Hon Deputy Speaker, hon Deputy President, we all know Masechaba who is a presenter and host on the drive show on SAfm. It is her birthday today and yesterday she remembered
the hospitality of Zambia and today she is taking the day off to celebrate that hospitality.
She left South Africa as a 14 year old with her mother to Zambia who was an Umkhonto weSizwe, MK, operative. She remembers her time in Zambia and how she was treated as a daughter by the neighbourhood and was certainly not referred to as a foreign national.
Last week I attended the book launch by Professor Kwesi Kwaa Prah and Dr Guma. The book launch was about people like Masechaba who was well treated in several African countries they fled to during the anti-apartheid struggle.
The book tells how they were all called brothers, hon sisters, hon daughters; every page of the 300 pages tells a story of hospitality across so many countries. I was very touched when the sister talked about the revolutionary ideas of President Nkrumah. Now is the time to reflect on the bearer of African affairs and call for a United States of Africa.
Hirsch in London as early as 1940, I don't have anyone around. While Robert Sobukwe was a member of the ANC, gave leadership when you argued that Africa is doomed even while it is getting Uhuru at small states and they will be swallowed up. The struggle is to have a United States of Africa.
We don't hear about united South Africa today and we are thrown so many values of ubuntu in the waste paper basket. It's a shame that we call people like Masechaba, if she's from another country a foreign national and not a beloved daughter, mother and sister.
The ideas of Nkrumah are ideas that I was hoping to hear today and I did hear from the sister about some of those ideas. I don't want the Sixth Parliament to be the last outpost of colonialism in South Africa. There needs to be a new narrative which I don't hear from those that count in this particular House. We don't hear it loudly. What we are hearing is a plot against those of us who enjoy our freedom because of hospitality given to our comrades and their daughters like Masechaba. Nkrumah hon members in this House we must give leadership.