From President Cyril Ramaphosa to leaders of the world, tributes are pouring in following the death of liberation stalwart Frene Ginwala on Friday.
Ramaphosa said about the passing of Ginwala, the first parliamentary speaker of a 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.
“Among the many roles she adopted during 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 Ginwala’s leadership, with Nelson Mandela occupying the seat of the first president to be elected by the democratic parliament.”
Ramaphosa further said that Ginwala epitomised the ethos and expectations of the then fledgling constitution and played an important role in building the capacity of parliament through the transformation of activists and leaders into legislators who were in turn able to transform our country.
“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.
“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.
Government will respect the family’s wishes for a private funeral and details of an official memorial event will be announced. – SAnews.gov.za
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