Roy Padayachie's body returns to SA

Johannesburg - The body of Public Service and Administration Minister Roy Padayachie arrived back in South Africa on Saturday, the presidency said on Saturday evening.

"Minister Padayachie's body was handed over to his family and loved ones after it arrived in Durban from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia," said spokesperson Harold Maloka in a statement.

Labour Minister Mildred Olifant and representatives of the provincial government, representing President Jacob Zuma and Cabinet, joined the family.

Padayachie, 62, was found dead in his hotel room in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia by a colleague. He was attending a meeting of the African Peer Review Mechanism.

He had joined the public service and administration ministry in October last year. He was former minister of communication and before that deputy minister of public service and administration.

Zuma personally telephoned Padayachie's wife, Sally Mudaly Padayachie, to convey his condolences.

Details of the burial would be communicated later by Minister Collins Chabane, who is the chairperson of the inter-ministerial committee on State funerals, Maloka said.

Earlier, Zuma said no words could express the loss that government and the people of South Africa felt at this loss.

"It is sadly a great measure of his dedication and personality that he was to meet his destiny and fate in pursuance of a better Africa and a better world, a goal he dedicated his entire life for it to be realised and achieved." 

SAPA