Former Sunday World sports editor Louis “Figo” Mazibuko will be buried at the Nasrec Memorial Park cemetery, near his Diepkloof, Soweto home on Wednesday, July 15.
The service will be held at home from 10am and the cortege will proceed to the cemetery at 11.30am, according to his daughter Zozo Mazibuko.
Zozo said her father’s passing away took everyone by surprise and shocked the family.
“He started complaining of not feeling well on Monday and got worse on Tuesday, that is when I decided to take him to hospital but he passed the following day,” said Zozo.
“My father passed away a broken man, with a broken heart. Since my mother’s death he was never the same. He never became himself, he was never the father that I know. At the hospital they did their best, they did everything but I guess his time had come.”
Meanwhile tributes and condolences to the Mazibuko family are pouring in. Kaizer Chiefs chairman Kaizer Motaung has extended his heartfelt condolences to the Mazibuko family, saying he “reacted with shock to the news” of the passing of the former sports journalist.
“Mazibuko was a scribe par excellence. May his soul rest in eternity,” said Motaung.
Mazibuko, 69, died at the Mulberton hospital in Johannesburg. He retired from the newspaper four years ago. He is survived by his daughter Zozo, after the death Mornica, his wife of 40 years following a short illness last year.
A passionate and dedicated soccer writer, who was sincere to the journalism craft, Mazibuko was popularly known for his witty command and flair for the language.
He started his journalism with the at the Rand Daily Mail before moving to Sunday Times Extra newspaper in the 1970s, until he joined Sunday World when it was founded in 1999. Mazibuko also worked for the Sowetan.
The veteran journalist, a legend among soccer scribes, believed in the motto: the pen was mightier that the sword. He was popularly known by the nickname “Figo” after the legendary Portuguese retired footballer Luis Figo, who played as a midfielder for Sporting CP, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan.
Mazibuko lived with his daughter Zozo in Diepkloof Ext in Soweto, a stone throw away from the house of PSL chairman and Orlando Pirates boss Irvin Khoza.
He often boasted about the many prominent and popular people and celebrities who he lived with in his neighbourhood.
