The merged Nkonkobe and Nxuba municipalities will be known as the Raymond Mhlaba Municipality after the upcoming local government elections.
This was announced by the National Heritage Council’s chief executive Sonwabile Mancotywa yesterday.
Mancotywa said it would be a great honour for the merged municipality to be named after a liberation struggle icon and the first Eastern Cape premier in the democratic dispensation.
He made the announcement in Fort Beaufort yesterday while speaking as a programme director during a memorial lecture in remembrance of Mhlaba, who died in 2005. The new name will be gazetted soon.
The memorial lecture, attended by close to 1000 people mostly clad in ANC colours, was delivered by Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe.
It was also attended by family members of Mhlaba, provincial mayors, struggle veterans and former Eastern Cape premier and ambassador to Germany Makhenkesi Stofile, who has now taken a post as University of Fort Hare’s deputy vice-chancellor.
Radebe described Mhlaba, affectionately known as “Oom Ray”, as a revolutionary who served his people with distinction. He said the country could continue to uphold the legacy of Mhlaba by fighting and rooting out corruption.
“For the sake of Oom Ray, we need to uproot this cancer that is done by people we know and which is undermining our hard-earned democracy,” Radebe said.
The event was organised by African Footprint of Hope (AFH), an NGO which works closely with the Raymond Mhlaba Foundation, while Mhlaba’s family was present.
Municipality named after ‘Oom Ray’
This was announced by the National Heritage Council’s chief executive Sonwabile Mancotywa yesterday.
Mancotywa said it would be a great honour for the merged municipality to be named after a liberation struggle icon and the first Eastern Cape premier in the democratic dispensation.
He made the announcement in Fort Beaufort yesterday while speaking as a programme director during a memorial lecture in remembrance of Mhlaba, who died in 2005. The new name will be gazetted soon.
The memorial lecture, attended by close to 1000 people mostly clad in ANC colours, was delivered by Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe.
It was also attended by family members of Mhlaba, provincial mayors, struggle veterans and former Eastern Cape premier and ambassador to Germany Makhenkesi Stofile, who has now taken a post as University of Fort Hare’s deputy vice-chancellor.
Radebe described Mhlaba, affectionately known as “Oom Ray”, as a revolutionary who served his people with distinction. He said the country could continue to uphold the legacy of Mhlaba by fighting and rooting out corruption.
“For the sake of Oom Ray, we need to uproot this cancer that is done by people we know and which is undermining our hard-earned democracy,” Radebe said.
The event was organised by African Footprint of Hope (AFH), an NGO which works closely with the Raymond Mhlaba Foundation, while Mhlaba’s family was present.
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