Former President Jacob Zuma will this week be honoured for his stance on radical economic transformation by a conglomerate of controversial black business bodies.

The National Funeral Practitioners Association of SA (Nafupa-SA)‚ as well as the Delangokubona Business Forum and others have announced that they will bestow two awards on the former president.

One of the awards‚ for “appreciation”‚ would honour his work on radical economic transformation and the second‚ for “bravery”‚ would laud his stance on expropriation of land without compensation.

Nafupa-SA has been accused of fanning racial prejudice by banning white and Indian business owners from operating in the townships. The business forum has long been accused of mafia-style tactics to secure outsourcing work from construction firms. Both have been bogged down by court challenges for their actions.

Nafupa-SA president Muzi Hlengwa‚ speaking on expropriation of land‚ said that Zuma had been a trailblazer.

“He is the father of radical economic transformation and he was the first president to push the issue of expropriation of land without compensation. Whether it is at the expense of food security or the economy doesn’t matter‚ as long as we have our land‚” he said.

“The only owners of this country are black people‚ and when I say that I mean Africans. Everyone else is a visitor. This is something we stand for‚” he added.

He also fired a salvo at funeral company Avbob‚ saying that the “white company” made money off of black people.

“Everyone is making money off black people. Avbob has 5.5-million lives insured and 80% of them are black people. That equates to 4.4-million blacks who have policies or who are covered by them and they are a white company.”

“We must make it a black company. They must hand over the company to us. We want our people - the black people are ours. We vow to take Avbob and make it ours‚ whether they put us in jail or not this will happen‚” he said.

Zuma is expected to be honoured at a gala event in Durban on Thursday night.