There are many ways in which Frene Noshir Ginwala, who died on Friday, made her mark in history, but perhaps the most enduring was the standard she set as speaker of the National Assembly in the first democratic parliament.
It was a time of great hope and aspiration. Ginwala provided the framework and set a high standard for how the institution should function.
She played a key role in transforming what was a closed, racially exclusive, male-dominated institution into one that was open to the media and the public.
Despite her long history as a cadre of the ANC in exile, Ginwala acted, say r supporters and opposition politicians alike, with impartiality and fairness during her 10-year stint as speaker that ended in 2004.
Lawson Naidoo, who headed her office at the time, worked with her in exile in London and with her on the Pikoli commission of inquiry (he is now executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the SA constitution), said Ginwala won the respect of the public and all political parties, which did not — or not often — contest her decisions.
“She set the benchmark for what the role of a speaker should be and she set the bar very high. I don’t think that benchmark has been matched since. She is the archetypal speaker,” Naidoo said.
Where there were major political disagreements, ultimately all parties respected her decision, he said.
“She was very aware of the fact that this was a new parliament, and that we needed to create a new culture of consultation, openness and transparency.”
Small parties
Always immaculately coiffured and elegantly dressed in stylish saris, Ginwala’s fierce intelligence shone through her decision making. Described variously as stubborn, strong-willed, intellectually curious, difficult and sometimes haughty she was a force to be reckoned with.
Particularly noteworthy about Ginwala’s stewardship of the National Assembly was the help she provided to small opposition parties, always listening to what they had to say. She also did not automatically side with the ANC in her interpretation of parliamentary rules of debate as her successors often did.
While former Democratic Party (which later became the DA after its merger with the National Party) politicians such as former DA leader Tony Leon and former DA chief whip Douglas Gibson — both erstwhile ambassadors for SA — commend Ginwala for her sterling role in upholding the institution of parliament, they do criticise her for her failure to do more to actively facilitate the investigation by parliament’s standing committee on public accounts into the infamous arms deal. Instead, she sided with the ANC’s bid to minimise the issue and blindside parliament’s ability to vigorously investigate the deal. This they say was a blemish on her record.
In Gibson’s view, the failure to get to the bottom of the allegations of huge corruption surrounding the arms deal opened the way for all the “shenanigans” that followed.
It was former president Nelson Mandela who selected Ginwala as speaker of the National Assembly, a post she was initially reluctant to accept. She was elected an MP and then elected by parliament to become speaker. In Gibson’s view “she was absolutely the right choice for the first speaker of the National Assembly”.
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Ginwala was born on April 25 1932 in Johannesburg into a wealthy Parsee family with its origins in western India. Her father, Naswan, who was born in Mozambique, was the director of an oil firm.
She left SA in the mid-fifties to read law at King’s College London and returned to SA in 1959 to train as a lawyer after receiving an LLB degree. Her parents had left SA for Mozambique after her departure for London. On her return to SA, Ginwala became involved in the ANC.
After the 1960 Sharpeville massacre and the banning of the ANC, she left SA and helped then ANC deputy president Oliver Tambo escape the country. She remained in exile for about three decades, returning to SA only in 1991.
Ginwala, Tambo and ANC leader Yusuf Dadoo established an exile ANC office in Dar es Salaam in then Tanganyika (later Tanzania). She played a key role in bringing ANC leaders into exile. Her role was not only to provide safe passage out of SA, but also to help ANC members back into the country.
She founded and acted as editor of the left-wing monthly journal Spearhead in Tanzania, also writing articles for the Guardian and Sunday Observer in Britain.
In June 1963 she was declared a prohibited immigrant and deported from Tanzania. She returned to the UK and studied for a PhD in philosophy at Oxford University, where she also lectured.
She returned to Tanzania in 1970 when its president Julian Nyerere lifted her ban and asked her to be the managing editor of the nationalised English-language newspaper The Standard and its sister paper the Sunday News. Ginwala accepted but was removed in May 1971 after the Standard published a fiery editorial over coup events in the Sudan. She returned to the UK.
Political research
In 1974, she went to Mozambique and assisted in developing the ANC’s department of information and publicity. Throughout her stay in African countries she also worked as a journalist for British and African newspapers and broadcasters.
While exiled in London Ginwala worked as head of the political research in the office of ANC president Tambo, and just before her return to SA was ANC spokesperson in the UK on sanctions, the nuclear programme and the arms and oil embargo.
She was a vocal advocate internationally for economic sanctions against apartheid SA and travelled worldwide to gain support for the anti-apartheid movement and the ANC, becoming well known within international organisations. The UN and Unesco in particular asked for her input and expert advice on panels.
After her return from exile, Ginwala participated in the establishment of the ANC Women’s League and the Women’s National Coalition and was a member of the secretariat in the ANC president’s office. She was part of the ANC’s negotiation team at the Convention for a Democratic SA (Codesa).
She served on the ANC’s national executive committee and its national working committee for many years as well as on several boards.
In 2005, after leaving parliament, Ginwala was elected as the first chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, a position she held for several years.
In 2007, she was appointed by then president Thabo Mbeki to head the inquiry into the suspension of the national director of public prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli, and his fitness to hold office. Among the grounds for Pikoli’s suspension in September 2007 were that he had granted immunity to members of organised crime syndicates, that he pursued corruption charges against national police commissioner Jackie Selebi and that his relationship with then justice minister Brigitte Mabandla had broken down irretrievably.
Very critical
True to her independence of mind and contrary to the wishes of the ANC government, Ginwala concluded that Pikoli was fit for office after an extensive and exhaustive inquiry, which found that government had failed to prove the allegations against him. Despite her findings the ANC in parliament ultimately decided to remove him from office in 2009.
In her report, Ginwala was critical of then director-general of the department of justice and constitutional development Menzi Simelane, whose testimony she said was contradictory, without basis in fact or law and “left much to be desired”.
She also had harsh words for former president Jacob Zuma on his subsequent appointment of Simelane to national director of public prosecutions. The Constitutional Court subsequently found this appointment to be invalid.
Ginwala, who has written a number of books dealing with various aspects of the struggle against injustice, received several honorary awards local and international during her lifetime as well as honorary doctorates from various universities.
From government she was awarded the Order of the Baobab in 2004 for her contribution to the struggle for democracy, human rights, nation-building, justice and peace, and conflict resolution, and later the Order of Luthuli in Silver for her excellent contribution in the fight against gender oppression.
Ginwala participated in a number of international forums, was a member of the UN secretary-general’s advisory panel of high-level personalities on African development, and served as commissioner of the International Commission on Human Security.
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