S Africans mourn death of Hindu leader Kunwar Singh

South Africans across the spectrum are mourning the death of respected Hindu community leader Kunwar Singh, who succumbed to COVID-19 complications on Friday. He was 86.

Popularly known as Kokkie Singh, he was one of the pioneer settlers of the now sprawling Indian township of Lenasia, south of Johannesburg. It was established by the apartheid white minority government more than 70 years ago to forcibly resettle all the Indians of Johannesburg.

Among those who paid tributes to Singh was chairman of the Hindu Coordinating Council (HCC) Kishore Badal.

''To his last days, even though we tried to keep him away from public events because of the huge COVID-19 pandemic risks, Kokkiebhai insisted on being part of community events," Badal said.

''Uncle Kokkie's guidance after his chairmanship of more than two decades at the HCC will always be remembered, but the community will also remember him for the philanthropic work he did to benefit not just the Hindu community, but also all other communities through projects such as helping destigmatise HIV/Aids awareness, arranging food hampers for the needy, and for participation in various inter-faith fora established by government," he said.

A teacher until his retirement, Singh spent his entire life voluntarily serving the community in Lenasia, where he was associated with numerous social welfare, religious, educational and sporting bodies.

Among these was the Hindu Coordinating Council (HCC), which he and others founded over three decades ago to host an annual Diwali festival attended by tens of thousands of people, as well as the annual Shivarathri Yatra which passes all temples in Lenasia with a chariot procession.

At the age of 55, Singh, after teaching for many years, joined his son and nephews in fulltime studies to gain a higher diploma.

"I had to upgrade myself because I would never have got a promotion otherwise. I also succeeded in getting 30 female teachers to join me in getting a better qualification at the Johannesburg College of Education," Singh reminisced in 2014 when he was honoured with lifetime achievement award by the Shree Bharat Sharda Mandir.

"I was particularly thrilled when the Rector called me in to say that despite 170 young people being at the College, the staff had decided to give me the Leadership Award for changing the college in the two years that I was there," Singh had said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)