President Cyril Ramaphosa has described former education minister Sibusiso Bengu as a pioneering leader in South Africa's democratic dispensation and administration.
Expressing sadness about his death, he highlighted how Bengu played a key role in leading the transformation of education within a democratic government of national unity when deep divisions existed over the extent to which this transformation should proceed.
The former South African ambassador to Germany and former minister of education, who was 90, died in his sleep at home on Monday. According to his family, he passed away peacefully.
“My thoughts are with mama Funeka and the family with whom we are united in this loss,” Ramaphosa said.
Under apartheid, the injustice of unequal education had been at the core of consigning most citizens to intergenerational economic exclusion, poverty and indignity.
“The Education Act formulated under Prof Bengu’s leadership and adopted by our fledgling parliament was a cornerstone of our liberation and unleashed the human potential of all South Africans. It was and is still the lever for the empowerment and development we see today in the lives of individuals and communities.
“We are therefore indebted to Prof Bengu for his patriotic and visionary service in serving our nation at home and abroad as our ambassador to Germany.”
Ramaphosa said Bengu’s legacy is entrenched through the Sibusiso Bengu development programme, which seeks to advance the development of historically disadvantaged institutions in higher education as strong, socially embedded institutions in a diversified post-school education and training system.
“Today we are grateful for Prof Bengu’s diverse contributions to our development, which will light our way forward. We reflect as well on his life of faith which inspired his commitment to restoring the dignity of all South Africans. May his soul rest in peace.”
TimesLIVE
‘We are indebted to Prof Bengu for his patriotic and visionary service’: Ramaphosa
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President Cyril Ramaphosa has described former education minister Sibusiso Bengu as a pioneering leader in South Africa's democratic dispensation and administration.
Expressing sadness about his death, he highlighted how Bengu played a key role in leading the transformation of education within a democratic government of national unity when deep divisions existed over the extent to which this transformation should proceed.
The former South African ambassador to Germany and former minister of education, who was 90, died in his sleep at home on Monday. According to his family, he passed away peacefully.
“My thoughts are with mama Funeka and the family with whom we are united in this loss,” Ramaphosa said.
Under apartheid, the injustice of unequal education had been at the core of consigning most citizens to intergenerational economic exclusion, poverty and indignity.
“The Education Act formulated under Prof Bengu’s leadership and adopted by our fledgling parliament was a cornerstone of our liberation and unleashed the human potential of all South Africans. It was and is still the lever for the empowerment and development we see today in the lives of individuals and communities.
“We are therefore indebted to Prof Bengu for his patriotic and visionary service in serving our nation at home and abroad as our ambassador to Germany.”
Ramaphosa said Bengu’s legacy is entrenched through the Sibusiso Bengu development programme, which seeks to advance the development of historically disadvantaged institutions in higher education as strong, socially embedded institutions in a diversified post-school education and training system.
“Today we are grateful for Prof Bengu’s diverse contributions to our development, which will light our way forward. We reflect as well on his life of faith which inspired his commitment to restoring the dignity of all South Africans. May his soul rest in peace.”
TimesLIVE
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