Preparations for Seaga’s final resting place on track - McKenzie
Published:Friday | June 14, 2019 | 10:48 AM
Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Desmond McKenzie, says preparations for the final resting place of former Prime Minister, Edward Seaga, are on track.
On Thursday, McKenzie and officers from the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation visited National Heroes Park, where the nation’s national heroes, prime ministers, and many cultural icons are interred, to get a first-hand look at the work being done to prepare the burial site.
“We should have the vault being completed [soon], and the other works associated with getting the area ready for the funeral are also well advanced,” he said.
McKenzie said that Seaga “will be buried in the section that is adjacent to the burial of our National Heroes… . It’s an area that represents a wide cross section of Jamaicans whether at the political or the cultural level. It is a very good area, and I know, knowing Seaga, it is an area that he would really appreciate.”
He also noted that the location of the grave is directly across from the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, where Seaga held office as portfolio Minister in 1974.
There, he said, Seaga planned and played a fundamental role in shaping Jamaica’s post-Independence parliamentary landscape.
Labourer, Mark Daley, who is responsible for laying the blocks and supervising the pouring of concrete for the grave, said he feels honoured to be able to pay his respects to the late former Prime Minister in this way.
He said he met Seaga several years ago in West Kingston, where the former Prime Minister served as Member of Parliament from 1962 until his retirement in 2005.
“I feel great to be creating the grave for a great man as Mr. Seaga. It’s a joy. To me, he is a great man. He did great things for Jamaica, especially the markets in downtown,” Daley said.
Seaga died on May 28 in a hospital in the United States where he was receiving treatment.
He was 89 years old.
A State funeral will be held on June 23 at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, downtown Kingston.
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