Pretoria - A special ceremony will be held at the King Shaka International Airport this afternoon to welcome home the remains of prolific journalist Nat Nakasa.
Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa and the delegation, which includes Nakasa’s sister Gladys Maphumulo, are travelling from New York to South Africa to bring back the remains of Nakasa.
Shortly after they land at King Shaka International, the special welcome home ceremony will be joined by family members, politicians and government officials. It is scheduled to start at 2pm.
The casket with Nakasa’s remains will be draped in the national colours.
Minister Mthethwa, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu and eThekwini Mayor James Nxumalo will address members of the media at the airport at 3:30pm.
They will also announce preparations for the reburial of Nakasa’s remains at Heroes’ Acre in Chesterville, Durban.
Nakasa was a journalist from Chesterville, who began his work and career as a writer at Ilanga laseNatal in the late 1950s.
He subsequently moved to Johannesburg, where he wrote for Golden City Post, Rand Daily Mail and DRUM magazine, covering many of the challenging stories and events of the time.
In 1964, he was awarded a Nieman Fellowship to study in America, but the apartheid government denied him a visa and he left South Africa on an exit permit in 1964.
He died under mysterious circumstances in New York in 1965 and was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery. - SAnews.gov.za
