According to a statement released by the presidency of South Africa on Friday, anti-apartheid campaigner Frene Ginwala passed away at the age of 90. Ginwala was the first woman to hold the role of speaker of South Africa’s first democratically elected parliament.
After suffering a stroke two weeks earlier, the constitutional law specialist passed away Thursday night in her own home.
“Today we grieve the departure of a formidable patriot,” President Cyril Ramaphosa stated in a statement after the passing of the late Nelson Mandela.
“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 keeping building the South Africa to which they devoted their all.” [translated from Zulu] “We have lost another giant among a particular generation of leaders to whom we owe our freedom and to whom we owe
Ginwala was educated in Britain’s legal system after being born in Johannesburg, the heart of South Africa’s Indian community.
The Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, in which police killed 69 people who were demonstrating against the “pass” laws, which were a foundation of white minority rule, had a significant impact on her life.
After the African National Congress was declared illegal, she traveled to Mozambique, where she assisted senior members of the ANC in evacuating the country and making their way to other countries.
During the 1970s, she rose to prominence in the worldwide media. She embarked on a campaign that took her all over the world to rally support for the anti-apartheid movement and bring attention to human rights violations.
In the same year that Nelson Mandela was elected president, Ginwala was given the National Assembly’s speaker position. This marked the end of decades under the authority of whites. She remained in that role till the year 2004.
According to Ramaphosa, “many of the rights and material benefits that South Africans enjoy today have their beginnings in the legislative program of the inaugural democratic Parliament under Dr. Ginwala’s leadership,” Ginwala was the leader of the first democratic parliament in South Africa.
