Mr Speaker, hon members, hon Ministers, on behalf of the IFP and its president, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, I rise to add my voice to the many who offered condolences to the family, colleagues and friends of the late Dr Tshabalala-Msimang. Our thoughts have been with her husband and her two daughters during this trying time of mourning. We pray that their dark night will quickly give way to a dawn of happiness.
We in this House feel the absence of Dr Tshabalala-Msimang. Today we pay tribute to a woman who dedicated her life to the cause of political liberation. Once it was achieved, she served our nation as a Member of Parliament and Minister. Dr Tshabalala-Msimang was an intelligent woman and a patriot. While in exile, during the banning of the ANC, she acquired an education in medicine which she brought back to South Africa in 1990.
After South Africa's liberation, Dr Tshabalala-Msimang spent many years in the spotlight of public service. Her words and actions were closely watched and reported on across the world. At a time in which South Africa was losing the battle against HIV and Aids and tuberculosis, Dr Tshabalala- Msimang was given the unenviable task of leading the Ministry of Health.
For several years, Dr Tshabala-Msimang herself struggled with some kind of illness and her life was eventually cut short because of it. It is sad that she lived only two years after undergoing a life-saving operation, giving us another reminder of the fragility and gift of life.
Dr Tshabalala-Msimang focused South Africa's attention on preventative medicine. Yet her passing draws our thoughts to yet another aspect of the health portfolio, that of palliative care. There are so many of our people living with pain, discomfort, or the prospect of death. How do we, as parliamentarians and leaders, extend hope or comfort to them? She bequeathed to us the responsibility to enhance the standard of life of all our people. After all, living with sickness is exponentially more difficult when one is also struggling with poverty, ignorance or despair.
Dr Tshabalala-Msimang shouldered an onerous burden in service to our nation. She accepted the position to fill the role that would inevitably be scrutinised by the world. There are not so many with the leadership ability to face such a responsibility. This House has indeed lost a woman of great courage. I quote from the funeral oration of Pericles:
The living have envy to contend with, while those who are no longer in our path are honoured with a goodwill into which rivalry does not enter. May her soul rest in peace. [Applause.]