Tribute to Jannie Momberg by Marius Llewellyn Fransman, Deputy Minister of International Relations & Cooperation, delivered in the National Assembly, Cape Town, Tuesday 22 February 2011

Honourable Speaker
Members of the House
Ladies and Gentlemen;

I would like to start my tribute to the Late Comrade Jan Hendrik better known as Jannie Momberg with an extract from C Louis Leipoldt’s poem “Oom Gert Vertel”:

Ja, neef, wat kan ek, oumens, jou vertel?
Jy wil die storie van ons sterfte hoor?
Nou goed!

Dis nooit te laat om daarvan nog
Te leer en van gebruik te maak - veral
Vir julle, jongling-mense. Hou maar vas
Aan wat ons het, en staan orent, en neem
Jul aandeel aan ons nasie!

Oom Jannie was large in life and even larger in death. For this reason I thought the poet’s words were true and apt-“Do you want to know the story of our death? Then good, it’s never too late to learn or make use of – especially for you young people. Hold on to what we have-stand upright, and play your part in our nation!”

My sincere condolences and sympathy to the bereaved Momberg family, especially Tannie Trienie for the loss of her companion of 46 years; and to Niel, Steyn, Jannie, and Altus, and his five grandchildren. The loss of one so close and dear is never easy – but you can be proud of the gigantic and pioneering steps he took, setting an example for young and not-so-young Afrikaners and a myriad others that they too have a place in the African National Congress and even more so in a democratic South Africa.

I would venture so far as to say that his life was indeed an example for all South Africans and a manifestation of Leipoldt’s words-“stand upright and play your part in our nation!”

To comprehend how large Oom Jannie was in life one only has to look at the tomes of tributes and condolences that have poured in extolling his many virtues and some “vices”.

Oom Jannie was a pillar of strength and elder statesmen that could impart his wisdom and experience to many a novice ANC parliamentarian during that first and historic session of Parliament of the Republic of South Africa.

Jannie Momberg was a member of the National Party since 1957, and rose through the ranks to become one of its distinguished parliamentarians. He was a founding member of the Democratic Party in 1989.

Oom Jannie joined the ANC in the earlier 1990s following the unbanning. He was elected onto the executive committee of the ANC Western Cape in 1992. He served as the ANC House Whip and the chairperson of the programming committee from 1994 to 2001. He also served in the Parliamentary Portfolio Committees on home affairs, sports and recreation and ethics and members' interests.

In 2001, he was appointed as the South African Ambassador to Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia-Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Cyprus. Between 2005 and 2006, he occupied the position of the Dean of African Group of Ambassadors. Due to his tireless effort and excellence in the promotion of diplomatic relations between South African and Greece, Momberg was awarded the Medal of the City of Athens by the Mayor of that city.

I want to focus though today on Leipoldt’s words “neem deel aan ons nasie!” – take part in (building) our nation – as a parody of Oom Jannie’s life and of his role as one of those “progressive Afrikaners who shunned racism and embraced the movement for the construction of a non-racial, united and prosperous South Africa.”

I especially want to reflect on what Gerald Majola CEO of Cricket South Africa said: “A South African giant has fallen, Jannie Momberg is irreplaceable... He broke racial barriers and stereotypes and helped replace them with reconciliation and development across the national spectrum.”

It is perhaps then worthy of a life so largely lived that in his death we pause and reflect. Oom Jannie’s death comes at a time of increasing polarisation in our society both in terms of race and class.

His death comes at a time when the minority white vote is virtually hegemonised by the opposition. Now is not the time to go back into the laager. Such was Oom Jannie’s visionary leadership that before the dawn of democracy he already recognised that the only path to nation building was not to further marginalise the marginalised but that the interest of white Afrikanerdom was best served in the mainstream of South African political life.

In his State of the Nation Address President Jacob Zuma reminded us that the vision of the National Democratic Revolution is to build a united, non racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.

In this context we are reminded of Nelson Mandela’s valedictory address to Parliament in 2004 when he said and I quote: “The memory of a history of division and hate, injustice and suffering, inhumanity of person against person should inspire us to celebrate our own demonstration of the capacity of human beings to progress, to go forward, to improve, to do better.”

This requires that we revisit the ideological roots of non racialism. Cde Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe stated in his Inaugural address of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation that: “a case can be plausibly made that the seeds of a non-racial society were planted, although unintentionally, by colonial conditions among the oppressed even prior to the formal formation of the ANC in 1912.”

Another early development in the history of non-racialism is the efforts at inter-racial solidarity as represented by co-operation between the ANC and the African People's Organisation (APO), formed in 1902 under the leadership of Dr Abdullah Abdurrahman, which mobilised mainly among Coloured communities.

The increasingly harsh living conditions suffered by the oppressed contributed towards non-racialism gaining steady ground and taking root in society. It was at the International Congress Against Imperialism in 1927 that inter-racial unity in the face of oppression was forged by a group of South Africans including Josiah Gumede, former President of the ANC, James la Guma, a Coloured leader in the Communist Party, and Dan Colraine, a white trade unionist. It was here that they drafted the historic 'Thesis for the Defence against Imperialism in South Africa'.  This thesis insisted that unity of all workers and oppressed people in South Africa, irrespective of race, colour or creed, was vital for the struggle against British imperialism.

From its genesis non-racialism drew in other forces and structures beyond the ANC throughout its formation and development. This has included the All African Convention, the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), the South African Indian Congress, the Coloured People's Organisation, the Congress of Democrats and the South African Congress of Trade Unions, culminating in the Congress of the People in Kliptown in 1955 and the formulation of the Freedom Charter as the lodestar of non-racialism.

In particular, the Freedom Charter explicitly states that ‘South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the People’. This became the basis of The Constitution of this country and affirms this in its preamble, which proffers that ‘South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity’.

This does not mean that we are free of contradiction, in fact the opposite is true and sixteen years into the democratic era the remnants of social oppression, economic exclusion and political marginalisation, the very factors that led to the formation of the liberation movement in 1912, are to some extent still with us and feed a rising resentment from the working class masses.

It is critical that we understand at this juncture of our history the immense challenge that we face along the fault-line of the monopolisation of capital. The historic restriction of blacks to 13% of the land despite major advances in land reform in the democratic era remains a key challenge. In addition, the control and indeed dominance of white capital on the JSE and other dimensions of economic activity reflect the serious challenge we face in deracialising the South African economy. Nearly two decades of economic empowerment in its myriad forms despite its many achievements has failed to dislodge the essentially racial character of the South African economy.

Today a black matriculant has seven times less of a chance to get a job than his white counterpart. Here in the Western Cape we have the added challenge that state resource is leveraged to perpetuate white ownership in state rented accommodation, the award of large infrastructure tenders to white crony companies, the re-employment of old white apartheid securocrats and the prioritisation of mainly white areas for service delivery.

Add to this the growing cultural alienation of the Cape Minstrels by the Western Cape government and preventing them from walking their historic and traditional routes through the city. To add insult to injury the DA government spends money on bringing the Brazilians to teach the Cape Minstrels despite their nearly 150 year tradition, the art of carnival organisation. This level of insensitivity can only be born of arrogance and illusions of grandeur and supremacy.

Oom Jannie could read the sign of the times and his visionary foresight earned him the wrath of many of his peers in the Afrikaner community when he joined the ANC. He will be remembered for his quintessential character as a rebel reflected in his call for the scrapping of the Group Areas Act in 1986 when PW wanted to expand it as well as his criticism of FW De Klerk for not doing enough to reconcile whites to the new South Africa.

Once he had crossed the rubicon to his non-racialism home in the ANC though, there was no turning back and the course that he had chosen would lead to the building of bridges between communities estranged and isolated by Apartheid. There may be some who still harbour malice and resentment towards him and many others yet who may today sit and listen to the huge strides one man has made; how he has made his nation proud.

For those who listen to the story of Oom Jannie perhaps these words of Leipoldt may find resonance and meaning:

“Maar jy kom
By die verkeerde man; daar's baie ander
Wat jou die storie goed agtermekaar,
En met 'n les daarby, en meer begrip
Van al die politiek ook, kan vertel
As ek: ek weet maar uit my eie siel
En kan maar grawe uit my eie hart,
En dit is baie oud en amper dood -
My hart, meen ek; en waarlik, as jy self
Soveel reeds deurgemaak, soveel gely,
Soveel geworstel, en soveel gesien het
Van wat jy liewers nooit gesien het nie,
Dan was jou hart ook nie meer sonder kraak.

Maar kom - wat kan ek nou vir jou vertel?
'n Lang geskied'nis is dit! - treurig ook,
Want daar gaan snikke en trane deur, ou neef!
Wil jy dit aanhoor? Goed!

In the days, months and years that lie ahead there will be many who will likewise want to listen; to grapple, wrestle and ruminate and for whom the wisdom, bravery and boldness of Oom Jannie will inspire to break out of the laager and embrace a new space in their being South African; a space rooted in a sense of belonging to a greater goal a greater way of being connected to the diversity of non-racialism; a connectedness with fellow South Africans in a way that cares and is concerned that the joys and fruits of our nascent democracy is theirs too to enjoy and share.

Hamba Kahle Cde Jannie Momberg
May your soul rest in peace

“Roem van mense,  rykdomme, pragte—
   Alles vergaan soos die mis op die vlei;
Sterre wat skiet in dikdonker nagte,
   Het langer lewe dan roem kan kry.
Boetie, as ons nou ’n keus moet wae
   Hier op die wêreld, wat vra jy?
Roemryke lewe en lengte van dae?
   Somer en son en safier vir my!
Boetie, as jy nou jou keus kan kry,
Wat is die wens wat jou hart sal wae?
Somer en son en safier vir my!

I thank you!