Speaker, it is a great honour for me to stand here today to pay tribute to the hon Henry Fazzie. He had all the characteristics of a true struggle veteran, having sacrificed over 21 years of his life on Robben Island and having gone through the rank and file of the United Democratic Front, UDF, where he was deputy secretary, and the ANC, which he joined in 1949.
He came to Parliament in 1994, and I first got to know him in 1999, when he served on the Portfolio Committee on Transport. With both of us coming from the Eastern Cape, we immediately struck up a friendship, which often got us talking about his smallholding, the weather, his garden and his livestock.
We had something else in common: At that stage we both drove the same car. He often shocked me when he told me how fast he had driven from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town for a meeting that day. I think he wanted to beat the scheduled flight. I have a horrible feeling that he didn't like flying that much, but he certainly flew in his Cressida. I used to tease him about this, saying that as a stalwart of our Portfolio Committee on Transport, he shouldn't travel that fast and should set an example for the rest of the motorists in our country. I emphasised that he was now getting too old to travel at those speeds, which he just laughed at.
Hon Fazzie and my association with him in the transport portfolio also spilled over into the Parmed Medical Aid Scheme, where he served as a continuity member of the board of trustees. This was when he missed coming back to Parliament for a short period after the 2009 elections.
His jovial nature and gentlemanly features with his-never-to-be-forgotten hat will always remain as permanent memory for me and, I am sure, all of his friends and colleagues who respected him as I did. His presence in these corridors will be sadly missed. May I therefore on behalf of the DA express our sincere condolences and sympathies to his wife, Buyiswa, his seven children and 21 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, not forgetting, of course, his friends and colleagues in the ANC, which I know he served with honour and distinction. Hamba kahle [Goodbye], Tata Fazzie. May your soul rest in peace.