Bataung Memorials Tombstones has pledged a state-of-the-art joint tombstone for Lesotho’s first Prime Minister, Dr. Leabua Jonathan and his wife Chieftainess ‘Mantahli Jonathan.
The monumental double slab tombstone holds images of the former prime minister and his wife and stands two meters tall. The tombstone was unveiled at Kolonyama Ha Rakolo in Leribe, after the state funeral of Chieftainess ‘Mantahli on Friday 7th June.
Bataung Managing Director, Ms ‘Masekelekele Ntene says the company is honored to preserve a piece of Lesotho’s heritage. She says the Presidential high-quality tombstone was intended to give the Jonathan family and Basotho an everlasting memory cast in stone.
Company Director, Lebohang Khitsane says this is a monument for a man whose reign was significant not only to Lesotho but also sympathetic to South Africa’s struggle for liberation, which made him an African leader. Family spokesperson and one of the three remaining Jonathan daughters, Mrs. Mamosa Majara, says they are lost for words.
She says the family was thinking of redoing Dr. Jonathane’s tombstone as it had aged since he was buried in 1987 to match their mother’s, and the pledge by Bataung came at the right time.
She says Basotho should recognize this gesture by Bataung as real patriotism and true love for one’s country. Bataung Memorials Tombstones is a 100% black-owned tombstone manufacturing company which was founded in 2004 with its Head Office in Meyersdal, South Africa.
To date, the company has supplied more than 10,000 tombstones and accessories in Lesotho, South Africa, Zambia, and Botswana. Among the most prestigious is the tombstone of the recently laid to rest SABC Journalist, Vuyo Mbuli.