Frene Ginwala

A choir performs a musical tribute at the Johannesburg City Hall during the memorial service for struggle stalwart Dr Frene Ginwala, who passed away at the age ...

Press Release - Address by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Official Memorial Service of Dr Frene Ginwala Johannesburg City Hall.

Over the course of a decade in that position she forged a new institution that reflected the great diversity, the struggles, the aspirations, the culture and the practices of the South African people. She stood for human rights for all and the rule of law. Yet it was in her role as the first Speaker of a democratically elected National Assembly that she had the greatest and most enduring impact on our young democracy. As part of the ANC's negotiating team, she brought all her legal training, her sharp mind and her political conviction to the task of forging a new constitutional order in South Africa. As a society, as a state and as a movement, we have yet to give full effect to the principles of non-sexism and gender equality. She can be counted among the women who joined the ranks of Umkhonto we Sizwe in the aftermath of the 1976 uprising and those who marched on Parliament in 2019 to call for an end to the murder of women by men. She can be counted among the ranks of those women who burnt their passes in Bloemfontein in 1913 and among the women who marched on the Union Buildings in 1956. In this, she can be counted as part of a proud lineage of courageous women that have fought for the freedom of all in this country, men and women, black and white. In a political environment in which the dominance of men didn't even invite comment, Frene Ginwala was one of the few voices that was consistent and insistent that women should occupy their rightful place in the struggle. With her keen intellect, her measured delivery and her clear articulation of the principles and the purpose of our struggle, she felled many a critic and earned many a friend. At a time when scant attention was given to the many ways in which women were oppressed and exploited, Frene fought for the struggles of women to be recognised. Throughout her life she was a pioneer, a pathfinder, a leader in the true sense of the word.

Born on April 25, 1932, Frene Noshir Ginwala served the anti-apartheid Struggle and South Africa's democratic dispensation in a diversity of roles as a ...

Many of the men who were in the leadership at that particular time, majority of those men were banned and were forced underground. She conducted her business with integrity and earned the respect of all political parties. At the conference, the women took the floor and decided that the leadership of ANC cannot just be non-racial but had to have women in it. And women today in the country should know that history and appreciate that there are women who fought for where we are today. She completed her Bachelor of Laws degree in London and was admitted as a barrister. Ramaphosa took the opportunity to also recognise that while South Africa bid farewell to Ginwala, the struggle for equal rights and opportunities for women was far from won.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has remembered former National Assembly speaker Frene Ginwala as a pathfinder and a leader in the true sense of the.

Ginwala was the speaker of parliament from 1994 to 2004 when she was succeeded by Mbete. Her name stands out like a glittering star in the night,” said Lesufi, noting that Ginwala was polite where politeness was needed, and tough when it was needed to restore sanity. “Ginwala played a significant role in our freedom, she cast the racist regime. “She liberated Mozambique, she provided the ANC with three properties in Maputo which originally belonged to her family. Ginwala died at her home in Cape Town on January 12 after she suffered a stroke two weeks earlier. “She was instrumental in setting up the ANC’s first office in exile from which [former ANC leader] Oliver Tambo worked.