Passing of Mr Abednego Khumalo

It is with the deepest sadness that we mourn the passing of Mr Abednego Khumalo yesterday morning. ASK, as he was affectionately known by the MRP Foundation team, was a JET consultant who for the last five years has been mentoring school principals and SMT members in the Pinetown district in KwaZuluNatal. Prior to this JET had the pleasure of assisting him in his capacity as a school principal as part of the MRP Foundation school programme in the Ilembe District of KZN.

Mr Khumalo will be missed by all those that came into contact with him as he was a humble, caring, dedicated and empathic man who went out of his way to support other JET team members and the MRPF schools. He was motivated to pass on his knowledge and experience in order to help principals, SMTs and teachers to ensure that the children received a quality education and thus able to overcome their challenges and achieve anything they desired.

All those who worked with Mr Khumalo will have many fond memories of him either quietly interjecting during a meeting, providing advice as if it was of your own making or offering his time to do something that would help support the programme and a colleague. He was proud of his heritage and was driven by a desire to take advantage of what the MRP Foundation and JET were putting in place to support schools in KZN.

In a time when COVID-19 has taken so many loved ones and colleagues it is not an understatement to say that we have truly lost someone who served his community and society with distinction. Mr Khumalo was awarded the honour of Principal of the Year when he was a principal at Zilungisele Primary School and JET was fortunate to have someone of his calibre to be part of the JET/MRPF team. All of us who came into contact with Mr Khumalo were touched by his generosity of spirit and fortunate to have had the pleasure to have been in his company.  

Our condolences go to his wife, his family and loved ones.