President Cyril Ramaphosa has just announced that Dr Frene Ginwala, founding Speaker of South Africa’s democratic Parliament has passed away at the age of 90.
Dr Ginwala passed away at her at home on Thursday night following a stroke two weeks ago.
She was the Speaker of Parliament for a decade, from 1994 until 2004.
A look at Ginwala’s political life post-1994:
The Presidency statement says, “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.”
“The President extends his condolences to Dr. Ginwala’s friends, colleagues and associates in South Africa and beyond.”
President Ramaphosa further adds, “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.”
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.
