Pretoria – President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed his deep sadness at the passing of Prof Sibusiso Bengu, the democratic South Africa’s first Minister of Education, who has passed away at the age of 90.
Professor Bengu died peacefully at home, in his sleep on Monday, (30 December 2024).
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In a statement on Thursday, (2 January 2025), President Ramaphosa offered his condolences to the family and friends of Professor Bengu, who also served as South Africa’s ambassador to Germany from 1999 to 2003.
President Ramaphosa said: “My thoughts are with Mama Funeka and the family with whom we are united in this loss.
“Prof Bengu was a pioneering leader of our democratic dispensation and administration who led the transformation of education in a democratic Government of National Unity where deep divisions existed about how far this transformation should go.
“Under apartheid, the injustice of unequal education had been at the core of consigning most citizens to intergenerational economic exclusion, poverty and indignity.
“The Education Act formulated under Prof Bengu’s leadership and adopted by our fledgling Parliament was a cornerstone of our liberation and unleashed the human potential of all South Africans.
“It was and is still the lever for the empowerment and development we see today in the lives of individuals and communities.
“We are therefore indebted to Prof Bengu for his patriotic and visionary service in serving our nation at home and abroad as our Ambassador to Germany.”
Professor Bengu’s legacy is entrenched through the Sibusiso Bengu Development Programme, which seeks to advance the development of historically disadvantaged institutions in higher education as strong, socially embedded institutions in a diversified post-school education and training system.
President Ramaphosa added: “Today we are grateful for Prof Bengu’s diverse contributions to our development, which will light our way forward.
“We reflect as well on his life of faith which inspired his commitment to restoring the dignity of all South Africans.
“May his soul rest in peace.”
