However, Mr Speaker and colleagues, they say of the clock of life that it is wound but once. And no person has the power to tell just where the hands will stop - at a late or early hour. Now is the only time you have. Live, love and toil with will, for tomorrow the clock may be still.
In the case of our hon colleague, the hon Matladi, that clock stopped too soon, because her untimely passing came as a great shock to her parents, to her husband, to her children, to her grandchildren and to all of us, her colleagues, in this House.
However, her legacy will not die with her. Her legacy will live through us and in the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Scopa. I have a few recordings of what she used to say in Scopa. As the previous hon member said, she was such a smart dresser that her pleasant disposition sometimes belied the fact that here was a member who would relentlessly ask questions of officials on irregular spending and unauthorised expenditure.
I remember an official came to us and said that the SA Social Security Agency, "never paid any supplier without supporting documentation". That's what the official said. But Mrs Matladi said that the only fact was that it was a pity that Mr ... I won't give his name ... did not have the notes from the Auditor-General that stated that Sassa had paid line-supporting documentation. Her question was: Why? This was the kind of questioning that the hon Matladi used to follow in our committee.
As members have said before me, we will miss her in our committee. We will miss her for upholding her dignity, for upholding the fact that she wanted government to operate in a way where there was no wasteful and fruitless expenditure.
I share a birth date with her, which is 5 September, and Ms Dudley follows a few days later. I understand that she was the only leader of her party who died in office. As I mention this, I think we also have to recall the fact that the hon Rajbansi, the leader of the MF, also died in office.
To the Matladi and the Rajbansi families and to the MF and UCDP, on behalf of Prince Buthelezi and the IFP, we extend our heartfelt condolences. To our sister, we say, "Lala ngokuthula sisi." [Rest in peace, our sister.] I thank you. [Applause.]