Author: MARY RAMADHANI
AfricaPress-Tanzania: FORMER President Benjamin Mkapa will be laid to rest on Wednesday next week at his home village of Lupaso in Masasi District, Mtwara Region, the government has announced.
Briefing journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa stated that mourners are still flocking to the residence of the deceased at Masaki on the outskirts of the city to offer their condolences to family members.
He said the government had allocated three days for Tanzanians to pay their last respects at Uhuru Stadium in Temeke District before the body is transported to Mtwara for burial.
A requiem mass will be conducted by the Roman Catholic Church at National Stadium from 10:00am, calling upon Dar es Salaam residents to attend and pay their respects thereafter, plus on the second day.
“…Tuesday will be the last day for mourners to pay their last respects. It will be the day when all leaders in the country, including government and religious leaders and even ordinary citizens who will not have the chance to pay their last respect do so,” he said.
On Tuesday afternoon, the body of the deceased will be transported to his resting place in Mtwara, he explained.
The Premier added that next Wednesday a funeral service will be held at Lupaso village in Mtwara, and citizens will pay their last respects to the deceased, before being laid to rest at 2pm Speaking at the residence of the deceased, Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Minister Prof Palamagamba Kabudi said that the nation had lost a great man.
“For us who have remained, let us preserve his legacy that is left in his book ‘My life, My Purpose’.”
The Tanzania Church (GCTC), Archbishop Josephat Gwajima said that Tanzania had lost an icon of political as well as economic democracy.
