OPINION | A tribute to Frene Ginwala, a champion of women’s rights - The anti-apartheid leader implementing structural changes to dismantle the patriarchal nature of parliament
’s bright white hair and colourful saris; she stood out in the sea of dark and dull power suits on the television. I was a child in the early 1990s and had no idea of the magnitude of what I was witnessing. The first woman, first black person and first democratically elected speaker of the first democratic National Assembly in South Africa.
Although I was a young researcher in the field for the first time, she did not coddle me. She spoke to me as her equal and didn’t hesitate to challenge me on my then amateurish understanding of the way of things. At the time I considered it abrasive, but today I realise she respected me and was talking to me as someone with their own intellectual grit.
She also adjusted parliament’s schedule to coincide with the national school timetable, with recess being at the same time as school holidays. All of this was aimed towards not only improving people’s work-life balance but also implementing structural changes to dismantle the patriarchal nature of parliament.
As parliament’s speaker Ginwala also oversaw the passing of some of the most progressive legislation in the world for women’s rights. She helped to foster a culture of women parliamentarians working together across party lines and political ideology. The focus was on ensuring that women were not left behind in the new South Africa as had been the case in other post-liberation African states.
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