Interviews with Frene Ginwala

I found myself an MP, but before that, I had been wanting a woman as the Speaker [of the Parliament] because I thought it had a tremendous significance of change. But I had someone else in mind, and I had discussed it. I won’t mention names now. And I was not aware that Mr. Mandela had already decided that I should be the Speaker and he had been campaigning on my behalf. And when he announced the first Cabinet, some of us were horrified that there were not more women. So I spoke to him on the phone. I said, “How could you do this to us?” And he went on the offensive. Said, “People like you, you don’t do – I want you as Speaker there.” And I said, “Leave me aside. I’m not talking about me. I’m talking about your first Cabinet.” And I realized I now had a serious problem.

[Nelson Mandela (1918 – 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and politician who served as the first post-apartheid President of South Africa from 1994-1999.]

But you can’t say no to – but we had a caucus meeting the night before, and Thabo Mbeki came to me and said, now, are you going to accept because we are going to nominate you. And I think I realized then that if the leadership was nominating me and I said no, I was unnecessarily creating an issue. So I said yes. When another candidate stood, I was delighted. I never wanted to lose – well, it was the only election I was in, but I was hoping that I would lose it, but in fact, I did win that – the caucus in which I could be reassured of support from the ANC [African National Congress], generally.

[Thabo Mbeki (1942 – ) is a South African politician and anti-apartheid supporter from the African National Congress (ANC). He was the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 1999-2008. 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.]

So that was it, but after being you know, and I sat there. We took the oath and I sat there and I saw ten people coming up, and that, for me, was one of the most emotional moments because you saw most representative group these ten people. Most of the women had dressed in traditional clothes and so on, and you saw them come up, and the contrast with all the other parties, there were six political parties then. That made me say, “It is changing. Really.”

But afterwards I realized it was a tremendous opportunity because – not because I was Speaker, but even being in that Parliament, because that Parliament had all the sort of ritual of Parliament and none of the content. So we had to change everything. And I said everything is a blank sheet. We write no traditions, no rituals. We will do our own thing. And to make sure that that worked, I had – every two weeks, I met with the chief whips of every party. I gave them lunch so that we sat down. Any things that I was thinking about, any things that they were thinking about, it was an informal discussion. Just make sure that we were all working together. Now, Mr. Mandela had told me, I asked him, I said, “Now, you want me to go there. What is it you want me to do?” He said, “Very simply, you run Parliament the way you ran – we ran negotiations.”

And I had to think about it, and I realized, one, it was totally inclusive. Nobody was excluded from the negotiations. Everybody believed they were going to win, but whether it was a small party, a big party, everybody was there. So I said that is the important thing. I’ve got to make sure. Secondly, I thought, we have to get buy-in from population for this new Parliament, so I asked the chief whip of the ANC, because the members had taken their seats and they were on – all over the place, and people were sitting on the front benches. I said, now, if this is the first time, it’s going to be watched by the people. There was going to be television, but it would be watched. So we need the leaders of all the political parties on the front bench.

So I asked the chief whip, please, I want you to vacate and give me – ‘cause we had 60-odd percent –majority, so they were way over half. I said I want three, four front benches, please, and I explained to him why. And what he did with the members he removed, I don’t know, but he understood the reasons. So when Parliament – President Mandela addressed the first Parliament, because before that we were just theirs having been sworn in, they could look and see Constand Viljoen, the leader of the Afrikaner sitting on a front bench. There was a government of national unity, so Chief Buthelezi was there, National Party was there, you know, so all of these people were there except one party that had only two members. There was no way I could give them a front bench seat, but behind all of those were all the ANC members sitting behind all the political leaders, and that remained afterwards.

It was important because it did people would say, oh, there’s so-and-so. That’s my leader. They bought that because it was a visual image without propaganda as such.

[General Constand Viljoen (1933 – ) is a former South African military commander and politician. Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi (1928 – ) is a South African politician and was an anti-apartheid activist.]

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.