Hon Speaker, we went to Vienna one day in 1982. Vienna was a transit camp outside Luanda, where we slept over for a day or maybe more before we were trucked off to our training camps in Angola. I distinctly remember that it was on a Thursday, because all cadres converged at the swimming pool for what we used to call the jazz hour, to listen to the sounds of "Ayeza amalori, siyohamba noTambo" [The trucks are coming, we are going to go with Tambo], to "Siyobashiya thina abazali bethu" [We are leaving our parents behind.] - revolutionary songs that spoke to the selfless heroism of the youth of the 70s and 80s.
Bells, as he was known, was not at the jazz hour, as I would later learn and understand, where we were listening to morale-boosting songs, to solemn pieces, depicting our resolve, resilience and love for fellow South Africans. In the morning, during parade, there was this comrade, distinct with his lazy eye, reading news and leading discussions on the news of the world events and what was happening back home.
Bells, Ting-Ting Masango's combat name, was not at the jazz hour because he was compiling a news bulletin for the camp for the following morning. He spent a lot of his time radio-hopping the whole day between Voice of America, Radio Deutsche Welle, Radio South Africa, BBC World News, Radio Freedom and many other radio stations, to ensure that he delivered an informative bulletin every morning that would lead quality input on the form of analysis, debate and discussions.
I only discovered how strenuous his job was when I assumed the same position in 1985, when I was doing the news and youth feature programme for Radio Freedom, broadcasting from Radio Nacional de Angola. Short-lived as my stint was, it was hectic.
Bells carried out his task with revolutionary zeal. He was a commissar of note. With no newspapers, television or radios, Bells brought the world to us every morning, having worked silently in his tent every day. He never complained.
He was the same Bells, Monday through to Sunday. He never delivered an inferior product. He would point you out in your section to share with the camp what you had used from a particular item of news he had just read to us. You had to be attentive and apply quick analysis as he would point you out randomly.
There are comrades you just never forget, and the late hon member Ting-Ting Masango was one of them. He was forever humble, exemplary and intelligent. He was a product of the bushes of Angola, the training facilities of the generous internationalists of the former Eastern Bloc countries and the dusty streets of Mamelodi.
I stand here in this House to pay tribute to a revolutionary. I remind you never to forget when he was admitted hospital, a fellow fighter who was ready to give up his life, so that you, I and generations to come could be free; a fighter who was a constant inspiration to the other trialists among the Delmas Four; and a child of Africa who refused to be reduced to being a criminal, but fought to be recognised as a prisoner of war.
In the statement of January 8, 1982, President O R Tambo gave a directive to the commanders and commissars of the people's army, Umkhonto weSizwe, to attack, advance and give the enemy no quarter. Bells did just that. He advanced from all flanks, attacked in a frontal fashion and refused to be cowed by the military and judicial might of the apartheid regime. He literally gave the enemy no quarter.
He walked in the footsteps of Mary Mini, Comrade Caroline, Solomon Mahlangu, Jerry Mosolodi, Bobby Tsotsobe, the G5, Butterfly Unit, Special Ops and many other heroic individuals and units of Umkhonto weSizwe. He delivered telling blows on the enemy until his arrest in 1986. When faced with the situation where he could have succumbed to the gruesome torture that was visited on him, he refused to expose a fellow unit member when he was brought to retrieve a pistol at a hideout in Mamelodi.
I followed part of what was going on while doing training in Moscow. They would later be dubbed the Delmas Four. Their conduct was inspiring. What he wanted at that point was news of a daring operation to spring them from the jaws of a beastly system.
If you have not grasped how special this patriot was, allow me to illustrate more to you by reading an excerpt from Peter Harris's In a Different Time. That was a story he told of the Delmas Four trialists. These are Ting-Ting's words: I know there is still a lot of work to be done, but we want you to be aware of our thinking. We want to ask a question: What is the consequence of us not giving evidence? We ask this because we have a problem in that we are not prepared to take the stand and deny that we have done the things we have done. I say this because the acts described in the charge sheet were committed by us as soldiers of Umkhonto weSizwe, and we will not distance ourselves from what we have done.
Ting-Ting continued:
We have had long and hard discussions about all the options you have presented to us. We have taken each one, worked it through and in each case, we have rejected the possibility of using this type of defence. We cannot plead guilty. Firstly, because we will not allow them to place us on trial according to their rules for fighting to liberate this country, they have no right to do that; and secondly, we did the acts alleged, mostly on the instructions of the ANC and we will not back away from that.
He continued:
At the same time, we could not plead guilty, although we are in fact guilty. Our acts cannot be seen in purely criminal terms, just as those who killed the enemy in the fight against fascism in the Second World War. The acts we committed were carried out against an enemy that made us victims in our own country and has taken any rights that we had away from us - our rights to land, to move freely, to work in a free manner, to be educated, and a range of others.
This government is murdering our youth and has our leadership in prison. The people we killed were at the forefront of the apartheid regime's attack on black people, and they deserved what happened to them. While we have killed, and each of us has to deal with that inside ourselves, we are not murderers, and are not normal criminals. Do you follow me? This is a war in which they hold most of the cards and we cannot simply play their game when we have no part in forming the rules.
Ting-Ting said:
Look, let's be honest here, we know that probably we cannot avoid the death sentence; we have to face the fact. We need to conduct our trial and go our way in a manner which does not compromise our beliefs and the reputation of the ANC. This is why we like the last option that you presented to us. It may be radical and not the norm in ANC trials, but it is the one we would like to follow. By doing so, we get the same conclusion as the other defence options, but in a way of our choosing and which also highlights what we are doing and the nature of the conflict we are involved in.
This was a tribute to a brilliant patriot and freedom fighter; a soldier of our former people's army, uMkhonto weSizwe, a true revolutionary and a son of the soil. Comrade Bells, hon Frans Ting-Ting Masango, may your revolutionary songs rest in infinite peace. Lala ngoxolo sotsha lomkhonto. [Rest in peace, MK soldier].
Debate concluded.
Motion agreed to, members standing.