Dignified send off for fallen ANC veteran James Vulani Mabunda
The late Veteran ANC leader’s commitment to the ANC and to the development of the community has not gone unnoticed.
Mabunda, of the Mabunda Royal Family at Mashobye under the Gidjana Traditional Council in the Collins Chabane Local Municipality died on March 6 aged 65 of natural causes.
He was buried at Shitlhelani cemetery on Saturday after a funeral service hosted by Winston Zinjhiva ANC branch at Malamulele Community Hall.
The event was a dignified and he was given a public home sending for someone who sacrificed to improve the lot of the fellow man.
ANC provincial leader, Kate Bilankulu Magabane, who has been deployed to Vhembe District, also spoke highly of the late leader.
Giving a keynote address at the funeral, Magabane who represented the ANC said Mabunda had an exemplary track record as an ANC cadre and a development agent in the community.
“He led the branch of the ANC during the time the organisation was reintroduced in the country following its unbanning. He also assisted the community to form a development forum,” she said.
‘Comrade Vulani was not selfish. He did everything while sharing with family and everyone. When branches asked him to serve as a councillor, he passed the opportunity to a woman because he wanted to start a business. And even after he started the business he was not lost to the community and the ANC,” she said.
She said as far as his credentials are to go by, she was tempted to ask who groomed such a selfless and committed leader.
“I later found and was not surprised that he was groomed by not less a person than the late comrade Collins Chabane, known as The Animal, the very same leader who groomed me,” she said.
“It goes without saying that if you go with the best, you will be the best,” she said.
Magabane urged members of the community to register in large number to vote for the party of Vulani Mabunda, the ANC in the upcoming local government elections “because he was committed to voting ANC forever.”
Vhembe District Municipality Executive Mayor, Freda Nkondo also said a good word for the late leader,
“I respected him for the way he initiated the formation of the development forum at Mashobye where he came from and politically I grew under him as our leader in the ANC,” she said.
Three friends of the late leader, Dr Paul Maseko, Thomas Chauke and Reckson Baloyi, all veteran ANC leaders also heaped praise on the late leader.
“I speak of James as a true leader who during the time as chairperson of the branch he led with aplomb. He demanded that members worked as per the policies of the movement. He insisted on having regular meetings with deployees of the ANC so as to get progress reports and to forge the way forward,” said Dr Maseko.
He added; “He was a philanthropist who donated computers to the school at Mashobye and also donated one to me after mine crashed.”
Dr Maseko said the late Mabunda also shared resources with family and friends.
The funeral services drew many big names including the ANC veterans who were active in the 80s and in the 90s when the ANC was reintroduced in the country following its unbanning in 1990.
They include leaders such as Moses Tembe, Renny Mashele and Mackson Baloyi.
ANC MP Musa Chabane who heads the Home Affairs portfolio in parliament was also present at the funeral.
