Raymond Zondo, Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, has expressed his condolences to the family of Dr. Frene Ginwala, who died last week.
Ginwala was the first speaker of the National Assembly in post-apartheid South Africa.
“We mourn the passing on of Dr. Frene Ginwala and celebrate her illustrious life and her contribution to the freedom that we all enjoy today. We are grateful to her family for sharing her with the people of South Africa and beyond. Dr. Ginwala made numerous contributions to our constitutional democracy in various capacities.
“On the occasion of her passing, I would like to emphasize that it was during Dr. Ginwala’s tenure as Speaker of Parliament that our first democratic Parliament repealed a number of apartheid laws that discriminated against the majority of South Africans based on race,” Zondo said.
The Chief Justice stated that South Africans will be “forever grateful” to Ginwala for her role in repealing Apartheid’s brutal laws during her decade-long tenure as Speaker of the National Assembly.
“It was also during Dr. Ginwala’s term of office as Speaker of Parliament that South Africa’s first democratic Parliament passed our Supreme Law, namely, our Constitution.
“The Constitution that Dr. Ginwala helped produce for South Africa contains the Bill of Rights, provides for an independent Judiciary, and constituted South Africa as a democratic state founded on, among others, the values of human dignity, the achievement of equality, the advancement of human rights and freedom, non-racialism, non-sexism, the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law.
“Our country will be eternally grateful to Dr. Ginwala and many others for this,” Zondo said.
