The Speaker of SA’s first democratic National Assembly, Frene Ginwala, was fiercely unhappy and critical of the “degeneration of the leadership of our movement and the leadership of our public as well as private entities and the destruction of institutions that were built through great sacrifice and hard work”, said her nephew Zavareh Rustomjee during an official memorial service in Johannesburg on Tuesday. 

During the service, her colleagues, comrades and friends remembered the woman who was the Speaker of the National Assembly following the 1994 democratic elections. Ginwala died on 12 January in Cape Town at the age of 90.

President Ramaphosa joins in the singing at the official memorial service in honour of the late founding Speaker of the democratic South African Parliament, Dr Frene Ginwala, at the Johannesburg City Hall on 24 January 2023/ (Photo: Elmond Jiyane / GCIS)

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Frene Ginwala dies — South Africa’s founding speaker of democratic Parliament was a ‘formidable patriot’ and a ‘giant’ ”

Commenting on his aunt’s feelings about the “degeneration” of the ANC’s leadership, Rustomjee said: “She also expressed considerable sorrow and regret at the extent this has permeated numerous layers of institutions and society.

“Yet, despite this, on seeing green shoots of reversal of this destruction, she expressed the hope that the next generation will take up the baton, live up to the original ideals and rebuild.”

Rustomjee said that while Ginwala should rest in peace, he suspected that if she were present in the room, “she would look at us straight in the eye… and she would probably say, ‘No, I will not rest in peace and I will come back to haunt you unless you get your act together and get our country back on track’.”

Mourners at the official service to honour the late founding Speaker of the democratic South African Parliament, Dr Frene Ginwala, at the Johannesburg City Hall on 24 January 2023/ (Photo: Elmond Jiyane / GCIS)

Speakers shared their memories of Ginwala as an academic, journalist and politician.

Tributes

“Frene had integrity from the beginning of her life in politics right to the end — whether we agreed with her or not, she was a woman of integrity,” said Barbara Masekela, a former South African ambassador to the US.

Human rights activist and former MP Pregs Govender joked that Ginwala was “very clear about timekeeping”. Govender described Ginwala as a “dear friend” and said in her speech: “If there is an afterlife, I hope that you and two other powerful feminists who died in the same fortnight, Pethu Serote and Myrtle Witbooi, are dancing, laughing and celebrating your collective courage and insubordination that you taught me.”

Ginwala’s successor as Speaker of the National Assembly in 2004, Baleka Mbete, praised Ginwala as an “organised and meticulous” person who planned ahead so there would be no confusion about roles and responsibilities. 

The current Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, lauded Ginwala and her contributions to the ANC as an underground worker for the party during apartheid. Mapisa-Nqakula said that if you did wrong, “Comrade Frene would call you to a meeting and if the answers you provided were not to her satisfaction, she would dismiss you, call you back and say: ‘I expected better than that from you’.”

Mapisa-Nqakula added: “Comrade Frene was a committed and unwavering champion for women’s emancipation.”

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In his address, President Cyril Ramaphosa said: “She was an activist, a feminist, a pan-Africanist and an internationalist… yet, no roll call of her many achievements can adequately describe the person she was nor the impact that she made in the course of her life.”

Ramaphosa spoke of Ginwala’s earlier political assignments, where she found ways for ANC leaders to leave the country clandestinely. “At a time of great uncertainty and danger, she established routes and identified means of passage where before there had been none… through ingenuity, through courage, through determination and diligence, she forged new paths.”

On her parliamentary career, Ramaphosa said: “She performed her role as Speaker with diligence, fairness and integrity… she was always mindful that it was her responsibility to serve the people and to do everything within her means to advance their cause.” DM