Family, friends say goodbye to Daniel

POLOKWANE – A memorial service will be held at the N.G. Kerk Pietersburg-Oos in Betz Street, where family and friends of Daniel Modiba will say their final goodbyes.

The service will take place at 10:00 tomorrow (Friday) morning.

The 19-year-old from Ga-Kama village outside Mankweng was a trumpeter and member of the Limpopo Youth Orchestra.

Last Tuesday night, Daniel drowned in the swimming pool of the hotel where the orchestra was residing during a tour of Dakar, Senegal.

The orchestra was invited by the South African embassy in Dakar to perform at Senegal’s 20 years of democracy celebrations. The orchestra left last Monday, but returned last Thursday after Modiba’s death.

On Sunday afternoon, emotions ran high when members of the orchestra visited his mother, Martha Modiba.

Each member of the orchestra had an opportunity to comfort her with hugs and words of encouragement.

Some of the members cried with her and some of the members’ parents who accompanied them on the visit, cried with Martha as they tried to comfort her.

Simoné Aronje-Adetoye, managing director of the Limpopo Youth Orchestra said the South African embassy, with the support of the Senegal government, cancelled their concert, in light of the tragedy.

“We had a tribute concert on Wednesday and the children played like angels. Ambassadors from different countries, and different religious ministers attended the tribute concert. We have lost not only a remarkable trumpeter, but a son, brother, and great friend. We will miss Daniel very much,” Aronje-Adetoye said.

The orchestra members said they would miss Daniel very much and described him as a humorous person who went out of his way to make those around him laugh.

“Daniel loved his culture and he was a very jokey person. He made it his mission in life to make a person laugh,” Naphy Makwela (21) said.

The girls in the orchestra said he was like a brother to them, as he always showed concern and cared for them.

Andries Makgoba (20) shared a room with Daniel while they were visiting Senegal and he said they grew up in the same village.

“Around him you would never feel down. He was fun to be around and a very stubborn person. According to him, he was always right. My last memory of him was that we over slept the morning we were supposed to go to the embassy house for a briefing. The bus left without us and we had to take a taxi. Daniel was so scared because he did not want to be on Simoné’s bad side,” Makgoba said.

Bafana Baloyi, conductor of the Limpopo Youth Orchestra, said Daniel was a cool guy and an amazing trumpeter.

The group remembers Daniel as someone who loved his food and he always ate chicken as he did not like beef.

Daniel leaves behind his mother, two brothers and two sisters.