Bicks Ndoni funeral arrangements announced

A memorial service for the late Nelson Mandela Bay ANC chief whip Bicks Ndoni will be held in Uitenhage on Wednesday, while his funeral is set to take place in Port Elizabeth two days later.

The memorial service will be at the Babs Madlakane Hall in KwaNobuhle at 2pm.

And the final farewell for Uitenhage’s former mayor will be at the Feather Market Hall on Friday next week, with the funeral service set to start at 10am.

Ndoni, an ex-deputy mayor of metro, died suddenly at the ANC’s regional headquarters, Florence Matomela House, in Port Elizabeth on Monday.

He collapsed in his chair as he was wrapping up a meeting with councillors from Uitenhage. Efforts to resuscitate him failed.

Tributes have continued to pour in for the long-serving, highly respected ANC stalwart.

Nafcoc regional secretary-general Qiqa Mpetsheni said Ndoni  had touched many lives, including those of business people in the city.

“Bro Bicks, as we affectionately called him, served as the mayor of the Uitenhage transitional local council and later served as the deputy mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay when [the Uitenhage council], Despatch and [Port Elizabeth municipality] were merged.

“Bro Bicks and his newly formulated council were faced with a mammoth task of including black business as participants in the procurement systems of the city.

“Armed with the Freedom Charter’s economic clause which states, ‘the people shall share in the country’s wealth’, he marshalled the advent of black business participation in the economic activities of Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.

“His understanding of the economic clause and the impact of its application demonstrated that he was not only a political revolutionary but an economic revolutionary as well,” Mpetsheni said.

“As a result of his intervention, opportunities that black business saw as pipe dreams, were made a reality.”

“Through his work ethic and determination to include black business [in] the main economic stream of the city, black business became part of trade mission trips, goods and services suppliers and a platform to engage black business by the municipality was launched,” Mpetsheni said.

The SACP in the region also sent its condolences to Ndoni’s family and colleagues, saying his commitment to the liberation struggle and the movement was unquestionable.

SACP spokesperson Lazola Pukwana said Ndoni’s death was a great loss to the ANC.

“He never shifted an inch away from values of the movement and serving the people of the Nelson Mandela Bay region.

“A humble perfectionist in his work, comrade Bicks was well known for his no-nonsense approach in dealing with service delivery issues.

“The African National Congress is poor without the vast experience of comrade Bicks,” Pukwana said.