House Chair, the ACDP joins other parties in paying tribute to the first female Sergeant-At-Arms at our South African Parliament, Ms Regina Mohlomi. She has
held this position since 2011 and has a total of 23 years in service for which we, from the ACDP, sincerely honour and thank her. Of course she will be best remembered for having to deal with disruptions and thank you, hon Phosa, for sharing some of the insights. I do believe that the former or current Sergeant-At-Arms should write a book to give account of all those things and I think that will be very interesting to read.
However, one needs to take a step back because, when she arrived in Parliament way back in 1996, one of her first responsibilities was to resolve ill-discipline at the Parliament then. I understand that there was a lot of drinking on the job that she had to resolve and she already, at that stage, became known as an enforcer of discipline in Parliament.
She also helped in the employee assistance office and became very capable in maintaining decorum and protecting this ground. One of the incidents was... I remember not long time ago I had a prayer group down here and the hon Mohlomi was upstairs and she said, "what are you doing down here?" I invited her to come and join us down here
which she then did graciously. We prayed for her and then she said, "your visitors are not allowed here; and she sent them out. That was the nature of she would deal with us with great friendliness; great courtesy; great firmness and professionalism. For that, we are always grateful.
As the hon Singh pointed out, whilst she might hold the rank of Sergeant-At- Arms, in our view she is indeed Regina, which in Latin means a royal queen who carries the mace. [Applause.] So, we trust that she and her family will be blessed on her retirement. I also want to thank all the Protection Service officials who are here supporting her as well. We honour you and thank you for the protection. Yes, we also say we are sorry for the times when we gave you the hard time when we come in and question you when look after our bags. It is just that you are looking after us. So, we honour and thank each one of you.
May I then, in conclusion, pray for a blessing upon you! That is the iconic blessing. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious to you. May he lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace! Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Setswana: