Interviews with Frene Ginwala

On the 21st of March [1960], the day of Sharpeville, I had an interview with the President of the Indian Congress, Dr. Naicker. And when I walked in to see him that evening, he immediately said, “Walter Sisulu’s looking for you. He’s going to phone you at 7:00. So we can do your interview quickly, but you need to talk to him.” I didn’t know what it was, and Walter– when he phoned, he asked me, and I said, you know, I’m here, I’m in Durban. He said, “Frene, all the plans that we had been talking about have to proceed immediately, so please go and visit your parents.” I said, “When?” “Immediately.”

I gathered from his tone that he meant immediately. My parents lived in Maputo [Mozambique], Lourenco Marques it then was. So the next morning, I went to the airport, bought a ticket to Lourenco Marques, and flew out of South Africa. That’s how I went into exile.

[On March 21, 1960, South African police opened fire on thousands of demonstrators in Sharpeville who were protesting legislation that restricted the movement of non-white citizens. Sixty-nine protestors were killed and nearly 200 were injured. Dr. Gagathura Mohambry (Monty) Naicker (1910 – 1978) was an anti-apartheid activist and senior leader of various ethnic Indian movements within South Africa. He believed that a multi-ethnic alliance would be crucial in defeating apartheid. Walter Sisulu (1912 – 2003) was an anti-apartheid activist and senior leader of the African National Congress (ANC). Frene Ginwala was tasked with coordinating safe passage for ANC leadership from South Africa to Tanganyika (present day Tanzania) amidst government crackdowns on minority groups. The ANC is a political party that served as the most prominent resistance movement against South Africa’s apartheid system, at times resorting to violence through its military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. It was officially banned by the South African government from 1960 to 1990. As apartheid collapsed, the ANC’s leader, Nelson Mandela, was elected President of South Africa in 1994 and established a democratic government.]

And I had no idea what I was going to do except now I had some assurances from Tanganyika, so I knew if I could get Oliver Tambo to Tanganyika. By now, there were all sorts of stories about where he was, what he was doing. Dr. Dadoo, Yusuf Dadoo, a former President of the Indian Congress had joined him. And so had a journalist, Ronald Segal, who had been asked to drive him to Bechuanaland, which was still a British colony.

[Oliver Tambo (1917 – 1993) was an anti-apartheid activist and a senior leader of the ANC. He served as the organization’s president from 1967 – 1991 and kept the ANC together from exile after it was banned by the South African government in 1960. Dr. Yusuf Dadoo (1909 – 1983) was an anti-apartheid activist and senior leader of various ethnic Indian movements within South Africa. He believed that a multi-ethnic alliance would be crucial in defeating apartheid. Ronald Segal (1932 – 2008) was an anti-apartheid activist and journalist. Bechuanaland was a British colony in Southern Africa that is now present day Botswana.]

We had to fly – charter a plane to get them out. There was no way they could transit the Central African Federation. And Christian Action agreed that they would fund the plane if I could find one to take them there. [Christian Action was an organization founded by a British Anglican priest named John Collins (1905 – 1982) to assist post-World War II reconciliation and champion social causes. After becoming aware of the situation in South Africa, Collins became as staunch anti-apartheid activist.]

So I found a company that flew regularly, but before I could do much, because the news leaked, they closed down Francistown airport [Botswana]. So in a sense, everything was being done on a day-to-day basis. There was no plan, no scheme beforehand because things were just happening. But anyway, we found a plane and I asked them if they would fly to Dar es Salaam [Tanzania]. No way without refueling. So one had to take a chance. I took a chance that Britain could not afford a problem in Malawi, or Nyasaland as it was. They had already put the – Dr. Banda, who was the President of the Nyasaland African Congress in prison, and they were in trouble in Britain over that, about his imprisonment. So I suggested that this pilot refueled in Blantyre [Malawi]. He said, yes, that was possible. [Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda (1898 – 1997) was the leader of Malawi’s independence movement. He served as the country’s first president from 1963 – 1993 during which time he established a one-party, authoritarian state.]

Accordingly, we made arrangements. I’d asked the government of India, then, to give us travel documents. I had a passport. So the government of India sent travel documents. I’d warned the people in Bechuanaland, please make sure you have photographs.

So very early in the morning, I went to the airport, handed over the travel documents which had been sent to me, to the pilot. Said give this to my passengers. I suspect he knew what was going on. I also had a press conference for which my journalist friends have never forgiven me to say they were coming through by land because I wanted to divert attention. And having handed over to him, went to the main airport and flew out on a commercial flight of Bechuanaland, or out of – sorry, Salisbury [now Harare, Zimbabwe], where I was.

When I got to Blantyre, where I had to hand over documents to the lawyers because we had legal opinions saying these people should not be sent back to South Africa because the law said from whence they came, and that that they should if there was a problem, that these people should be sent back to Bechuanaland.

Now this had obviously worked because the next morning, and I went to Dar es Salaam, Dr. Julius Nyerere was contacted and he went and saw the governor, the British governor, informed him that South African leaders were arriving, and he wanted the assurance that they would be afforded hospitality in Tanganyika. And the message came back to me through the contact that, yes, that’s fine.

So that was the basis. The next morning when they [Oliver Tambo and his delegation] landed in Blantyre, there were warrants for their arrest, including one for me because the assumption was that I had taken the chartered flight. But they forgot that Nyasaland was a different jurisdiction, but the lawyers were aware. The warrants could not be executed in Nyasaland. So what they were going to have to go back and get a warrant for Nyasaland, but early the next morning, these people flew out, so warrants were never executed. They came to Dar es Salaam. And I suppose that was the first step in setting up the external mission of the ANC.

[Julius Nyerere (1922 – 1999) led Tanzania’s independence movement and served as the country’s first president from 1962 – 1985.]

Frene Ginwala was born in 1932 in Johannesburg. A South African of Indian descent, Ginwala was keenly aware of the role race played in South African society. She studied law at the University of London and then returned to South Africa.

As political tensions rose between the white minority government and non-whites, Ginwala joined the African National Congress (ANC), the country’s main opposition group to the apartheid government. Following the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre, during which police shot at thousands of demonstrators protesting travel restrictions for non-whites, the government banned the ANC. Ginwala was tasked with coordinating the escape of senior ANC leader Oliver Tambo to Tanzania and establishing the organization’s external mission. She wouldn’t return to South Africa for thirty years.

During her exile, Ginwala headed the Political Research Unit in the Office of ANC President Oliver Tambo. She also served as the ANC spokesperson in the United Kingdom, often addressing matters on sanctions against South Africa’s apartheid government.

In 1990, President F.W. de Klerk’s government lifted the ANC ban and Ginwala returned to South Africa. Prior to the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, she helped set up the Women’s National Coalition, which gathered organizations from across the political spectrum to ensure women’s common interests were reflected in South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution. Ginwala was elected to parliament in 1994 where she served as Speaker of the National Assembly until 2004. As the first post-apartheid speaker, she was instrumental in setting a new course for the government, promoting an atmosphere of cooperation and reconciliation.

Since leaving government, Ginwala served as the First Chancellor of one of South Africa’s flagship universities, The University of Kwazula-Natal, until 2009. She has continued promoting democracy, good governance, development and human rights through her participation with various international organizations such as the United Nations and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.

South Africa is a nation of almost 53 million on the southern tip of Africa. The nation has a unique multicultural character and is approximately 80 percent African and 10 percent European, with the remaining 10 percent being of mixed race or Asian heritage. These broad racial categories include a multitude of ethnic and linguistic groups.

Although it has the largest economy on the continent, much of the nation remains in poverty and there is great economic disparity. Historically, the mining industry has played a key role in South Africa’s economy and it continues to remain an important industry today, alongside manufacturing, tourism, and financial services.

South Africa was first settled by non-natives in 1652, when the Dutch established an outpost in what would later become Cape Town. Soon after, British, French, and German settlers came to the area. The descendants of the original Dutch settlers became known as Afrikaners. Conflicts over land and power arose between the settling groups as well as between the settlers and the native people of the region. In 1910, Britain formally created the Union of South Africa as a self-governing dominion within the British Empire.

Throughout South Africa’s history, non-whites were subjected to widespread discrimination. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the government passed a series of laws institutionalizing discrimination and segregation. In the 1948 elections, the National Party, which served as a platform for Afrikaner nationalism, gained power. The National Party program was centered on the system of racial segregation known as apartheid. Supporters of apartheid argued that South Africa was made up of four distinct racial groups: white, black, “Coloured” or mixed-race, and Indian.

The white minority oppressed the African majority and other non-white groups. Black Africans were particularly disadvantaged in terms of education, housing, income, and health. Blacks were denied citizenship and not permitted to use the services and facilities accessible by the white minority. Many blacks were forced to relocate when their neighborhoods were declared “white.” A series of laws enacted in the 1950s further codified and expanded racial segregation. In part, the National Party justified its policies by branding its opponents as communists.

The African National Congress (ANC) was founded in 1912 to advocate for the rights of black South Africans. As apartheid expanded, the ANC and other groups used both nonviolent and violent actions to combat the government. The ANC and other groups were oppressed by the government, and many of their senior leaders were banned or imprisoned. Nelson Mandela, a prominent ANC leader, was imprisoned from 1962 to 1990.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the anti-apartheid movement gained strength. Foreign governments and the international community isolated South Africa. International sanctions damaged the economy and helped erode domestic support for apartheid. Meanwhile, the end of the Cold War weakened the government’s claim that yielding power would lead to a communist takeover.

In 1990, the government of South Africa took its first steps toward ending apartheid when it ended a ban on certain political organizations including the ANC. Nelson Mandela and other opposition leaders were released from prison and apartheid legislation was repealed. F.W. de Klerk, President from 1989-1994, helped to broker this transition of South Africa from the apartheid-era to a multi-racial democracy. In 1993, de Klerk and Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize for their work.

In 1994, South Africa held its first election that allowed all adults to vote, regardless of race. The ANC gained power and Nelson Mandela was elected president. South Africa enacted a liberal, democratic constitution, backed by a strong and independent judiciary. While the ANC has remained the strongest party, elections are vigorously contested and democratic safeguards are respected. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated abuses and crimes committed during the apartheid era.

Freedom House’s 2013 Freedom in the World report categorized South Africa as “free” with an overall freedom rating of two, with one being the most free and seven being the least. The country also received ratings of two in political rights and civil liberties. However, in the 2013 Freedom of the Press report, the nation was categorized as “party free” due to government restrictions on the press and the prevalence of civil cases brought against journalists for libel.