14 May 2009
Masters of ceremony
Members of the family present
Members of the Executive present
Honourable Members
Staff Members Present
Comrades and friends
Today, we are gathered here in this, the Old Assembly Chamber, in Parliament to pay tribute and bid farewell to one of our own. We are gathered here to pay our last respects to our cadre and newly appointed Member of Parliament, Honourable Nomvula Khellinah Shoba.
Saddened and pained, as we are bidding farewell to one of the most outstanding unionist, ANC leader and a devotee to human freedom and solidarity. The untimely and sudden death of "Mama Khellinah" as she was affectionately known has not only robbed her family of a caring mother, wife and grand mother. Indeed, her departure from our midst is a great loss to the ANC, the Tripartite Alliance, the women formations, the people of Mpumalanga and the rest of South Africa. Mama Khellinah has left a void.
Although we may never understand the full pain of your loss, we appreciate that you know and will understand what we mean when we say that: "your loss is our loss too".
Indeed your loss is our loss because uMama Khellinah was a woman of the people who dedicated her life to the course of the poor and working people of our country.
Today, as the African National Congress Caucus we have assembled here to celebrate her life lived to the full; the richness of which touched the hearts of millions of the working people in the farms, in the mines and to the unemployed. Her contribution made an indelible mark on our efforts to bring about a better life for all our people irrespective of class, race, gender and religion.
Ma Khellinah Nomvula Shoba joined the African National Congress in 1990 and held several positions within the tripartite alliance, including that of Secretary and Deputy Chairperson of the ANC, Provincial Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions in Mpumalanga and Regional Treasurer of the National Union of Mineworkers.
She was a member of the SA Communist Party as well as the ANC Women's League and was a Branch Secretary and later Deputy Chairperson of her ward. The attainment of gender parity and other gains achieved by women since the dawn of democracy were largely brought about through courageous and unwavering struggles waged by women of the calibre of comrade Shoba.
Our movement has lost a stalwart, one who represented that greatness of spirit that made it a great organisation .In these challenging times in the life of the organisation we are all called upon to return to those values that she represented and lived by.
Her death may serve to remind all of us to strive for unity and to put the well-being of our country and the people above all personal and sectarian considerations.
Let us this afternoon re-dedicate ourselves to making this country of ours the cohesive, caring and decent society to which this South African dedicated her entire life for.
She exemplified and embodied all that was good and noble in our efforts to bring about better life for all our people.
Ma Shoba, from the knowledge that you left a legacy which we shall all strive to emulate; - from the knowledge, that you continue to live in each one of us through your force of example, vitality of spirit and passion for justice and social progress.
Former President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, paying tribute to the passing of his comrade and a patriot Joe Slovo in 1995 says this, "As the flowers of the desert wither and pass beyond the vision of the human eye. And yet they live, a defining part of the uninterrupted sands of the Sahara and the Kgalagadi". As the African National Congress Caucus, we take this opportunity to express our deepest condolences to the Shoba family.
Comrades and honourable Members, let us reaffirm without any fear of contradiction that this comrade we are celebrating her life today was a disciplined member of the ANC; she led by example; she epitomised the revolutionary values that she championed.
To the last minute of her life, she believed that the ANC is best suited and capable of mobilizing all South Africans for freedom and later on, for effectuating a better life for all.
Speaking on behalf of African National Congress Caucus, we wish to reiterate that the course that Ma Shoba had embraced will continue to guide us in fulfilling the five key priorities that are outlined in our elections Manifesto that also convinced her to avail herself to come to Parliament when her organization the ANC requested her. Her firmness in dealing with obstacles to this programme will remain one of the central features of our work.
Her passing away has marked the period that President Zuma described as the moment of renewal. To the family we want to say that in memory and honor of her life, we here shall be the foot soldiers of the great work of renewal.
I thank you.