ANC to hold national memorial service for Joemat-Pettersson on Wednesday

A national memorial service will be held for the late ANC MP Tina Joemat-Pettersson in Kimberley next Wednesday.

She will be buried in a private funeral service on a date yet to be announced.

ANC deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane thanked South Africans on behalf of Joemat-Pettersson’s family for their messages of condolence since her death on Monday.

“The family appreciates all the messages and calls that have been coming through. The children also appreciate it very much,” she said. “Of importance is that there is further request that we should give the family the space to mourn and prepare for a decent burial.”

Joemat-Pettersson is survived by two sons.

Mokonyane told journalists Joemat-Pettersson’s older brother will work with the ANC and its alliance partners to prepare for the national memorial service starting at 11am in Kimberley. The venue will be confirmed by Thursday, she said.

She said the ANC provinces will hold provincial memorial services.

The ANC Women’s League will hold its own national memorial service next Thursday. Joemat-Pettersson was a member of the league and “a stalwart of the women’s movement”.

“There is a ceremony that is very solemn that the women’s league holds for its members — the hanging of the blouse — that will take place on Thursday in Kimberley.”

Mokonyane said the ANC will lower its flags in various provincial offices and at its national headquarters in Luthuli House as a sign of mourning. The party will also have a condolences book at Luthuli House and in the provincial offices, including an electronic one.

“The family and we

have agreed that there will be a private funeral service and we will give the family the necessary support and space to give her a decent send-off that is in accordance with their wishes,” she said.

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