Envoy Nene to be laid to rest

The funeral of former South African ambassador to Nigeria and Switzerland Sipho George Nene will be held this week, the family said yesterday.

“Comrade George, Ambassador Nene, will be laid to rest in Soweto. The funeral service will be held at his alma mater Morris Isaacson, on Friday, April 13, starting at 9am.

“He will be laid to rest at Avalon Cemetery, Soweto,” said Ambassador Welile Nhlapo in a statement on behalf of the family.

“Comrade George Nene died on the evening of April 6, a day we remember for the hanging and killing of Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu by the apartheid regime 39 years ago.”

The family paid tribute to Nene, “a great intellectual, freedom fighter, a revolutionary and consummate diplomat”.

Nene was born and bred in White City, Soweto, where he completed his matric at Morris Isaacson in 1968. In 1970, he completed a secondary school teachers course diploma at University of Zululand.

“It was at the university where he ended up joining and serving in the South African Student Organisation. He understood that to fight apartheid education was an important weapon.

“Hence, he returned to his alma mater, Morris Isaacson High School, where he taught and helped to organise the students, who later became the leadership of the June 16, 1976 uprisings,” said the family statement.

“As his level of political consciousness grew and apartheid intensified its brutality and oppression on the people, it led him to join the African National Congress and uMkhonto we Sizwe underground structures to fight against the apartheid system. He was instructed to leave the country and underwent military training in Pirivanhoe, in the then Soviet Union.”

After military training, Nene spent a brief spell as an instructor, in Benguela, Angola.

He was later deployed to Maputo and Swaziland in the special operations. He survived many attempts on his life and was detained in Swaziland.

Post the 1994 elections, Ambassador Nene was appointed as the permanent representative of South Africa to the United Nations in Geneva.

Upon completion of his tour of duty, he became deputy directorgeneral [responsible for] multilateral affairs. – ANA

He taught and helped to organise the students, who later became the leadership of the June 16, 1976 uprisings.

Family statement about Sipho George Nene