SPEECH BY PREMIER
Comrade Chairperson;
Dear comrades;
I ask you all to rise for a moment's silence in tribute to the memory of Comrade Joe Modise.
Even as we do so, let us - during these 16-days of activism, also remember those who have died or have fallen victim to the senseless rape, assault and murder of children and women.
Thank you.
Comrades,
The country has lost one of her finest sons whose unwavering commitment to the cause of liberation and transformation will remain an inspiration to us all.
Allow me, on behalf of the government and the people of Mpumalanga - and on behalf of the entire membership of the African National Congress in the province – to send our deepest condolences to his family, friends and comrades.
In a sense it is something more than the death of Comrade JM which brings us together on this occasion. We are here to celebrate and salute the life of a gallant and a tireless fighter for freedom and democracy.
Comrade JM's passion for justice, for addressing the problems that plague the rural poor, demand that we celebrate his life. We cannot do otherwise. He was taken to our hearts, as a people, as a nation, because he lived so that we may be free.
Comrade JM touched the very heart of millions of us because he knew our pain, and eased it by giving us hope, giving us courage, giving us a way forward.
Joe Modise loved life, and lived it to the full. But he loved freedom more. That is why through three decades of exile he remained steadfast in his commitment to free our people from bondage.
He never wavered. He was resolute in his quest to build a nation free from hunger, disease and poverty, free from ignorance, homelessness and humiliation, a country in which there is peace, security and jobs.
Comrades, Joe Modise was a great giant who strode the globe like a colossus. And when a giant falls, everyone notices the force of that fall. During his deployment in the province, Comrade JM struck all of us as someone with an incisive mind.
Today that mind whose thoughts have opened the doors to our liberty, has ceased to function. He struck us as a warm-hearted and kind person. Today that heart whose dreams gave hope to the despised has forever lost its beat.
Some say Comrade JM was ruthless as a commander. Nothing can be further from the truth. He was gentle and spoke in ever so soft tones.
Today that gentle voice, whose measured words of reason saw the difficult yet achievable welding of seven armies into one, has been silenced.
Comrades, we are assembled to mourn the passing of a leader, a patriot, a father, a fighter, a negotiator, an internationalist, a theoretician and a branch organiser. It is the combination of all these qualities so splendidly in one individual, which made Comrade JM the great African revolutionary that he was.
Comrade JM will be remembered for his fearless and tireless commitment to the cause of liberation, dedicating the greater part of his life to the achievement of peace, democracy and justice in South Africa. But where did it all start?
The Anti-Pass Campaign of the 1950s, the Sharpeville killings and the subsequent banning of the ANC and other organisations left a deep impression on Comrade JM.
Like hundreds of other young militants, he realised that all avenues for peaceful struggle were closed and that the only alternative left was to take up arms against the apartheid regime.
He saw the establishment of Umkhonto we Sizwe, which he served loyally and through difficult times. We will remember him as the man who honed the skills of the first MK combatants.
Comrade Joe Modise was a true hero of our National Democratic Revolution. He dedicated all his adult life to a struggle to free humanity from the yoke of apartheid and colonial oppression.
He is the embodiment of the sacrifices that millions of our people were prepared to make to restore the dignity and respect for all – black and white.
Men and women of rare qualities are few and hard to come by. And when they depart, the sense of loss is made the more profound and the more difficult to manage. Yet we do draw comfort from the knowledge that the greater part of the journey that was the passion of his life has been traversed.
Today, as we bid Comrade JM farewell, we are at the same time celebrating a life lived to the full; the richness of which touched the hearts of millions and made an indelible mark on the history of our country;
When our people look back on the road we have traveled, they will be justified in saying: Comrade JM was central in making it happen.
When the fighting forces walk tall with a proud South African heart pounding in their chests, they will be right to say: This was made possible by Comrade JM.
When those yet to be born marvel at how South Africans of our times managed a delicate transition, they will be within their right to sing, as we did during the years of armed struggle: u'Modise ikomanda, a commander of reconstruction and development, a warrior of peace and reconciliation, a builder par excellence.
As a monument for Comrade JM, let us take forward the struggle against HIV/AIDS. Let us remember that HIV/AIDS kills those on whom our society relies to provide income through agriculture, through mining, in the factories, those who run our schools and our hospitals, and those who govern our towns and provinces.
It worsens the poverty pervasive in our society when parents who are breadwinners die. For too long we have closed our eyes as a nation, hoping the truth was not so real.
Many of us have grieved for orphans left with no one to fend for them. We have experienced AIDS in the groans of wasting lives. We have carried it in small and big coffins to many graveyards.
At times we did not know that we were burying AIDS victims. At other time we knew, but chose to remain silent.
In partnership with all sectors of society , we must continue to give absolute priority to HIV/AIDS and violence against women and children.
The power to defeat the spread of this evil lies in our joining hands as youth, as women and men, as business people, as workers, as religious people, as parents and teachers, as farmers and farm workers, as the unemployed and the professionals, as the rich and the poor - in fact, all of us.
But we can and MUST do something about it. We can talk about HIV/AIDS with our families and friends. We can try to break the silence in our hearts and talk about sex with the ones we love. We can all stop and think why we have such a bad AIDS epidemic. We can all make the effort to find out about the thousands of AIDS orphans.
We can try to care more for our loved ones and other people, especially children in our communities. That is the monument we can build for Comrade JM. In that way we can say, Farewell dear friend.
May your soul rest in peace.