Hon Speaker and hon members, I rise in this debate on the motion of condolence for the late Comrade David Dlali to express our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Comrade Dlali, and to his big family, the ANC. We wish to express our heartfelt sympathy. We received the news of his passing with sadness.
Comrade Dlali was a working-class leader, who had working-class interests at heart, and who at all times worked for this cause. As has been said about him, he was there during the struggle for freedom, and during the peace protests by South Africans before the 1994 democratic breakthrough. He was there during the struggle to form strong Cosatu affiliates that would fight for the restoration of the rights of the workers, and he was there during the 1998 labour relations battles, as you will remember. He was a key fighter to defend the workers' rights with his paralegal skills. He was there when South Africans were marching and calling for the unbanning of political parties and political organisations. We know that he made an immense contribution in the field of local government elections, where he fought, as always, for the underdogs, the downtrodden and the poor people. As Cope, we are truly saddened by his sudden and terrible passing on, which will go down as murder. We wish the perpetrator of this crime could have known who he was and what contribution he made to our life today. The police must obviously do what needs to be done.
I would like to end with a poem by Yo Tomita:
You never thought that it would end this way, Yet such an end does not at all seem strange. If love is true, then death must make the change, Ending love by taking life way. Yet though our love is over, mine will stay, A triumph over death I will arrange, Rechanneling a fate I cannot change, That we might still on fields of fancy play. You never thought we'd share such months of pain, That you would die in agony, while I Would be as much a nurse for you as friend. Yet I would live the whole thing through again Just once more to look you in the eye And tell you, yes, this is how it should end.
May his soul rest in peace. Hamba kahle, qabane! [Farewell, comrade!] [Applause.]