GOOD Speech by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
6 February 2023
Note: This is the speech that was delivered by GOOD Secretary-General and Member of Parliament, Brett Herron, during today’s joint sitting in memory of the former Speaker of the National Assembly, the late Dr Frene Ginwala.
Madam Speaker
It is an honour for me, on behalf of the GOOD party, to note our respect for the late Dr Frene Ginwala.
When she called South Africa’s first democratically elected parliament to order in 1994, following 350 years of colonialism and apartheid, she did so with a level of calm authority, legitimacy and grace that instantly propelled the Office of the Speaker to the very centre of the country’s transformation process.
Her leadership in the establishment of a robust legislature and committee system, that would go on to adopt a ground-breaking Constitution, was critical to shaping our democracy.
Dr Ginwala’s appointment as Speaker was the culmination of a life of opposition to authoritarianism and injustice.
For many years she had struggled for freedom, integrity and dignity for all South Africans, and in 1994 she brought these struggles with her to Parliament.
She brought them with her because she knew that a democratic election wasn’t the end point of the process but a new beginning… a new canvas on which to paint a new picture of a South Africa that cared about all its people.
Every day that we do our work as parliamentarians we honour Dr Ginwala, because it was she who laid down our systems and rules. We must robustly defend the founding principles of our democracy, and the integrity of our living Constitution.
But if we are truly to honour Dr Ginwala, we must complete the business she could not finish in her lifetime of dealing with the inequalities wrought by our past.
She exposed apartheid state violence during the 1976 insurrection, and the murders and kidnappings of South Africans at the hands of the apartheid security forces. It is in our hands to ensure justice for those whose lives were lost though prosecuting the TRC cases.
It is in our hands to review and update our reparations policy, and spend the money accumulating in the President’s Fund.
It is in our hands to continue the fight for spatial justice, to address the legacy of skewed land ownership, segregated towns and cities, and the neglect of rural communities.
By tackling these legacies of the past, we honour Dr Ginwala’s efforts to expose the injustice of the Group Areas Act and forced removals. Conversely, when we fail to do so, we subvert Dr Ginwala’s life effort, and that of many other former leaders of integrity.
Media Enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 0825183264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD Media Manager
Cell: 0733671223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za