Let me begin by welcoming all fellow mourners who have set aside time to join us this morning as we bid farewell and pay our last respect to one of our own, Comrade Machabane Theresa Ramashamole.

To the family of Ramashamole; Members of the ANC National Executive Committee, here present; Members of the ANC Provincial Executive Committee, here present; Fellow members of the ANC Regional Executive Committee and the Leadership and members of our branches in the region; Representatives and members of the ANC Women League and the ANC Youth League. Representatives and members of the components of our revolutionary Alliance; COSATU, SACP and SANCO at all levels; Representatives and members of the South African Military Veterans Association and Mkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association here present; Representatives and members of components of the Mass Democratic Movement, including Religious leaders and media houses; Comrades and compatriots, friends and colleagues, ladies and gentlemen and the people of Emfuleni and those coming from near and faraway places.

Comrades and friends, I am welcoming you all to Emfuleni in the region of Sedibeng, which was previously known as Lekoa Vaal. To all our leaders and comrades whom I have acknowledged in my salutations, we sadly welcome you to this somber occasion. We meet here this morning to accompany our fellow combatant to her last resting place.

Indeed, Mother Theresa as we have known her for over many years. This gallant soldier was not only death-defiant, but fought and won many battles against death itself. We will always remember this Mother of the Vaal as one of the few who stirred death in the eyes as an equal and emerged victorious. This soldier of her people, was not to cow away until her country and people are free from oppression and apartheid – until government in South Africa is restored to the hands of the people.

We are gathered here at this very movement, with our banners lowered in respect of Mother Theressa who sat on death row for 6 years where she was subjected to inhumane physical and mental torture and brutal conditions before her release on 13 December 1991.

The Mother of the Vaal was a life-loving, free spirited person who loved her people and embraced everyone. Many comrades have and will still continue to speak about the brutal abuse she faced during apartheid-rule in our country.

Listening to speakers on Thursday at the Memorial Service, reminded us that this comrade will always say something as it has to be said, call a spade-a-spade, and which happened to be true most of the time. Indeed, that speaker was correct, because that was the Theresa we know. Comrade Theresa was always quick to reprimand us that being in the ANC is to serve the people.

I stand here knowing that this soldier we are about to take to her last resting place, belonged to a fine generation of freedom fighters the Vaal has ever produced. It is for that reason that I agree with the family members, speakers from different Organizations that this is indeed a great loss to all of us.
Comrades and friends, we can only take comfort from the scriptures that we must therefore accept that to everything there is a time and a season - a time to live and a time to pass on.

This may sound easy to say especially when we come to bury a great – a great patriot and an outstanding leader of the people such as this Mother of the Vaal. Comrades, as I have known her, she would have preferred that we do not morn her departure but rather celebrate her life and times in the struggle for the liberation of her people and country. It is therefore our duty to celebrate her life and times by remembering her persona, but most importantly to strive to take her legacy forward.

Comrade Theresa’s sin was to fight for justice, peace and equality. Her generation believed in equality, justice and peace and strived to put that into practice. She was indeed one of the surviving members of the Sharpeville Six.

Comrades, todays date must be recorded in our history books. The 5th December is significant in the life of this martyr because it is the very day she was sentenced to death back in 1985 and a date in which is buried. It is also a date which we buried Tata two years ago. This comrade was born on the year of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 and twenty-four years later on the 3rd September 1984 little was known that comrade Theresa would be sentenced to death in the Pretoria Supreme Court along with comrades Mojalefa Sefatsa, Reid Mokoena, Oupa Diniso, Duma Khumalo and Francis Mokhesi.

Comrades, in paying our last respect to this gallant herion of her people, one in the league of Vuyisile Mini and Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu, a people’s Councillor serving in the Emfuleni Local Municipality, we are going to miss her sharp debates in advancing the interests of her constituency and people.

Rest In Peace, People’s Councillor, Robala Ka Kgotso.

I want to call upon a representative of the Provincial Legislature to deliver a ley note address.

I thank you.