We have lost a special patriot: Ramaphosa on Clegg’s passing
President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed his heartfelt sadness at the recent passing of icons in the country.
He paid his tribute to legendary artist Johnny Clegg who died on Tuesday following a prolonged battle with cancer.
Ramaphosa noted that in recent days the country also lost anti-apartheid cultural activists, performers and National Order of Ikhamanga recipients Mama Nomhle Nkonyeni.
"South Africa is a better place today due to the courage, resilience and irrepressible creativity of these two special icons from whom we are now taking our leave," says Ramaphosa.
Speaking about Clegg he said: “The award-winning singer, songwriter, anthropologist and academic was 66 years old. A beloved, inspirational and heroic voice has fallen silent and leaves all of us bereft of an exceptional compatriot and icon of social cohesion and non-racialism."
In a statement Ramaphosa says Clegg’s special relationship with Sipho Mchunu in Juluka, as well as with Dudu Zulu in Savuka, gave apartheid-era in South Africa a window on the non-racial South Africa we were determined to achieve and he will always live in our hearts and our homes as we replay his string blend of cultural celebration and political resistance.