Funeral put off by court interdict finally held
THE family of award-winning maths and science teacher Zola Nogcazi finally laid him to rest at the Matanzima cemetery in Uitenhage yesterday after a bitter feud between the family and his “wife” over who had the right to organise his funeral saw the process put on hold in February.
Nozibele Sandla, 43, approached the court and was granted an interdict to stop the funeral on February 13, the day before Nogcazi, 58, was due to be buried. Sandla said she had been excluded from the planning of the funeral.
Yesterday, Nogcazi’s family performed the funeral ritual at his home in Uitenhage before he was buried. His brother, Lungile Pram, 57, said the long wait to bury him had been difficult for the family, especially their mother, Nosis Mkhefa, 72.
“We had already done every- thing when the funeral was stopped on February 13. We did a church service even though his body was not here.
“Today we did a family ritual before taking him to the grave- yard. There is nothing much we will say about Sandla as she lied to us that they were married.”
Sandla had asked the court to declare the customary union that she and Nogcazi entered into in March last year a valid and binding union. But Acting Judge Thembekile Malusi dismissed the application.
“Yes, we paid R30 000 lobola for her but she also knows that at the time of my brother’s death she was no longer in the picture,” Pram said.
“Before he died, he told us that he no longer wanted the wedding to continue. And at the time of his death they were no longer together,” he said.
Sandla said yesterday she could not comment as she was mourning the death of her son, who had died recently.