Salutations
- Programme Director: deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Hon. Govender.
- The Family of Adv. Phindela
- The Executive authority of Parliament, represented by the Chairperson of the NCOP.
- Deputy Chairperson of NCOP and Deputy Speaker of the NA
- House Chairpersons of the NA and NCOP
- Chairpersons of Portfolio and Select Committees
- Leaders and Chief Whips of Political Parties
- Hon. Members of the NA and NCOP
- Speakers of Provincial Legislature and members of Provincial Legislatures
- Secretary General of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Mr Stephen Twigg
- Secretary General of SADC Parliamentary Forum, Boemo Sekgoma
- Clerk of the PAP, Ms Lindiwe Khumalo
- Secretaries of Provincial Legislatures
- Clerks of Parliaments in the SADC Region
- Representatives of the Presidency
- Executive Management team and staff of Parliament
- Leadership of organised labour in Parliament
- Members of the media
When we received the news of Advocate Phindela’ passing, many of us struggled to take it in. We were still working with him, still counting on his counsel and still making plans with him for the year ahead. The suddenness of his departure made the news almost incomprehensible. In the middle of all that work, with so much still to discuss and to do together, we were reminded how fragile life is and how readily we assumed that tomorrow is promised.
His family has suffered a loss that only they can fully know. Parliament has lost a trusted colleague and one of its finest authorities on parliamentary rules and procedure. South Africa has lost an exceptional legal and constitutional mind, a consummate professional and a patriot whose love for this country was evident in the diligence with which he served it.
Long before he was admitted as an advocate of the High Court in 1996, Modibedi had already made choices that told us what the law meant to him. Under apartheid, he saw how statutes and institutions could be used to discriminate against and oppress the majority of South Africans. As a student, he saw his studies and the struggle against apartheid as part of the same endeavour. He wanted to understand how the law sustained injustice and how, in a democratic South Africa, it could help undo it.
For Modibedi, the promise of constitutional democracy had to be judged in part by whether it improved the material conditions of people’s lives. He saw what the legislative arm of the state could do, through lawmaking,
oversight and public participation, to address the inequalities entrenched by colonialism and apartheid.
Modibedi as a colleague since 2009, whilst at SALGA
My first encounter with Adv Phindela was in 2009 during sittings of the NCOP where I would come under SALGA. I remember my first experience with Provincial Weeks programme, I took particular interest on how the programme was bringing together the National, Provincial Legislatures and Local Legislatures to focus on service delivery concerns. It was out of that interest that I conceptualised a proposal that NCOP should consider establishing a Local Government Week to pay particular attention to municipal challenges and successes model that can be replicated in other municipalities. Adv. Phindela, after a few meetings together with Presiding Officers of the NCOP, championed the operationalisation of that Local Government Week Programme in the NCOP, and it is now a flagship of the House.
Ever since, we worked together in many key events and capacity building programmes of our municipalities where NCOP played a central role, until I joined Parliament, with Adv. Phindela having played a critical role in persuading me to consider agreeing to join Parliament. Whenever we had reflections on difficulties we face in the institution, I always remind him that you pursued me to consider a role that is more than the word complex; his reaction will be to give you a smile; a sign of quite authority.
Programme Director
We can regale the whole day about all our respective encounters with our dear departed colleague as we all have unique and fond memories of him
both at a personal and professional level. What we all share, however, is that he made a remarkable impact on our institution and at an individual level to many.
I have also experiences at a professional level, his steadfastness on his views and beliefs, and many as his colleagues in the management team of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Forum I chair as well as the SADC Secretaries Forum I also chair, that when he makes his point, it is not easy to persuade him otherwise.
Programme Director,
I also experienced him on key transformation agenda issues we pursued in the international platforms of Parliaments like CPA, where amongst other, he was instrumental in steadfastly lobbying for the recognition of CPA Africa status as an independent administrative body with full control of its accounts as well as the reforms of the association of Commonwealth Secretariat (SOCATT) to be renamed as a fully fledged Secretaries General of Clerks of Parliaments, a much more representative body, that struggle was pursued until up to the recent CPA Conference hosted in Cape Town
In concluding,
He was one of the hardest-working officials I have had the privilege of working closely with. I could entrust him with a demanding question and know that he would read the material carefully, test his interpretation against the rules and give me advice I could act on. I valued his ability to make a difficult issue clear without losing any of its complexity. I will miss being able to turn to him and ask, ‘Modibedi, how do you see this?’ I will miss the care he took over the answer.
In 2027, the NCOP will mark thirty years. It is also the year in which Modibedi would have turned sixty. At the time of his passing, he was already hard at work preparing for the anniversary of this Council that he had served with passion and commitment for so many years. We had expected him to be there with us, helping the country take stock of what the House had achieved and what it still had to do. When we mark that anniversary, his place in the history of the NCOP will be there to see in the procedures he helped shape, the work of the colleagues he guided and the attention the House gives to what happens after it has heard from communities.
There is an old saying that we should live as if we were to die tomorrow and learn as if we were to live forever. Modibedi brought that urgency to his work and that appetite to his learning. Even after years of giving advice that others depended on, he still approached a difficult question as something that deserved fresh attention. Many of us will carry the shock of his passing for a long time. In faith, we accept that God’s ways are beyond our understanding. As we grieve, let us remember Modibedi in the fullness of the life he lived. Remember the student who persisted after his expulsion, the young advocate helping a Court give meaning to a new Constitution, and the lecturer who prepared others to put that Constitution to work. Remember the people who found help at the Legal Aid Clinic, and the communities whose concerns he helped Parliament pursue long after the public meeting had ended. Those are among the lives and institutions in which his work continues.
To the Phindela family, on behalf of the administration of Parliament, I offer our deepest condolences. We knew Modibedi through the work we shared with him. You knew him in the intimacy of home and family, in the ordinary
moments that become so precious when someone is gone. I hope that in hearing what he meant to us, you will find some comfort in knowing how widely he was respected and how deeply he will be missed. Thank you for sharing him with us through the years of his public service.
May God comfort you in the days ahead and give you strength as you bear this loss. May the memories that are yours alone sustain you and may Advocate Modibedi Eric Phindela rest in peace.
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