Hon Speaker, hon members of Parliament, the Bible, in Genesis 1:23, says that during the creation of a man God saw that a woman should also be created. I think by then, as the Bible says that when a woman was created, God made Adam to have a very deep sleep so that at the end of the day a woman should appear as we are today.
Allow me to speak on the late Comrade Ms Zipporah Nawa, whom I have categorised under the following: She was a cadre who met the challenges of the 21st Century; she was a professional and she was a parent. Comrade Ms Nawa was born on 1 March 1945 in the rural village of Lebotlewane in Moretele 1. In adulthood she retained the fondness for the countryside that had also contributed to her education.
She had experienced the dust blowing in her face, hear the whistling of the wind when it travels through the air, slapping her in the face and on the legs, where the skin would dry up and these tiny missiles would sting. On cold days, I assume, she would sometimes kick a stone and stub a toe. I suppose many of us would understand why she joined the ANC.
I suppose those who have knowledge of the countryside understand all this. Comrade Ms Zipporah Nawa served the public in the second decade of freedom so as to meet the needs of the poor. President Thabo Mbeki once said:
As government we believe we have a clear understanding of what the national agenda is and are determined to do everything possible to pursue it, working together with the people and all their representative formation in the people's contract to advance the vision of the Freedom Charter.
Indeed, the late Ms Nawa was a cadre who was politically committed to taking the masses to higher levels of human development. She was a cadre who understood matters that measured human development and continually analysed the indicators to improve the delivery of social, political and economic services to the masses. She was a cadre who learnt to make decisions which were not detrimental to society, a cadre who had mastered all modern skills of accessing knowledge - some of these include the traditional method of acquiring knowledge through experience - and a cadre who possessed the flexible thinking process that is required of us to compete in the extremely volatile 21st Century global economy. However, a flexible mind must not be confused with flexible principles. She was also a cadre who had human relations.
We have been four comrades in this regard who have been deployed in the Moretele constituency office. It was I, Comrade Chris Molefe, the late Comrade Ms Nawa and Comrade Moseki.
We used to work very well in that constituency office. Comrade Nawa was also a cadre with a source of stimuli for the creation of responsible citizens. She was a cadre who at all times projected what was best for the ANC, and by so doing, stimulated the masses to be organised, patriotic, disciplined, modest and honest, and have a strong sense of social conscience.
Earlier on I said that when God created a man and a woman, that creation on its own, for instance, in the case of the late hon Nawa, made her to be a very strong woman, because when you read the book of Genesis, it will tell you about God telling the woman how she would labour; very bad. And again, that on its own I took as making us women very strong, because the late Comrade Nawa was also a mother.
As a professional, she started teaching in 1993 until 2006 at Lefofa Primary School, from where she resigned as the principal to become a Member of Parliament in 2006. As a mother, she is survived by her two sons and a daughter. May her soul rest in peace.