Death of Frene Ginwala, speaker of South Africa's first democratically elected assembly

Frene Ginwala (right) in front of the South African Parliament with Patrick Lekota (center) and Nelson Mandela (left), March 26, 1999. AFP - ANNA ZIEMINSKI

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In South Africa, the generation that brought down apartheid is slowly dying out.

This Friday, January 13, it is Frene Ginwala who died.

This militant of the African National Congress (ANC) was the president of the first democratically elected National Assembly in 1994, after the end of the segregationist regime.

The Nelson-Mandela Foundation hailed a " 

 ".

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“ 

,” said Cyril Ramaphosa in the statement announcing the death of Frene Ginwala at the age of 90.

“ 

 ,” added the South African president.

Joined the armed wing of the ANC

Frene Ginwala was born in 1932 in Johannesburg into a relatively well-off Indian immigrant family, which allowed her to study law in Great Britain.

On her return to the country, in the mid-1950s, she was an activist in the ANC and joined its armed wing.

She then left for Mozambique, where she organized the exfiltration of members of the African National Congress.

International figure

In the 1970s, she became an international figure in the anti-apartheid movement, denouncing the systematic violations of human rights at conferences;

she also pursues a career as a journalist.

In 1994, the first post-apartheid assembly brought her to the post of

, she would occupy the presidency of the lower house for ten years, before retiring from active political life to lead the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in Durban.

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• South Africa

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• Nelson Mandela

• Cyril Ramaphosa