INLSA

Sarah Nettleton, 8, arrives at the Sisulu house in Linden, Joburg, to pay her respects to the family whose matriarch, Albertina, died on Thursday. The funeral will be held in Orlando East on Saturday.

Michelle Pietersen

Political Bureau

Albertina Sisulu will be laid to rest on Saturday at the same cemetery as her husband, ANC stalwart Walter Sisulu, who died in 2003.

Ma Sisulu, as she was affectionately known, died at her home in Joburg last Thursday, aged 92.

Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane said yesterday that her funeral would be on Saturday at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto.

The family had decided on Soweto as the venue because it was “where we really broke the back of apartheid”, her son, Mlungisi Sisulu, said.

It was also going back to where it all started for the Sisulu couple, who lived in the area for six decades.

Their great-grandson, Shaka Sisulu, who has been tweeting memories of his Gogo, said the fact that his grandparents and parents had lived in the area for so long, and that it was the site of the 1976 Soweto uprising were among the reasons for holding the funeral there.

A private valedictory service for family and friends will be held on Saturday at 7am before the funeral at Orlando Stadium.

The family had requested that everyone proceed directly to Orlando Stadium and not start at the house to avoid “complicating logistics”, Shaka Sisulu tweeted.

“If you recall the funeral process of my late, great-granddad Walter Sisulu, you’ll see (the) programme is essentially similar with (the) same resting place,” he said.

Walter Sisulu’s funeral procession began at the family home in Soweto and proceeded to Orlando Stadium, before his burial at Croesus Cemetery, north of Orlando.

President Jacob Zuma accorded Ma Sisulu an official category 1 funeral in honour of her sacrifices for the country – an honour reserved for distinguished people with extraordinary credentials.

Flags across the country will be flown at half-mast from sunrise to sunset every day until she is laid to rest on Saturday.

National days of mourning were also announced by Zuma.

Chabane said the funeral would be preceded by a number of memorial services.

A vigil would be held from 7pm to 10pm on Friday at the Holy Cross Church in Soweto.

Condolence books were available from today at a number of venues, including Tuynhuys in Cape Town, to allow ordinary South Africans to express their feelings about Ma Sisulu, said Chabane.

The ANC would announce other memorials, he said.

“I have indicated that some of these arrangements and others will be updated and communicated during the course of the week,” he said.

Walter met Albertina, a nurse, in Joburg in 1940. They married in 1944, although prison-enforced separation meant they spent only about 15 years together.

Albertina was the first woman to be held under apartheid’s notorious 90-day detention order.

Walter died on May 5, 2003, in his wife’s arms.

Shaka tweeted that “as more and more of the stoic, respected elders withdraw from office, public life or this world, there is the danger they leave with their values”.