Tributes and condolences continued to pour in over the weekend after the passing of the first Speaker of Parliament, Dr Frene Ginwala, on Thursday.
JOHANNESBURG – Tributes and condolences continued to pour in over the weekend after the passing of the first democratic Speaker of Parliament, Dr Frene Ginwala, on Thursday.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said Ginwala should be lauded for being part of creating the foundation for many of the rights and material benefits that South Africans enjoy today that have their origins in the legislative programme of the inaugural democratic Parliament under her leadership.
“Dr Ginwala was similarly influential and instrumental in shaping the advancement of democracy and the entrenchment of democratic political processes and fundamental socio-economic rights in the Southern African Development Community and the continent at large.
“Beyond African shores, she positioned our young democracy as one that had as much to contribute as it had to learn from global precedents and experience.
“We have lost another giant among a special generation of leaders to whom we owe our freedom and to whom we owe our commitment to keep building the South Africa to which they devoted their all,” he said.
While the ANC, the party she was a member of, claimed Ginwala was in the ANC underground in the 1950s, working with Indian congresses, and as a student, she was among those who assisted the late ANC president Oliver Tambo in his escape into exile.
“She followed into exile shortly thereafter and served in many capacities, including as managing editor of Tanzania’s main English-language daily and Sunday papers, The Standard and Sunday News, in 1969,” said the ANC.
The party said that she would be remembered as a revolutionary activist who, throughout her life, fought for freedom, justice and equality.
GOOD party leader Patricia De Lille said that through her work as a lawyer, political leader, activist and journalist she would forever be an inspiration.
“Under her leadership, our democratic Parliament was formed on a strong foundation, rooted in our commitment to the Constitution and the life-long fight to build a just and equal society.
“As current leaders and Parliamentarians, we owe it to her to continue building on this foundation, as our work is far from done.
“Aware of the massive challenges still facing South Africa today, Dr Ginwala had dedicated her time to South Africa and its people until her last days,” she said.
The SACP said that from a young school-going age, Ginwala had the political consciousness to confront apartheid stooges, questioning her exclusion from schools that had been placed in positions of privilege by the apartheid system’s politics of race, class and gender exclusion.
“As apartheid laws tightened, she threw herself fully into the fight for justice and freedom,” said the SACP.
Director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation Neeshan Balton said that while Ginwala would be remembered as one who clearly understood the idea that checks and balances between the executive and the legislature were essential for a young democracy, “as Speaker, she asserted the right of Parliament to hold Cabinet to account for its actions”.
