Deputy Speaker,
Honourable Members,
Members of the Ambrosini family.
It is a sad day, as today this House bids farewell to someone who was no ordinary politician. Dr Mario Oriani-Ambrosini was larger than life in his energy and his expertise and his influence on South African politics.
Dr Oriani-Ambrosini could be very controversial. Arriving in South Africa in 1991 he immediately engaged in the constitutional debates of the day from the side of the Inkatha Freedom Party, drafting a constitution for KwaZulu- Natal in 1992. He was also involved in the passing of the Ingonyama Trust Act by the KwaZulu Legislature shortly before the 1994 elections. Politically his views were libertarian, advocating for as little state involvement in the lives of citizens as possible.
When I jokingly offered my condolences to him on Barack Obama’s second election victory he told me he had lost interest in the American election campaign after his preferred candidate, Ron Paul, lost the Republican primaries. Ron Paul is, incidentally, credited with having a very conservative voting record in the American Congress.
We, in the African National Congress, often crossed swords with Dr Ambrosini, especially during the negotiations in the 1990s and possibly even more so when the IFP threatened to pull out of the Constitutional Assembly, as well as in the negotiations for a provincial constitution for KZN. More recently, in Parliament, we often didn’t see eye-to-eye on various pieces of legislation either.
But despite our political differences, we in the African National Congress, held him in high regard for his constitutional expertise and remarkable experience on governance matters. The Minister of Human Settlement spoke to me shortly before this debate and told me of her high regard for Dr Ambrosini who she worked closely with when she was Deputy Minister of Home Affairs and he was advisor to the Honourable Buthelezi who was then the Minister. He was highly respected as a fierce and outspoken debater, a seasoned negotiator, and a passionate politician.
Whether or not one always agreed with him is not the point; the point is he always made a valuable contribution and he livened up debates. The honourable Joan Fubbs, the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, probably said it best when she said Dr Ambrosini’s “fresh insight has contributed to more robust legislation”.
As someone wrote in the media: he was one of the most hardworking people in the opposition benches and he kept the governing party on its toes.
I first met Mario in the mid-1990s when I was in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature which, at that point, was led by the Inkatha Freedom Party which wanted to have a provincial constitution for KwaZulu-Natal. This process assumed greater importance for the IFP when it pulled out of the Constitutional Assembly at a national level. Things were pretty intense then and involved many nights of discussion at the Holiday Inn after committee meetings when the KZN Legislature was sitting in Ulundi.
I spent more time with him when he became a member of the Justice and Constitutional Development Portfolio Committee in 2009 and in particular working on the Protection of Personal Information Bill on a sub-committee together with Dene Smuts of the DA.
We did not always disagree.
Last year, as the Justice Committee was debating the provisions of the Legal Practice Bill, we were discussing the issue of the high cost of legal fees. The honourable Ambrosini made the point that the cost of legal representation in South Africa is higher than in the US capital of Washington DC.
Never one to mince his words, he said it straight, he said believing that lawyers would voluntarily make changes in the interests of the consumers of legal services was "like putting the fox in charge of the chickens".
That is how we shall remember him, straight-talking, sometimes controversial, never timid, always charismatic, always passionate about what he believed in. Indeed, Mario Ambrosini was no ordinary politician.
The Honourable Ambrosini never did anything in half-measure or in small steps. Members of the House are no doubt familiar with the details of the Constitutional Court case of Oriani-Ambrosini v Sisulu which declared certain rules of the National Assembly unconstitutional. In a discussion of the case, Prof Pierre de Vos aptly called it “one small step for Parliament, one giant leap for Ambrosini.”
Even though he lost in the Cape High Court, he still took the matter on appeal to the Constitutional Court where he eventually won.
He was a tenacious fighter, fighting a courageous battle against cancer. In May last year he said that “I count on achieving a cure in three months and will then return to my parliamentary work. If my gamble is successful, I plan to dedicate a great portion of my future political and professional life on the fight to eradicate cancer as a cause of death. If I fail, I hope that what I tried to do for democracy in South Africa and elsewhere will be appreciated.”
He has raised public awareness of cancer treatment and his selfless campaign for innovative medical intervention will, no doubt, leave an indelible mark in the ongoing struggle against the disease. His work will be continued through the Cancer Treatment Campaign, which he started earlier this year.
Chairperson, for him, death was inevitable. At the end of April this year he sent me an SMS which read: “My body is falling apart but I am at peace and serene.” In the Justice Budget Vote in July he said: “I do not have much strength left, I know that there are other people with more strength than I do.” He faced death bravely and decided to end his suffering at a time when he felt ready. He, not death, was to be the final decision-maker concerning his own fate.
I think in this context we, as a nation, also need to debate whether to legislate on the use of euthanasia in the context of terminal illnesses.
We shall miss him, in the various Committees and in this House. The ANC wishes to express its sincere condolences to the family and friends of Mario Ambrosini and to Honourable Buthelezi and his colleagues in the IFP.
To his wife, Carin, and 7-year old son, Luke, his mother and other family members, you are in our thoughts and may you find strength and solace in your time of mourning.
I read a poem by Henry Scott Holland, and I thought of Mario while I was reading it, as it sounds like something that he would have said, if he were here. I’d like to share a few lines of the poem with the House:
“Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed
at the jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere, very near,
Just around the corner.”
If he were here now, he would, no doubt, tease me about my Italian, but let me conclude and say to a dear colleague and friend - “Riposa in pace.”
Or, as we say,”Hamba kahle.” May his soul rest in peace. His spirit and his memory will live on.
