Former President Thabo Mbeki has paid tribute to former South African Ambassador to the United Nations, Dumisani Kumalo who worked for the Thabo Mbeki Foundation from 2011 before he retired in 2015 due to ill health.
Mbeki was speaking at Kumalo’s funeral in Midrand.
“This was an outstanding African, and an internationalist, a pan-africanist and what he was doing at the United Nations was part of the process of building the liberated South Africa. We’re very honoured indeed as the Thabo Mbeki Foundation that he became our first CEO in 2011. When we approached him to take this job he did not hesitate and understood very well the challenges that he would face as that CEO. It was very, very sad indeed that Dumisani suffered a stroke, fell ill in 2015 and therefore had to leave.”
Dlamini-Zuma delivers Kumalo’s eulogy
Former Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is among those who have paid tribute to Kumalo. He worked in the UN for over ten years.
Dlamini-Zuma delivered Kumalo’s eulogy.
“As many have said, Ambassador Kumalo was larger than life, even in those cold corridors in the United Nations his belting laughter could be heard across and beyond the walls. And ambassador Kumalo approached every tasks with the same vigor – whether he was chairing the Non-Alliance Movement, the Security Council, the G77 plus China and many others. Whether it was consultations or the various missions he undertook to places like East Timol, Guinea Bissau, he would be as passionate.”
Kumalo a disciplinarian
Kumalo’s son Mandla has described his father as a disciplinarian. Mandla has fond memories of his father.
“One of the things that he would always encourage me was to do well at school and when he’d get disappointed in me he’d say Mandla, are you not embarrassed that these people feed you for free and give you free textbooks and you still fail. One other memory of my father that I have is that he was always an activist.”
The anti-apartheid activist and diplomat was awarded the government’s special official funeral service. The late Ambassador Kumalo is being laid to rest at the Westpark cemetery in Johannesburg.
