Following the death of liberation stalwart Frene Ginwala on Friday, tributes from President Cyril Ramaphosa and world leaders are pouring in.
Ramaphosa commented on the passing of Ginwala, the first parliamentary speaker of a democratic South Africa, saying, “Today we mourn the passing of a formidable patriot and leader of our nation, as well as an internationalist for whom justice and democracy around the world remained a fervent goal until her final days.
“Among the various roles she played throughout a life lived to the fullest, we are obligated to recall her establishment of our democratic parliament, which was charged with repealing decades-old apartheid legislation and laying the legislative foundations for a 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 the leadership of Ginwala, with Nelson Mandela serving as the first president to be elected by the democratic parliament.”
Ramaphosa added that Ginwala exemplified the ethos and expectations of the then-nascent constitution and played a crucial role in growing the capacity of parliament by transforming activists and leaders into legislators who were able to alter our nation.
“Ginwala was similarly powerful and instrumental in shaping the growth of democracy and the entrenchment of democratic political procedures and basic socioeconomic rights in the Southern African Development Community and the continent as a whole.
The president stated, “We have lost another giant from a special generation of leaders to whom we owe our freedom and to whom we owe our resolve to continue building the South Africa to which they devoted their lives.”
»“We have lost another titan,” says Ramaphosa of Ginwala«