Mohammed Allie BBC Sport, Cape Town

Manyathela will have a stadium named after him

Thousands of mourners attended an emotional funeral service of former Orlando Pirates and South Africa striker, Lesley "Slow Poison" Manyathela, at the Nancefield Stadium in Musina on Saturday.

Manyathela died in a car crash close to his home town of Musina, close to the Zimbabwean border last weekend.

Traffic in the town came to a standstill when the large funeral procession made its way to the cemetery.

The pain of losing Lesley will live in the hearts of many South Africans for some time to come Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour

Many mourners chose to walk to the grave site while others stood alongside the road waving flags bearing Manyathela's image.

Emotions ran high when the coffin was lowered into the ground.

"My boy you were my father and my brother, how could God do this to me," his mother sobbed.

During his address, Ngoako Ramatlodi, the Premier of the Limpopo province, announced that the Nancefield Stadium, where Manyathela spent his formative footballing years, would be renamed the Lesley Manyathela Stadium in honour of the late striker.

Delivering the main address Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour said South Africa had lost a footballing icon.

"The pain of losing Lesley Manyathela would live in the hearts of many South Africans for some time to come," Balfour added.

Orlando Pirates chairman Irvin Khoza praised Manyathela saying he had accomplished much in his short career.

"As a young man who probably knew he did not have much time, he made his mark in just three years and his untimely death came when his fullest potential was yet to be realised in Europe," he said.

Khoza told the mourners that many messages of condolences had been received by the club including messages from the Confederation of African Football and Fifa, which showed that South Africa was not alone in its grief.