The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal will on Tuesday celebrate the life of the late former President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe, with former President Thabo Mbeki delivering a memorial lecture in Durban.
This will be Mbeki’s first notable visit to KwaZulu-Natal to address an ANC gathering in 13 years.
In 2006, he was heckled and booed while addressing the memorial service for the reburial of the remains of the late SACP General Secretary – Moses Mabhida in Pietermaritzburg.
ANC KZN Provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli says Mbeki holds no animosity towards the province about incidents that took place in 2006.
He says President Mbeki will be addressing an occasion of the ANC for the first time since he left office.
“He has never addressed any occasion whether in the country on behalf of the ANC. On many occasions, you and I might have seen him in public. It would have been lectures organised by universities, NGOs and various institution including the Thabo Mbeki Foundation.”
“It is very historic and extraordinary that when he has an opportunity for the first time in 15 years to address a platform of the ANC, he is coming to KZN. KZN is an important player in the consolidation of the unity of the ANC,” says Ntuli.
