‘LABABULALI SIYABAFUNA’

KALANGA – “Lababulali siyabafuna.” These were the vengeful words uttered by an unidentified mourner who was speaking to a group of others who were clad in Mbabane Swallows Football Club replica jerseys at businessman Victor Gamedze’s funeral yesterday at KaLanga.

As the unidentified man said these words, dozens of other mourners who were seated listening to him screamed in agreement. However, his address to the angry mourners was cut short by the club’s General Manager Sandile Zwane, who called them to order before informing them that they would be allowed to pay their last respects to the club chairman by throwing handfuls of soil on the casket. This was much to the mourner’s satisfaction.

This followed about 40 minutes of singing, chanting and running around at the Gamedze homestead by the dozens of mourners holding chairs, boxes and other items in the air.

They left the graveyard and marched past police barriers to reach Gamedze’s house’s veranda where they demonstrated while they sang ‘myekeleni aphumule.’ They then ran around the house before proceeding to stomp in the main tent as the family had gathered at the graveyard.

Some people believed it was the mourners’ way of bidding goodbye to Gamedze as they did not get a chance to carry his coffin to the graveyard. It was carried out of the house by relatives and friends who placed it in the tent.

At 6:50am, Swallows players carried it and loaded it into a hearse that had parked about 10 metres from the tent. It was then driven a distance of not more than 100 metres to the graveyard.

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