Times Of Swaziland: Over 2 000 bid Zonke farewell

Over 2 000 bid Zonke farewell
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 MBONGISENI NDZIMANDZE  on 16/07/2012 00:00:00


LUDZELUDZE - Over 2 000 people gathered at the Khumalo homestead to pay their
last respects to the late Dr Zonke Amos Khumalo yesterday.
Khumalo was buried at his homestead at Ludzeludze in the early hours of
yesterday after a vigil that was held on Saturday.
He died aged 85 years.
Some of those who attended the funeral include MTN Swaziland Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) Ambrose Dlamini, Prince Sobandla and Prince Lonkhokhela.
Most of the speakers during the vigil described Khumalo as a great statesman who
always made sure things were done in a proper way.
One of the speakers, the deceased’s brother, Khayeni said Dr Khumalo believed
that every man had a right to live and that no one had a right to take
another’s life. "His death is not only a loss to the Khumalo family but to the
entire Swazi nation as he was also a source of knowledge and history to many
people," he said.
Khayeni said, therefore, it disturbed Dr Khumalo, a former Minister of Justice,
that crimes such as rape, murder, armed robberies and car-hijacking had
escalated to scandalous heights and were now a threat to national security.
He said it was against that background that the Ministry of Justice, with Dr
Khumalo at the helm, marshalled a plan to arrest lawlessness by introducing the
Non-Bailable Offences Act.
Dr Khumalo was also described by many speakers at the vigil as a visionary, with
distinctive leadership qualities and was a pillar of strength who shared his
wisdom with the Swazi nation.
Preacher attacks circumcision programme
LUDZELUDZE – Preachers had to be called to order at the vigil of Dr Zonke Amos
Khumalo after one of them used the platform to attack the circu-mcision
programme called Soka Uncobe.
A preacher identified as Majahonke Tshabalala said the campaign to encourage men
to circumcise was misleading people as they now thought that when one was
circumcised he had conquered death.
He said this was misleading as there was nowhere in the Bible where it states
that one can conquer death through circumcision.
The man of the cloth told mourners that for a person to conquer death they must
accept Jesus Christ as their saviour and forget about circumcision.
He also came hard on people being instructed to go public after they were
circumcised. Tshabalala shocked mourners when he claimed that Jesus Christ
yelled once when he was angry at certain people.
"Even Jesus Christ once told people who came to him claiming to have been using
His name to heal people, ‘Fxxxki,’ because he was angry at them as he did
not know them," Tshabalala said, much to the amusement and shock of other
mourners who were inside the tent.
As soon as he sat down, Khayeni Khumalo, stood up to warn the preachers to stop
using the vigil to criticise other people beliefs and religions.
"We would like to warn preachers who are here to stop criticising other
people’s beliefs or religion as this is not the rightful forum instead they
should mourn and sympathise with the Khumalos. Preachers know the forums where
such issues are discussed and debated," he said.