The North West Provincial Government says it will soon make an announcement about its contribution to the funeral service of the late Bafana Bafana striker, Phil Masinga.
Sports MEC, Sello Lehari, has visited the Masinga family in the Khuma township in Stilfontein.
Masinga died on Sunday in Johannesburg after a long battle with cancer.
Masinga’s family earlier announced that the soccer star will be laid to rest on Thursday next week with one of two memorial services to be held in Johannesburg this Friday.
Lehari says the discussions are currently under way. “For now, we are still discussing. I have to talk to the Premier, but what I can tell you is that we are going to assist them both on hosting the memorial service here on Tuesday and the funeral on Thursday. For now, I cannot say too much about the contribution until I met the premier.”
Family Spokesperson Majoro Nguphane says they will write to President Cyril Ramaphosa to afford Masinga an official provincial funeral.
“We have agreed that the funeral will be next week on Thursday. We’ll have a memorial service next week Tuesday at the auditorium in the Municipality of Matlosana and we’ll have the second one in Johannesburg on Friday … this coming Friday. It is because once you give someone a provincial state funeral there are processes that need to be followed. One, you need to get your response from the president. Initially, we wanted to bury him this Sunday, but government then decided, ‘please, we can’t bury him on Sunday.’ All parties must be involved because Phil Masinga is not an ordinary player; he’s a legend.”
Masinga’s friends paid tribute to him. “Actually he has left a void not only to his family but also to us as friends and to the South African population in general. He made a meaningful contribution in terms of ensuring that the name of our country, township and province is on the map.”
