Chairperson, I am sure this House would agree that there is no language under the sun that would describe the revolutionary selflessness, fearlessness, courageousness and peace and freedom- loving persona in the late Dr Kaunda.

This is a man who, at a great cost to his people and the country, believed that his own freedom and that of his people

are inseparably linked to the freedom of the people of South Africa, the Southern African Development Community, SADC, region and the entire African continent. An internationalist of unparalleled stature who dedicated his entire life for a world peace and justice.

As a visionary, a great African revolutionary strategist, an elder statesman, Comrade Kaunda played a critical role in brokering a ceasefire between South African liberation movement led by the ANC and the apartheid white minority regime. We owe the peaceful existence we are enjoying today to his courage of conviction and outstanding leadership qualities. He did this not out of cowardice or revolutionary fatigue, but because of his deep conviction that a negotiated settlement of the South African and Namibian political conflict are the basis for a lasting peace and prosperity of all the people of South Africa, the SADC region, and the entire African continent.

Kenneth Kaunda together with his compatriots in arms, the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Augostinho Neto, Samora Machel and Robert Mugabe were father figures of the frontline states that pushed apartheid colonialism in the Southern tip of Africa to its absolute demise. He believed like his counterparts in

South Africa, the late Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela that South Africa can only chart a new trajectory of defining its collective prosperity and future destiny, united in diversity, through peaceful negotiations.

This was demonstrated by the ANC resolution at its special national consultative conference in Kabwe, Zambia in 1985. This conference mandated Oliver Tambo and his leadership collective to focus on two strategic priorities, namely; the intensification of the struggle in all fronts and the preparation of the ANC for any eventual prospects of negotiated settlement in South Africa.

His facilitation of the peaceful settlement of South Africa's political conflict between the ANC and the apartheid white minority regime culminated into the ANC adoption of the 1988 constitutional guidelines, which were later adopted by the Organisation of African Unity as the Harare Declaration of 1989. The Harare Declaration outlined the conditions under which the ANC as a leading mass party of revolution would enter into negotiated settlement with the South African regime. This Declaration, as adopted by the Organisation of African Unity, was accomplished in the aftermath of the bruising and heroic military battle between the erstwhile

apartheid South African Defence Force and the combined forces of Cubans and Angolans at Quito Cuanavale.

There is no doubt that the Battle of Quito Cuanavale will go down the memory lanes of history as amongst the decisive factors that led to the liberation of Namibia. For this, many generations of South Africa and the entire SADC region will forever be indebted to the Cubans for their internationalists solidarity by challenging the myth of the apartheid military invincibility.

Hon Chairperson, we, in the ANC stand here today to proclaim without any fear of contradiction that the life and times of Kenneth Kaunda and his generation of African leaders and compatriots will go down in the annals of history as the story of African and international solidarity, the story of African renewal and development, and indeed a shining example of democracy and peace.