The family, relatives and friends of Comrade Joe Nhlanhla, Leadership of the ANC, SACP and COSATU, Comrades and friends,

Once again, we are confronted by the reality that a beloved Comrade, brother, friend and colleague has departed.

We are gathered to pay homage to an outstanding leader of the African National Congress, a loyal cadre who devoted most of his life in the active service of his people.

We pay tribute to a dedicated leader in the security field who played an effective role in the anti-imperialist movement for world peace and stability and for the social progress of mankind.

I am reminded of the words of President Oliver Reginald Tambo when laying to rest a giant of our struggle Moses Kotane. He said said:

"A valiant, courageous and stubborn fighter has fallen at his post, on the battlefield. Our battle-steeled working class, our death-defying youth, our militant women, our tested peasantry and committed intelligentsia - our entire people, and in particular our national liberation movement headed by the ANC, today pay eternal tribute to the people's leader, Moses Kotane, for his monumental contribution to the great advances made towards the seizure of power by the people in South Africa".

Similar words spring to mind today as we honour the memory Comrade Joe Nhlanhla, who made a monumental contribution to our struggle, like Kotane and many others who fell before them.

The fall of this hero after a long illness marks an end of a life spent in pursuit of the goals of our struggle for freedom. Once freedom was achieved, his became a life dedicated to ensuring that our country was one that was stable and secure.

We are celebrating the life of a Comrade who made a sterling contribution to bring about freedom, but also in the critical phase of our country when we entered government, in his role as Deputy Minister and later Minister of Intelligence.

He was known affectionately as Comrade JN, because there were so many Joe's in our leadership - Joe Slovo (JS), Joe Modise (JM), Joe Jele (JJ), Joe Gqabi, (JG). Sadly most of them have departed now.

We are gathered to celebrate a life that was well lived. Comrade JN dedicated his entire adult life in the struggle for a free, democratic, non-racial and non-sexist society. His passing on marks an end to a political career and a life that spanned over fifty years dedicated to the service of his people.

He first joined the struggle through the ANC Youth League, in the Sophiatown Branch in 1957. He had played an important role in the struggle against forced removals as well as bus boycotts of the late 1950s. He was himself a victim of those infamous Sophiatown forced removals, his family settled in Alexandra Township.

He cut his political teeth in the Youth League and in 1958 was elected to the ANC Youth League's Transvaal Executive Committee. He was among the first people to be arrested during the 1960 state of emergency and was detained on 28 March that year.

On his release a few days before the lifting of the emergency, he was restricted and confined to the magisterial area of Johannesburg.

On instructions of the ANC he left the country in early 1964. He went to Moscow where he pursued his studies in the former Soviet Union, he was there until 1969 when he completed his Master's Degree in Economics.

He was an intellectual of note who loved to debate and argue his positions within the organisation. He loved a good debate because he belonged to a movement that debated issues.

He was part of a democratic organisation, which respects the views of all regardless of their social standing in society. He loved a good debate, because our movement believes that a free country is strengthened by debate.

Today, we are remembering and honouring such a cadre, who was highly educated and held a Master's in Economics, but had never worked as an economist, a sad indictment to the apartheid society that he grew up in.

The ANC deployed comrade Joe to work with youth and students at its Tanzania Head-Quarters, a very important position, as that sector was to be the centre and future of the ANC, especially after the 1976 Uprisings. After that stint he became the ANC's Chief Representative in Egypt and the Middle East.

After this the ANC NEC appointed Comrade JN as its NEC Administrative Secretary, a critical position that put him at the centre of all ANC discussions around strategy and tactics, vision and direction. He gained enormous insight about the ANC's vision, policy shifts and elaboration of certain policies.

We are talking about a cadre who was at the centre of ANC for more than thirty years. He understood the ANC, its operations, its culture and its discipline most intimately. It is to comrades like Joe Nhlanhla that the organisation was looking to, to assist in order to achieve its organisational renewal objectives.

It is our belief that the veterans of our struggle, who have wealth of experience, can play a very critical role in teaching and politically educating our young and new members about our organisational culture and ethos.

We hope that our structures at a provincial, regional and branch level can integrate struggle veterans to share and impart their knowledge of the organisation to young people. The fact that the ANC trusted Comrade Joe with such huge responsibilities testifies to the fact that he was an able and capable comrade who took all the tasks that the movement gave him with the seriousness they deserved.

By 1987 Comrade Joe had risen within the ranks of our movement to become the Director of our NAT the ANC's Security and Intelligence Organ. I was the Deputy Director and Head of Intelligence at the time. We worked very closely and in a cooperative manner with Comrade JN to ensure the safety and security of ANC-MK members and leaders.

This was indeed an important position, as the movement was strengthening its security and intelligence capacity in order to make sure that when it sent its MK soldiers to the country its missions were successful.

After his appointment to head the security there was a marked drop in members of UMkhonto we Sizwe being captured by the apartheid forces at the time when its operations had increased drastically.

It was also our collective responsibility to ensure that ANC dealt with minimising its infiltration by the apartheid agents.

The ANC also had to be better prepared in terms of its intelligence and security capacity around this time as the possibility of a negotiated settlement was becoming more real, after the adoption of the Harare Declaration.

When the ANC was unbanned and negotiations began, Comrade Joe Nhlanhla played an instrumental role in the negotiations process.

He was part of a group that first met with the apartheid regime consisting of both internal and external leaders of the ANC. He was part of the first agreement between government and the ANC, the Groote Schuur Minute, aimed at removing obstacles to negotiations. The agreement included details about the release of political prisoners, the return of exiles and the amendment of the security legislation.

In 1991, the Pretoria Minute was signed, leading to the suspension of the armed struggle. Comrade Nhlanhla played a significant role in the entire process, including the difficult part of explaining this decision to the membership.

Within the same period we also saw the introduction of the Indemnity Act, which provided for temporary or permanent indemnity against the prosecution for the returning of exiles.

Comrade JN was part of all these developments playing his role quietly, expecting no credit or praises for his contribution.

When our country finally held its first democratic elections in 1994, Comrade Nhlanhla was elected as Member of Parliament in the first democratic Parliament in 1994 and was appointed Deputy Minister for Intelligence Services.

Because of his deep understanding of security matters Comrade Joe was made a Minister of Intelligence in 1999, after the second democratic elections, a position he held until he was no longer able to, due to ill health.

During this time he was responsible for driving the process of crafting many of our country's security and intelligence pieces of legislation, where he made his mark and his experiences of years of working within the security establishment proved useful. Part of his responsibility was to ensure that the apartheid and the liberation movement's intelligence organs were successfully integrated. A task he performed with distinction.

It was through the contribution of his extraordinary capacity of intelligence and militancy that today South Africans enjoy the benefits of a peaceful democratic country.

Comrade Nhlanhla's life speaks of his dedication to the cause of freedom of his people and his commitment to creating a South Africa that truly belonged to all who lived in it, and a society that was stable.

He will forever stay in our minds and hearts because he believed in the total liberation of our people.

He lived and was guided by the remarks once made by President Oliver Tambo, when he said:

"We don't like to see death. We are dying for the day death will end in our country. It is long in coming but we know it will come. When children can grow up, when families can live together, when South Africa can be at peace, when the region of southern Africa can also at last know peace and security - that day is coming".

Indeed that day came eventually. We are proud to have a country that is stable and peaceful, thanks to the contributions and sacrifices that were made by people like Comrade Joe Nhlanhla.

We owe it to the stalwarts like him that today our vanguard liberation movement, the African National Congress, enjoys high international prestige and overwhelming support at home, as a genuine spokesperson and leader of our people's advance to a better life for all.

Comrade Joe believed in the unity of the African National Congress. He attached great importance to the unity of the ANC as a strong political centre. He worked tirelessly for the unity of this organisation and its alliance partners.

Besides unity he was also a strict disciplinarian, and expected all those around him to behave in a disciplined fashion as well. It is at this juncture that we need solid, committed and dedicated comrades like Comrade Nhlanhla. When our movement is faced by a challenge of ill discipline, we need to be inspired by his memory to lead and guide our ANC and steer it to the correct direction.

We thank his family for enabling him to be part of our glorious struggle, because without their support he would not have given so freely and willingly of his life.

We assure, Comrade Joe Nhlanhla, that the struggle will go on. Victory against poverty, unemployment and poor living conditions shall be ours.

This sad occasion brings us together to mourn this tragic departure, celebrate Comrade Joe's glorious and heroic life, but also to close ranks and advance, united, to the completion of the unfinished task of the national democratic revolution.

We are 14 years into a democracy that he fought and struggled for, over half a century. He had left a South Africa that was a liberated zone, in its entirety.

To Nhlanhla family and relatives, the ANC expresses its sincerest condolences. No words can ever take away the pain of losing a father, husband, uncle or grandfather. Lalani ngenxeba.

We bid farewell to Comrade JN, and undertake to build and unite this movement towards the 100th birthday in 2012, in his memory and that of all the heroes and heroines of our struggle.

Pick up his spear!
Amandla!