Hon Speaker, I move without notice: That the House -
1) notes that on 15 February 2013, struggle veteran and author Phyllis Naidoo died of heart failure at Chief Albert Luthuli Hospital at the age of 85;
2) further notes that Phyllis Naidoo and her husband helped fellow activists to leave the country and were banned by the apartheid government in 1966;
3) recalls that, after getting advice from Chief Albert Luthuli in 1957 that the South African constitution did not allow her to form an African National Congress (ANC) branch in the then non-European section of Natal University, she then promptly formed a human rights committee to feed ANC activists who were banished to remote rural areas of Natal;
4) further recalls that in 1977, Ms Naidoo escaped to Lesotho where she was involved in welfare work and assisted the ANC and SACP, after which she moved to Zimbabwe in 1983 and only returned to South Africa in 1990;
5) acknowledges that while she was placed under house arrest, she studied and qualified as an attorney, and that her partnership with ANC activist Archie Gumede helped to employ many activists who had been released from Robben Island; 6) further acknowledges that Naidoo wrote 7 books, including the Footsteps series and Le rona re batho: an account of the 1982 Maseru Massacre; and
7) extends its condolences to her family, friends and comrades.
Agreed to.