"All of us must respect the cadre who has spent his entire life fighting for our country and honour him correctly," said Mabuza.
He was speaking to journalists after receiving hundreds of former ANC members back into the party in Bushbuckridge.
Mabuza said he didn't believe the funeral should have been used to discuss the party or the country's problems.
South Africans needed to give Kathrada the respect that he deserved, said Mabuza.
Several keynote speakers who attended both Kathrada's funeral on Wednesday and a memorial service at the weekend held in the stalwart's honour cited an open letter that the man fondly known as "Uncle Kathy" had penned to Zuma in April 2016, calling on the president to step down.
State memorial cancelled
Kathrada's wife Barbara Hogan also criticised Zuma during the memorial and accused him of sacrificing the contributions of those who built South Africa's democracy "at the altar of corruption".
On Friday, the government cancelled Kathrada's state memorial service, saying it had been unable to agree with the family on logistical issues around the event.
Former finance minister Pravin Gordhan, whose axing has left the country reeling, also called for mass mobilisation at the memorial service on Saturday.
He called on South Africans to be more vigilant and to "connect the dots" in order to figure out how money flowed from Treasury to the various projects and budgetary needs it's been earmarked for.
The former head of Treasury also described government's decision to not host the memorial service as "petty and spiteful".
"If I had the opportunity of being there, I would have used it to honour him," he said.
