Hon members and Mr President, we are honoured to have, amongst us today, His Excellency President Pohamba of the Republic of Namibia, whom we have invited to address this sitting of the National Assembly on the occasion of his visit to South Africa. May I take this opportunity to welcome you to our Parliament, Mr President. [Applause.]
I will now call upon the Chief Whip of the Majority Party to introduce His Excellency the President of the Republic of Namibia. [Applause.]
Hon Speaker, hon President of the Republic of South Africa, His Excellency Jacob Zuma, hon Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, our distinguished guest hon President Hifikepunye Pohamba, on behalf of the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa and the people of this nation, I wish to extend a warm welcome to His Excellency the President of the Republic of Namibia, hon Hifikepunye Pohamba, to this august House of the National Assembly.
This Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, which represents the dreams and aspirations of this glorious nation's population of over 50 million, is pleased and humbled by the honour of having in its midst one of Africa's greatest revolutionaries, a humble servant of the people, an African patriot of great distinction and a comrade and an ally of this nation.
Hon Pohamba was educated at an Anglican mission. He was a founding member of the South West Africa People's Organisation, Swapo, in 1960. He was arrested for his political activity and spent four months in prison in South West Africa, before spending two years in Ovamboland under house arrest.
In 1964, he went to Lusaka to set up Swapo's Zambian office and on his return he met the man who was later to become President of Namibia, hon Sam Nujoma. Until the achievement of the Namibian independence, hon Pohamba represented Swapo across Africa. Although he studied politics in the Soviet Union for a time in the early 1980s, he headed Swapo's 1989 election campaign and was a Swapo member of the constituent assembly, which was in place from November 1989 to March 1990, before becoming a member of the National Assembly at independence in 1990.
He was the Minister of Home Affairs from March 1990 to 1995, the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources from 1995 to 1997 and the Minister without Portfolio from 1997 to March 2000. He was elected as Secretary- General of Swapo in 1997 and its Vice President in 2002.
On 26 January 2001, he was appointed as the Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, in which position he remained until becoming President in 2005.
This day is both emotional and exciting for us as South Africans because of the historical relationships the Majority Party in this House and your glorious movement, the South West Africa People's Organisation, share in the common struggle for the liberation of South Africa and Namibia from the chains of colonialism and apartheid.
The former ANC president Oliver Tambo outlined the depth our relations eloquently in his address to the International Conference of Solidarity with the Struggle of the Namibian People in Paris on 13 September 1980, when he told Swapo President hon Sam Nujoma about Swapo, and I quote:
You have sacrificed lives already to defeat the enemy - the exploiter and the oppressor of the people of South Africa. You have made great inroads; you have corroded the apartheid power structure in Namibia, which within South Africa itself remains relatively unshaken. We admire your gallantry, your courage, your efficiency, your capability on the battlefield. By your actions, you have forged bonds of unity between yourselves and us, the Namibian people and the people of South Africa - bonds of brotherhood and comradeship, forged in blood, and for that reason indissoluble.
That historical revolutionary relationship remains as strong and relevant today as it was then, given the continued diplomatic relationship we enjoy with the government and the people of Namibia.
The President of South Africa, hon Jacob Zuma, emphasized this point a few years ago in reflecting on the historical relations the two countries shared when he said, and I quote:
Today our struggle takes a new dimension, the struggle to eradicate poverty and provide essential services of health, education, housing, land for cultivation and to develop rural infrastructure. We believe we are well poised to make progress in achieving delivery on these projects for our peoples as relations between our two countries remain very warm.
We are very proud of our work in this Parliament. We want to remind our members that in the 1990s we sent the Constitutional Committee, led by hon Zola Skweyiya, to come to learn from the Namibian people. So, this achievement you see here has derived a lot of wisdom from the people and leadership of Namibia. We thank you very much for the continued friendship. Thank you. [Applause.]