Madam Deputy Speaker, we, from the DA, would like to associate ourselves with the tributes paid to the late Mahwidi John Phala. Mr Phala had a long and distinguished career as an activist, a trade unionist, an organiser of community resistance, a member of MK, and as a public representative in the provincial legislature and in this National Assembly.
He was born to poor parents in the deep rural areas, and he did not have the advantage of a formal education, and yet he was a natural leader of the various organisations to which he belonged and the campaigns in which he was involved. Yet, throughout his life he remained humble and dedicated to the constituency he wished to serve, and whose lives he wished to better.
Naturally his role in the struggle exposed him to periodic prison sentences, including a 30-year sentence served in part on Robben Island, in the same cell, I understand, as the hon Deputy President. Perhaps because of his experience of prisons and of being a prisoner, he was a natural and very well-informed member of the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services, which is how I came to know and like him.
The Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services is not a glamorous committee. Much of its work is concerned with the oversight of the 237 correctional centres, and oversight tours are long and frequently quite exhausting. The late John Phala was already 80 years of age when he joined the committee, yet he accompanied us on most of the oversight visits and we benefited greatly from his experience and his insights. He was also an extremely conscientious member of the committee and insisted on attending all meetings, even when he was very ill.
I remember one evening when we were visiting the KwaZulu-Natal prisons in 2006, we were staying in a hotel in Durban and Mr Phala went for a walk on the beach front. During the course of this walk he was mugged and his cell phone was stolen. I remember thinking how outrageous it was that somebody who had given so much and who was so passionate about rehabilitating offenders should be the victim of this senseless and violent crime. Yet even this experience did not diminish his determination to develop an effective prison system in South Africa.
Mr Phala lived a very full life and he had the satisfaction of living to see the things he had fought for realised in South Africa. We extend our condolences to his family and his friends, and to his colleagues in the ANC. May he rest in peace. [Applause.]