The Activists and Citizens Forum has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to abolish state funerals.
The civil society movement believes this will end the alleged corruption it says has infiltrated government-funded burials.
The Forum’s spokesperson Dennis Bloem indicated that the government’s move to spend taxpayers’ monies on state funerals simply can’t be justified.
Bloem’s comments follow a scathing report recently issued by Public Protector Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka which revealed that more than R3-million had been spent on the funeral of late Free State Education MEC Tate Makgoe.
Makgoe died in March 2023 with political opposition parties in the province flagging down the opulence associated with his funeral at the time.
In her report, Advocate Gcaleka found that the irregular appointment of communications and events agency C-Squared led to overspending on Makgoe’s funeral while she also established that the Director-General of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in the province, Kopung Ralikontsane, did not take effective and appropriate steps to prevent the irregular and excessive expenditure.
“In the first place, there is no tangible justification to spend taxpayers’ money on state funerals. The latest state funeral corruption scandal is the findings of Public Protector on the funeral of the late MEC of Education Tate Makgoe. It is disgusting and shameful that R3- million was allegedly spent on the funeral,” says Bloem.
Gcaleka’s office has meanwhile indicated that there are procedures that provincial governments or state entities must adhere going forward when handling official funerals.
