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Eastern Cape Premier Lubabalo Oscar Mabuyane will deliver the eulogy at the Special Provincial Official Funeral Category Two of the late Gqeberha sports administrator and struggle stalwart, Harold Wilson.
He will be laid to rest on Saturday at the Weis Memorial Congregation Church in Schauderville on Saturday.
The Bhisho government said President Cyril Ramaphosa had, as a mark of respect, made the declaration for the late ANC veteran who died recently at the age of 93 after a long illness.
Flags will also fly at half-mast at every flag station in the Eastern Cape as is the procedure in all official state funerals.
Premier Mabuyane said Wilson will be remembered for the pivotal role he played in the transformation of rugby as a non-racial sport and has served on the board of the first racially integrated South African Rugby Football Union.
"He was a sports fanatic who understood the link between politics and sport, and how sport could be used as a platform and means for community development, social justice, economic progress, and political change. He was the Eastern Province Rugby Union vice-president between 1982 and 1983, and later became its president," he said.
Wilson was born in the Free State on 2 August 1929 before his family moved to Stuart Township in Port Elizabeth.
He matriculated at the Paterson High School in 1947 and obtained a Teaching Diploma at Hewat College in Cape Town and returned home to Port Elizabeth to begin his teaching career.
