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SERVICE FOR
Dr Zola Skweyiya
Saturday, 21 April 2018
At Lovedale High School, Dr Skweyiya met and worked with Mr Govan Mbeki,
whose commitment to action and sound knowledge of rural politics had a strong
influence on his political outlook. He later enrolled at the University of Fort Hare
to study for a law degree that was not completed for political reasons.
When the ANC opted for the armed struggle in 1960, Dr Skweyiya became one
of the active organisers for Umkhonto weSizwe, which made him a target of
the security forces. He fled to Tanzania in 1962, where he underwent military
training in Kongwa.
Upon his return from the German Democratic Republic, he was deployed in
different capacities in the ANC. In 1982, he set up the first ANC office in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia and became its representative at the then Organisation of
African Unity (now called African Union).
The 1985 Kabwe Consultative Conference of the ANC resolved, among others,
to revive the legal unit to deal with the legal matters affecting the ANC. Dr
Skweyiya was recalled by the ANC from Addis Ababa to set up the Department of
Legal and Constitutional Affairs. President OR Tambo charged this department
with the responsibility to develop constitutional guidelines that would serve
as a lodestar to the ANC in the future drafting of a democratic South African
constitution. He carried out this responsibility with distinction and commitment
that later contributed to the existence of a transformative constitutional state in
South Africa.
Having been exposed to human rights and diplomacy issues at the United
Nations (UN), he was committed to the existence of justice within the ANC and
democratic South Africa. When the ANC at the Kabwe Conference resolved to
establish the Officer of Justice position, Dr Skweyiya was appointed and in this
capacity, he made sure that justice prevailed.
Dr Skweyiya returned to South Africa and led the Department of Legal and
Constitutional Affairs. He was also appointed as the Chairperson of the
Constitution Committee of the ANC, which served as a research and consultative
think tank for the development of the post-apartheid constitution. It was in
this context that he assisted in the setting up of the Centre for Development
Studies at the University of the Western Cape as an institutional agency to carry
out research and publish an occasional paper series on transitional politics,
and their impact on constitutional and legal dispensations. It was through the
instrumentality of these papers that the evolving thinking in the ANC on its position
on constitutionalism and its transformative character were disseminated to the
public for debate and information. In this respect, he authored and published
papers on, for example, the land question, judiciary, local government and
constitutionalism.
He was elected to the National Executive Committee of the ANC at its first
conference after it returned from exile. In 1991, he became a member of the
National Working Committee of the ANC. He was elected to these positions at
subsequent ANC elective conferences until 2012. He was a member of the ANC
negotiations committee on the post-apartheid constitution at the Convention
for a Democratic South Africa. He also served as the Chairperson of the ANC
National Disciplinary Committee.
He was a strong advocate for the education and relevant training of public
servants. These had to incorporate the notion of Batho Pele (People First). He
was determined to establish a humanitarian public service grounded in the new
constitutional values informed by social justice and egalitarianism.
The second difficult task was to knit together a fragmented public service that
was dismembered by apartheid. This task was not only made difficult by the
number of different civil services, which were 14 at the time, but also by the
fact that these civil services were at different stages of development. This
mainly found expression in the varying efficiencies, competencies and salary
dispensations that characterised these civil services. Notwithstanding these
mammoth challenges, Dr Skweyiya’s inherent drive and uncompromising
commitment to service made it possible for him to complete the rationalisation
process within the prescribed time frames.
The White Paper on the Transformation of the South African Public Service
was developed and adopted to lay the foundation for the legislative changes
designed to align the Public Service with the values and ethos of the new
constitutional dispensation. Dr Skweyiya was central to the drafting and adoption
of this document.
Upon retirement from active politics, he was appointed South Africa’s High
Commissioner to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In
September 2011, he was bestowed with the Freedom of the City of London. In
May 2011, the University of Oxford established a series of annual lectures titled:
The Dr Zola Skweyiya Lecture on South African Social Policy.
PART ONE
Programme directors:
Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
Premier David Makhura
Commendation rituals
At the cemetery
11:50 Immediate family and President Ramaphosa seated
Removal of National Flag from the coffin by the Military and
handing over to the family
Last Post and Reveille sounded
SANDF bearers and Ceremonial Guard of Honour withdraw
Committal: Clergy
Benediction
Pall-bearers:
Home to hearse: Family