Anti-apartheid activist Frene Ginwala, who was the speaker of South Africa’s first democratically elected parliament and the first woman to hold the post, has died at the age of 90, the South African presidency announced on Friday, AFP reports, Agerpres reads.

She died at her home on Thursday evening after suffering a stroke two weeks earlier. „Today, we mourn the death of a formidable patriot,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement.

„We have lost another great figure from a special generation of leaders to whom we owe our freedom and our commitment to continue building the South Africa to which they gave everything,” Ramaphosa added.

Frene Ginwala was appointed Speaker of the National Assembly in 1994, while Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa, marking the end of apartheid. She held this position until 2014.

„Numerous rights and material advantages that South Africans enjoy today find their origin in the legislative program of the first democratic parliament led by Dr. Ginwala,” President Ramaphosa emphasized.

Agerpres