STORY | Frene Ginwala - The torchbearer of SA's post-apartheid parliament

South Africa has lost one of the foremost iconic leaders of its liberation struggle.

Tha nation mourns the passing of Dr. Frene Ginwala, the founding Speaker of South Africa’s democratic Parliament and Esteemed Member of the Order of Luthuli. Ginwala passed away at her at home on Thursday night, 12 January 2023, at the age of 90, following a stroke two weeks ago.

Frene Ginwala was born on 25 April 1932 in Johannesburg in what was then the province of the Transvaal. She studied law at the University of London where she completed her LLB degree. In the 1950s she returned to South Africa to complete her legal training and carry on with the liberation struggle programmes and activities of the Congress Movement.

Between 1994 and 2004, Ginwala served South Africa as the first Speaker of the National Assembly as the country ushered in a democratic dispensation.

It was during her tenure that saw Parliament adopting new democratic Constitution, pass a raft of progressive and transformative pieces of legislation to shape the future of the young democracy

In 2005, she was honoured with the Order of Luthuli in Silver for her excellent contribution to the struggle against gender oppression and her tireless contribution to the struggle for a non-sexist, non-racial, just and democratic South Africa.

“Today we mourn the passing of a formidable patriot and leader of our nation, and an internationalist to whom justice and democracy around the globe remained an impassioned objective to her last days" said Ramaphosa.

"She presided over a Parliament that repealed many apartheid laws and contributed to the drafting of the Constitution. May she rest in peace" said DA parliamentary Chief Whip Siviwe Gwarube

She has been remembered as a torchbearer of South Africa’s post-apartheid Parliament.


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REFERENCES
• Velani Ludidi Frene Ginwala dies – South Africa’s founding speaker of democratic Parliament was a ‘formidable patriot’ and a ‘giant’ Daily Maverick 2023

• Jason Felix 'A torchbearer of our post-apartheid Parliament': Frene Ginwala hailed, mourned' News24 2023

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