Leaders, activists and stalwarts gathered to honour the life and legacy of Prof. Sibusiso Bengu, the country’s first minister of education in a democratic government, during an official Category 2 funeral held at the University of Zululand.

The ceremony marked a heartfelt farewell to a visionary leader whose transformative contributions to education reshaped the nation.

Bengu, who passed away in December at the age of 90, served as education minister under president Nelson Mandela from 1994, a period of immense transformation for South Africa.

His work dismantled the apartheid-era education system and laid the foundation for a unified and inclusive framework.

Speakers throughout the ceremony, including Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Blade Nzimande, KwaZulu-Natal premier Thamsanqa Ntuli, and former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, emphasised Bengu’s commitment to education, equity and social justice.

Thami Mseleku, a former director of education, outlined Bengu’s transformative leadership and highlighted his ability to engage stakeholders and build consensus during a challenging period.

Mkhize described him as a proponent of true freedom through the decolonisation of the mind.

Bengu’s contributions extended internationally, as noted by former International Relations and Cooperation minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who commended his work in strengthening South Africa’s global relationships and bilateral agreements with Germany while he was am ambassador.

The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes executive director Vasu Gounden called Bengu a statesman of the human spirit, who believed in dialogue and collaboration.

He urged attendees to view Bengu’s legacy as a call to action.

“His vision for inclusive education and unity remains a beacon of hope,” Gounden said.

The ceremony also included tributes to Bengu’s academic and political accomplishments, recognising his excellence in education, history and political science.

His daughter, Bongi Bengu, delivered the obituary, celebrating a life dedicated to transforming South African society.

As South Africa reflected on Bengu’s passing, leaders and educators vowed to uphold his values, with Nzimande summing up the collective sentiment.

“The best way to honour him is to honour teachers and education. Teaching is the noblest of all professions,” he said.

He said Bengu’s legacy continues to inspire the nation, reminding South Africans of the enduring power of education to drive equality, freedom and progress.

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Deputy President Paul Mashatile will deliver a eulogy at the funeral service for the country’s first education minister in democratic South Africa, Prof. Sibusiso Bengu, on Friday.

Bengu, who passed away late last month, dedicated his life to education and the public service. He was in charge of navigating the challenges of transforming the education system that consisted of 17 different education departments into a single system.

The funeral will be held at the University of Zululand in KwaZulu-Natal.

Earlier this week, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Bengu would be honoured with a Special Official Funeral Category 2.

As the first education minister, Bengu played a pivotal role in the transformation of a deeply flawed and unequal education system of the apartheid era. 

“To this day, ordinary South Africans still benefit from the immense contribution of Prof. Bengu through the Education Act, which mainly addresses issues around the transformation of the sector and the provision of developmental and empowerment opportunities for all South Africans,” the Presidency said in a statement on Thursday.

Bengu became the director of student affairs at the University of Zululand in 1977, where he was fully engaged with students and some of South Africa’s best leaders were influenced by him during his time at the university.

Years later, he was appointed as the first Black vice-chancellor of the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape in 1991.

Bengu passed away peacefully in his sleep at his home on 30 December.

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President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared that the late Prof. Sibusiso Bengu, who was democratic South Africa’s first education minister, will be honoured with a Special Official Funeral Category 2.

Bengu died on 30 December. He was 90.

Ramaphosa reiterated his deep condolences to the family and friends of Prof. Bengu, who was also South Africa’s ambassador to Germany from 1999 to 2003.

He said on Monday that the funeral would be held at the University of Zululand in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday.

Proceedings would include ceremonial elements rendered by the South African Police Service.

Ramaphosa has directed that the national flag be flown at half-mast from Tuesday morning until the evening of the funeral.

Tributes continue to pour in for Bengu, who has been celebrated for the crucial role he played in transforming South Africa’s education system.

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President Cyril Ramaphosa and Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande have paid tribute to late education minister Prof Sibusiso Bengu. saying that he was a trailblazer in education.

“Prof. Bengu was a pioneering leader of our democratic dispensation and administration who led the transformation of education in a democratic government… where deep divisions existed about how far this transformation should go,” Ramaphosa said on Thursday.

Bengu, who was South Africa’s first democratic education minister and then the ambassador to Germany, died earlier this week. He was 90.

Ramaphosa praised the Education Act formulated under Bengu’s leadership as a cornerstone of the liberation project in addressing the legacies of the past.

He thanked the former minister for his patriotic and visionary service in developing the educational landscape.

“His legacy is entrenched through the Sibusiso Bengu Development Programme which seeks to advance the development of historically disadvantaged institutions in higher education as strong, socially embedded institution in a diversified post-school education and training system,” Ramaphosa said.

Nzimande praised Bengu’s role as vice-chancellor of Fort Hare University and playing a leading role in dismantling the apartheid edifice of South Africa’s education sector.

“As part of the Cabinet of president Nelson Mandela, he led the introduction of a number of foundational laws that helped to shape the policy and institutional architecture of South Africa’s school and post-school sector in the decades following the collapse of the apartheid system,” the minister said.

He praised Bengu’s facilitation of the South African Schools Act of 1996 and the policy recommendations of the National Commission on Higher Education that guided government’s efforts to reconstruct and transform the apartheid higher education system.

In addition, Nzimande welcomed Bengu’s role in the transition from the Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa to the now National Students Financial Aid Scheme.

In 2022, Nzimande approached the former minister on behalf of government to accept the renaming of what was then known as the Historically Disadvantaged Institutions Development Grant to be the Sibusiso Bengu Development Programme.

The programme is aimed at decisively redressing the inequalities that have negatively impacted the development and sustainability of institutions and seeks to enable them to respond to cross-cutting imperatives, including decolonisation in higher education, indigenous knowledge systems, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and digitisation.

“In Prof. Bengu our country has lost not only one of its most committed educationists, but also a model public servant and patriot, who even when his own health was waning, continued to serve his country and people with dignity and integrity,” Nzimande said.

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South Africa’s first education minister in democratic South Africa, Prof. Sibusiso Bengu, has died. He was 90.

According to a statement issued by his family on Tuesday, Bengu passed away peacefully in his sleep at home on Monday.

“We will fondly remember him as a dear husband, father, uncle, grandfather, an educator, former Minister of Education and Ambassador amongst others,” his family said.

Bengu, who was born in Kranskop in May 1934, dedicated his life to education and the public service. He began his career as a teacher in 1952, and 17 years later he founded the Dlangezwa High School in what was then known as Natal. He was the principal until 1976.

After completing a PHD in Political Science at the University of Geneva, Bengu was appointed as a professor at the University of Zululand in 1977. Four years later he became the first black Vice-Chancellor of the University of Fort Hare.

From 1994 to 1997, Bengu served as education minister under Nelson Mandela.

While his first political home was the Inkatha Freedom Party, where he was the secretary-general, ideological differences between him and the late IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi that the party should become a democratic, mass-based organisation, led to his departure.

He later aligned with the African National Congress, becoming a trusted ally of Oliver Tambo.

The former government minister introduced Curriculum 2005, a proposal for transforming the approach of school education in South Africa.

But the plan was received negatively and criticised by teachers as well as opposition parties, which led to it being reviewed.

After the 1999 election, Bengu was named the ambassador to Germany, a position he served until his retirement from politics in 2003.

He received an honorary degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2009.

Bengu’s family said that funeral arrangements would be communicated in due course and asked for their privacy to be respected at this difficult time.

He is survived by his wife Funeka, four daughters and a son.

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