Parliament pays tribute to the late Frene Ginwala

Tributes poured in during the joint sitting of parliament on Monday afternoon as leaders and representatives commemorated the life of the late first democratic speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Frene Ginwala.

Department of international relations and cooperations minister Dr Naledi Pandor led the sitting and remembered Ginwala as someone who associated herself with the downtrodden, marginalised and vulnerable.

“Each year, we have the privilege of celebrating the brave women of 1956 who boldly marched to the Union Buildings to demand an end to the oppressive laws of apartheid. Comrade Frene is of this character of women,” Pandor said.

Official opposition chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said the death of the first speaker of the first democratic parliament came at a seminal time in the country and the institution.

“The angst, despair and anger among South Africans is palpable. This countrywide anxiety about the future coincides with the deaths of some of the founding figures of our democracy, a symbolism which cannot be ignored.

Gwarube added that this required the country’s leaders to recommit themselves in word and deed to the promise of 1994.

“It requires us to interrogate what legacy has been left behind by people like Dr Ginwala and how best we can carry on the path that they charted for us all. Are we building on the gains of people like Dr Ginwala so that their life’s work and sacrifices are not in vain?” Gwarube asked.

In preparation for the tribute, Gwarube said she sought counsel from people who were in parliament during Dr Ginwala's tenure as speaker of the National Assembly.

“I spoke to James Selfe, who has since retired but spoke warmly about Dr Ginwala. He too was part of that historic class of 1994. Someone who differed with the speaker politically but had immense respect for her work and commitment to the institution.

Gwarube said Selfe recalled Ginwala’s fairness and how her political persuasions never clouded her judgment when instilling discipline in the House.

“He recalled how detail-orientated she was, committed to the spirit and the letter of the rules of parliament as a presiding officer. He spoke of how her work as the inaugural presiding officer truly deepened South Africa’s democracy. This is no doubt an incredible legacy,” Gwarube said.

However, the whip believed the restoration of parliament to its initial standard and calibre, in honouring Ginwala, was to begin with rebuilding.

“We need to make sure the rubble, which was once the House that changed the course of South Africa, is rebuilt, without delay. We need to make sure that the contribution of the first speaker of the National Assembly is recorded in the parliament that will be rebuilt, similar to the Mandela Bust which stands proudly in front of the assembly,” the MP said.

Whip Gwarube said honouring Ginwala’s work cannot be just in the form of memorial material, but needs to inform how MPs treat the House.

“We need presiding officers who will commit to the rules of the institution; unmoved by their own political affiliation. We need to bring back the spirit of working across party lines. South Africans need to see us united in our commitment to bringing change to their lives.”

Gwarube added that MPs needed to abandon the unprogressive tendency of shooting down ideas because they do not come from their own political party.

EFF MP Omphile Maotwe joined the commemoration, adding she imagines the late Ginwala spent her last days on earth in anguish over her party’s degeneration.

“Dr Ginwala provided all of us with a lifetime of examples of what true servant leadership is. As we celebrate her lifetime commitment to freedom, we must acknowledge that her last days might have been hurt by observing the direction her political party is taking.

Maotwe said Ginwala must have never foreseen that in her lifetime, the party she belonged to would have had a president accused of gross violation of the constitution.

“A president who illicitly hid foreign currency under his mattresses, violating the handling of such currency in this country — she must’ve never foreseen the same president who stands accused of using state resources to hunt down those who robbed the foreign currency from his farm, enlisting the services of the Namibian head of state to search for the so-called criminals and, after catching them, bribing them to never mention that the crime was ever committed. 

“Most painful, in the memory of Dr Ginwala, would have been to see the role played by the current speaker in defying the recommendations of a parliament report that she set up, with prima facie case, [an impeachment for the president] to answer for the alleged robbery at his farm,” Maotwe said.

Late last year, a National Assembly majority voted to reject the report and establishment of an impeachment inquiry to hold Ramaphosa accountable for allegedly concealing a burglary and theft of US dollars from his Phala Phala game farm.

“When parliament shielded a potential criminal on the basis of party loyalty, Dr Ginwala must have felt the soul pierced by the criminality that has engulfed her own political party. We remember her based on how she believed this parliament and this democracy should be led,” Maotwe said.

IFP MP Narend Singh, who delivered the party’s tribute on behalf of Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, said by the time the first democratic parliament was convened, Dr Ginwala had already earned the respect of every party that stepped into the government of national unity. 

“Already, she had lived a remarkable life. Already, she had a formidable library of academic achievements. Already, she had served South Africa with every fibre of her being,” said the MP.

Singh shared that when the IFP disagreed with the call for international sanctions against the country, Buthelezi found Ginwala to be an articulate and informed adversary despite the difference in opinion.

“She was the ANC’s spokesperson on sanctions against the UK at the same time that I was visiting heads of state like prime minister Thatcher, president Reagan, chancellor Kohl and prime minister Uyl, persuading them against disinvestment.

Singh told the House that the late Ginwala played the role as it was meant to be played: with dignity, impartiality and firmness, saying undoubtedly there was greater decorum in parliament at that time, but that is not to say her patience was not tested.

The MP said within the first 10 years of democracy, some 700 major pieces of legislation were passed.

“Buthelezi's own Immigration Act was passed with the honourable Dr Ginwala presiding.

“It was no easy task to transform the entire body of law in our country so swiftly, yet that is what our work demanded. The IFP had 48 members in the constitutional assembly, and we produced a full analysis of what we felt was needed, evaluating the alternatives, and explaining why our options were preferable. President Ramaphosa will remember scolding his party, saying that at least the IFP knew what it wanted.

“For the 10 years that Dr Ginwala served as speaker, Buthelezi served as minister of home affairs and watched how deftly she positioned our young democracy, earning for herself well-deserved international awards. Buthelezi was honoured to have served the country with such a dedicated patriot,” said Singh.

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