President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared a Special Official Funeral for Ambassador Billy Modise.
Modise passed away on Wednesday, June 20, 2018, at the Unitas Hospital in Pretoria after a long illness.
A memorial service for the late ambassador will be on Tuesday at the Dirco Conferenced Centre, while his special official funeral service will be on Thursday at Marks Park in Emmarentia.
The 88-year-old ANC veteran is best remembered for his work in building the anti-apartheid movement in the Nordic countries in the 1960s.
He joined the ANC in 1955 as a young student at Fort Hare University, and after securing a scholarship to study medicine in Sweden he spent the next 30 years outside South Africa.
He worked for the UN and later as the ANC’s chief representative in Stockholm until the party’s unbanning in 1990.
In democratic South Africa, Modise was appointed South Africa’s high commissioner to Canada in 1995. He ended his career as the chief of state protocol in the Presidency in 2006.
Rampahosa says Modise served the country selflessly and diligently.
The Presidency says Ramaphosa has directed that the National Flag be flown at half-mast at every flag station in the country until the day of the funeral on Thursday next week.
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