THERE'S more drama in the late Mbongeni Ngema's family.
This after his memorial service which was set to happen in his rural home of eMfana in eNhlwathi, KZN on Thursday, 4 January was cancelled at the last minute when people had already flooded the home.
The Ngema family has been divided regarding his burial as others wanted the Sarafina maker to be buried in his rural home on eNhlwathi.
However, a decision was made that he was going to be buried in Durban and that his rural family and residents would be accommodated with the memorial service at home on Thursday.
After that didn't happen, angry members of the Ngema family rushed to the office of the KZN premier to express their disappointment through a letter dated 4 January.
In the letter directed to Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube, which Daily Sun has a copy of, the family said they were not pleased with how the matters had been handled since the passing of their loved one.
“As the family, we have not received clear formal communication from the family spokesperson Nhlanhla Ngema since the 27 December 2023 to the 4th of January 2024.
“To this date, the family knows nothing formally about the memorial service that was supposed to be held at KwaNgema eMfana homestead (04/01/24) as discussed in a brief meeting that was held on Sunday (31/12/23). As a result, the family together with the community, there has been a huge negative stress that has been caused by lack of transparency," the letter said.
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The letter further said during the funeral arrangement meeting, one of the things that came up was that there would be a memorial service that would be held in Mbongeni’s rural home where the provincial government would provide a tent, catering, and all that goes with it.
“It is with disappointment that none of that was delivered in eMfana where people have flooded the home in KwaNgema, where only the police have come to monitor the situation as instructed by Brigadier Mhlongo under Ezibayeni SAPS, but there is no tent for shelter, not ablution facilities, no catering services for the people who have come to the memorial service.
“This has caused great distress and concern in the family (eMfana) and the entire mourners. In all of that there was no concrete and formal communication and feedback of all meetings held in Durban after there was a first meeting in KwaNgema eMfana on 31 December.”
The Letter concluded by saying the Ngema family was a big and had elders who had remained in eMfana but had no idea about Ngema's burial.
The said they had cultural practices which were yet to be done such as the family elders fetching his spirit from where he died to bring it home for a cleansing.
Family spokesman Nhlanhla Ngema told Daily Sun they would like to apologise that the memorial service that was staged at eMfana was postponed.
“There were many things that happened as we were preparing for the funeral because Mbongeni is a big person. The memorial service for eMfana was postponed to an unknown date due to unforeseen circumstances,” he said.
The spokesman of the KZN Office of the Premier, Bongi Gwala didn’t answer his phone while he didn’t respond to WhatsApp messages.
Ngema will be buried on Friday, 5 January under category 2 special provincial funeral which was granted by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
