Speaker, I move that the House -
1) notes with a profound sense of loss that, on Friday, 18 September 2009, the hon Frans Ting-Ting Masango passed away after a long battle with illness;
2) recognises that hon Masango was a student leader of the 1976 generation that helped change the political landscape in our country forever and who devoted his youth and adult life in service to the struggle for liberation;
3) further notes that he started his freedom-fighting endeavours during the 1976 uprisings when he led as one of the student leaders and that after the June 16 uprising he was elected onto the student representative council;
(4) recalls that Comrade Masango was amongst a group of activists who vociferously campaigned against the hanging of a prominent youth freedom fighter, Solomon Kalusha Mahlangu, before his hanging in 1979;
(5) remembers that in 1985 as part of a specialised and disciplined MK unit he was sent back to the country by the commanders to carry out military operations;
(6) further remembers that Ting-Ting, together with his comrades, later appeared at the Delmas Four Trial, also known as the "silent trial", after which they spent 18 months on death row;
(7) recalls that he made headlines in 1991 when he, together with fellow freedom fighters, staged a 38-day hunger strike and were subsequently granted amnesty and released in June of that year;
(8) believes that he discharged his responsibilities with dedication, discipline, diligence and humility and that the life of this patriot epitomises heroism and commitment to the cause of the poor; and (9) conveys its condolences to the Masango family and the African National Congress.