Mr Speaker, the day Jannie Momberg was elected to Parliament as the member for Simon's Town, his victory was the lead front-page story of the Cape Times early edition, and he could not quite forgive me for bumping him off the front page with my own win in Groote Schuur a few hours later in the next edition.
We contested our own constituencies then on our own manifestos and recognisances and his, of course, included the fact that he had broken with his historic home, the National Party, to contribute to the creation of the Democratic Party and thereby to the creation of the conditions that made the transition possible.
Now you have to understand that the old Nats hated the Cape Times for the formidable, liberal work that it used to do then, and hence half of Jannie's pleasure at the early front page.
After his own conversion to the Democratic Party, he personally hated the countervailing organ Die Burger, which made him so angry over breakfast every morning that it got his adrenalin pumping for the day. It says something, sir, for the road that we have all travelled, that Die Burger soon became the liberal paper.
But, Jannie kept travelling, both literally, to Lusaka, and figuratively, to join the ANC halfway through his term, with four other Democratic Party Members of Parliament. He had traversed the entire political terrain from the old establishment to the incoming new and he did so from the personal conviction that it was, for him, the right thing to do. It is not that he didn't work through the ideological considerations that normally drive defection, as when Mrs Suzman and company crossed the floor to create the Progressive Party, or Dr Treurnicht the Conservative Party. He did take the ANC's nonracist, nonsexist ethos under review. He said he understood the nonracism, but he could not understand what you had against sex. [Laughter.] However, the reason that it was for him the right thing to do to join the ANC was that he felt that he had a historic debt.
In die woorde van sy vrou, mev Trienie Momberg - wat vandag saam met haar seun Steyn, as my gas in die gallery sit - wat sy politieke spanmaat, sowel as sy gade was:
Hy het net gevoel dis al manier om reg te maak die feit dat hy in die verlede die Nasionale Party ondersteun het. Alhoewel hy verguising moes verdra, het hy tot die dag van sy dood nooit getwyfel dat hy die regte ding gedoen het nie en van die groot massa mense van Suid-Afrika het hy baie ondersteuning gekry. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[In the words of his wife, Mrs Trienie Momberg, who together with her son, Steyn, is sitting in the public gallery today as my guest, who was his political partner, as well as his spouse:
He just felt that it was the only way to atone for the fact that he had supported the National Party in the past. Although he had to endure abuse, he did not for one moment, till the day he died, doubt that he had done the right thing and he received huge support from the reat majority of the people of South Africa.]
My colleague, Marius Swart MP, who is the father-in-law of one of the Momberg sons and who cannot be here today, to his great regret, describes how, at Jannie's 70th birthday function two years ago, the range of guests from farmers to sportsmen and sportwomen, politicians and friends, attested to the fact that he was indeed a bridge builder between the old order and the new, and that is what he set out to do personally. Sir, he argued hard, but always honestly and always with respect for a different point of view.
He loved his wife and his children and his grandchildren with a passion. He loved sport. He loved everything, except all the things he hated! [Laughter.] There were no half measures and, as Trienie said, he did nothing half-heartedly.
Now, Parliament was one of the things that he loved. He was thrilled to come here in 1989. When he defected three years later, Trienie says he did so without any guarantee that he would appear on the ANC's party list or that he would receive any post, posting or reward.
In any event, he became an ANC Whip and in time he was posted to Greece. As for reward, sir, there is a reward associated with ANC membership about which we have only just learned from the highest authority. It is the ultimate reward, a free pass through the Pearly Gates! [Laughter.] The ANC may not be able to do much for you down here, but it is said to be an investment in the hereafter! [Applause.]
I wonder what Jannie thinks of this election promise up there. I suspect he thinks he got there on his own recognisance and I would think that he is right. [Laughter.] [Applause.]