It was with great sadness that ACCORD announced the death of ACCORD Trustee H.E. Ambassador Billy Modise. H.E. Ambassador Modise passed away on Wednesday evening, 20 June 2018, after a long illness. He was 87 years old.
H.E. Ambassador Billy Modise was the former South African Chief of State Protocol and the former South African High Commissioner to Canada. Ambassador Modise served on a number of boards, including those of South African Airways and Kgodiso Investments. In 2008 Ambassador Modise received the Order of Luthuli – Silver Class from former President Thabo Mbeki for excellent contribution in the achievement of a South Africa free of racial oppression and contributing to the building of a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa. He also received the Premier’s Excellence Award from the Premier of the Free State for his contribution towards the liberation struggle and South Africa in general. In November 2017 the Swedish Ambassador to South Africa, H.E. Ambassador Cecilia Julin, at the decision of His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, bestowed the Order of the Polar Star on H.E. Ambassador Billy Modise. Ambassador Modise joined ACCORD’s Board of Trustees in 2007.
A true gentleman who represented the kindness, humility and humanity we would all aspire to emulate, respected and admired by all who met him, he will be sadly missed by his ACCORD family.
The Trustees and Staff extend their deepest condolences to Mrs Modise, his daughter Thandi and the rest of the Modise family.
