... who fought the apartheid regime inside and outside South Africa valiantly, and to the fighting women of MK who were dubbed the flowers of the revolution by the late President O R Tambo. I will further dedicate this to the comrades who died in battle on the Eastern and Northern Fronts of Angola, fighting with Unita - Unio Nacional para a Independncia [National Union for the Total Independence of Angola] Total de Angola - in defence of our camps and the villagers that hosted our forces.
I also dedicate this input to the people of Algeria and China who trained the initial groups of the Luthuli Detachment; to the people of the former Soviet Union and the former German Democratic Republic and other Eastern Bloc countries who not only gave us military hardware, but also the skills in the strategy and tactics of war; to the people of Angola who opened their country to us in the middle of their own civil war sponsored by Apartheid South Africa and those countries opposed to peace; to the people of Zimbabwe under Joshua Nkomo who made it possible for us to share the battlefield with them and steeled our cadres.
This input, Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, recognises the youth of this country that has never appreciated injustice and intolerance, a youth that knows what is good for humanity and when change is necessary - from 1652 when the colonisers hit our shores, to Polokwane.
Polokwane brought to the marginalised liberation fighters a sense of recognition and a reminder of where we come from as a nation. [Applause.] Though Polokwane resolved that a Ministry of Defence and Military Veterans should be established and called for the speedy launch of the SA National Military Veterans' Association, Sanmva, with this new reconfigured Ministry we lost the battle but we won the war - metaphorically speaking, that is.
Represented in the gallery today is the leadership of the SA Military Veterans' Association, the glorious MK and Apla ex-combatants, and those who fought in the Wankie and Sipolilo battles, including Ntate Ike Maphoto ... [Applause.] ... those who fought in Malanje, Bonteheuwel, Soweto, Mamelodi, eMlazi and many other corners of Southern Africa. They come here, hon Minister, as veteran prisoners of hope.