»President Cyril Ramaphosa announces Dr. Frene Ginwala’s passing«
President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced the death of Dr. Frene Ginwala, the founding Speaker of the democratic Parliament of South Africa and a Honorable Member of the Order of Luthuli.
Thursday, Dr. Ginwala died away at her home at the age of 90, two weeks after suffering a stroke.
Frene Noshir Ginwala, who was born on 25 April 1932, served the anti-apartheid movement and South Africa’s democratic regime in a variety of capacities as a lawyer, academic, political leader, activist, and journalist.
“On behalf of the nation and of the legislative, executive and judicial components of the State, the President offers his sincere condolences to Dr Ginwala’s family, her nephews Cyrus, Sohrab and Zavareh, and their families,” President Ramaphosa said in a statement on Friday.
The President offered his condolences to Dr. Ginwala’s South African and international friends, colleagues, and associates.
“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.
“Among the many roles she adopted in the course of a life she led to the full, we are duty-bound to recall her establishment of our democratic Parliament which exercised the task of undoing decades-old apartheid legislation and fashioning the legislative foundations of the free and democratic South Africa.
“Many of the rights and material benefits South Africans enjoy today have their origins in the legislative programme of the inaugural democratic Parliament under Dr. Ginwala’s leadership, with Nelson Mandela occupying the seat of the first President to be elected by the democratic Parliament,” the President said.
President Ramaphosa went on to say that Frene Ginwala embodied the values and aspirations of the then-new Constitution and played a significant part in establishing Parliament’s capabilities by transforming activists and leaders into legislators who were subsequently able to alter our nation.
“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 both as one that had as much to contribute to 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,” the President said.
Dr. Ginwala was awarded the Order of Luthuli in Silver in 2005 for her outstanding commitment to the battle against gender oppression and her relentless dedication to the fight for a South Africa that is non-sexist, non-racial, fair, and democratic.
The government respects the family’s desire for a private burial, and information on an official memorial service will be provided in due time.
»President Cyril Ramaphosa announces Dr. Frene Ginwala’s passing«