Former North West Premier Bushy Maape to be laid to rest in Vryburg

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]The funeral service of former Northwest premier and struggle stalwart Bushy Maape will be held in Free State today.

[00:00:07]Maape has been accorded a special provincial official funeral category one by President Cyril Ramaphosa. He died last weekend after short illness at the age of 68 in Johannesburg. He was premier of the province from 2021 up until 2024 after taking over from Professor Job Mokgoro who was accused of allegedly ignoring party instructions. Now SABC News reporter Zikhona Maimane is actually on that story for us. Zikhona on a somber note, the nation bidding adieu to Bushy Maape. We know the pivotal role he played in the Northwest politics. But as the atmosphere obviously is now set ahead of people, family, friends alike, colleagues, comrades coming to pay their last respects. Perhaps you can tell us what's happening as we build up to that special official provincial funeral category one.

[00:00:56]Yes, indeed Lizelle. Good morning to you and the viewers out there. You will know that uh former premier Bushy Maape is one of the people who established the first administration of the Northwest provincial government in 1994. He was the uh uh advisor of former premier Popo Molefe.

[00:01:17]He worked closely with uh former MEC for economic development Africa. As you uh rightfully said in your intro that uh in 2021 um the IPC that was led by Humphrey Maake nominated him. We know that amongst those nominations we we had the current uh speaker for the provincial les uh provincial legislation Lesego Mahon. And also we had uh Motlalepula Kxau. Those were the two uh females that were the their names were nominated including the ones for premier former premier Bushy Maape. And at the ultimate end the ANC NEC took a decision to appoint uh premier former Premier Bushimape as the Premier of the Northwest since 2021 up until 2024. But we are here at um uh Huhudi Sports Ground where the funeral of former Premier Bushimape will will be held here. But what we understand is what we understand is that right now from 7:00 up until 8:00 the funeral will be at the church service then from 8:00 up up until going to the grave he will come here all the entire program will be here. But to get more clarity with what is going to happen with our program this morning we are going to talk to the chairperson of SCOPA from the provincial legislature um and that is Matsemela so thanks very much for joining us. Just touch a little bit on the former Premier Bushimape's life and also tell us what is going to happen with the program.

[00:02:46]Well comrade Bushimape to some of us he's not just a leader.

[00:02:53]He's our brother, he's our political father.

[00:02:56]We were mentored by him.

[00:02:58]He taught us the values of our movement.

[00:03:01]Most importantly he also showed us how those values get applied in government.

[00:03:07]Okay. And what's also very important to note is that he was quite passionate about education. He did a lot of work outside his formal position to arrange bursaries for young people while he was still in the MEC office as well as in the SPDU. And after he left the office of the Premier he continued to take young people to study even overseas. A lot of them came back to occupy positions. You can mention Sherwin Nale, you can mention China Dodovu, Hamlet Morule and many others that he took overseas including Keith Khoza.

[00:03:50]Because of time constraints in that map, how is the program looks like?

[00:03:54]Well, the program is two today is a formal program and this formal program will allow space for people that have lived with comrade Bushy Maape to share the experiences of the life of comrade Bushy Maape. Thank you very much. That is comrade chairperson of SCOPA in the provincial legislature telling us what is going to happen, but we understand that the deputy president Paul Mashatile will be here as well as the veteran Metha Ndimude and many others who worked closely with former premier Bushy Maape.