunu and Themba Mthembu said security measures have been put in place to ensure that all goes well.

"People misbehaving will not be tolerated and police will deal harshly with any misbehaviour. This is a high profile funeral of a great leader," they said.

In a memorial service last week Zuma, who was first chief representative of the ANC in Mozambique, described Mabhida as a "born leader".

He said Mabhida mobilised thousands of people from the then Natal to the 1955 Congress of the People that culminated in the Freedom Charter.

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