On Thursday February 2nd PASSOP Board member Ronnie Kasrils and Amina Frense signed the marriage register at Wynberg Home Affairs. Both have through their lives stood for human rights, for an integrated society free from racism, colonial occupation and dispossession, homophobia, poverty and xenophobia. It is in this light that they chose to invite PASSOP’s staff to witness to small ceremony and hold the reception at PASSOP’s offices afterwards.
PASSOP’s director Braam Hanekom toasted the couple at the reception, while Mr. Kasrils reminded the crowd that both his and his new wife’s family were immigrants (his from Eastern Europe and hers from Malaysia and Indonesia). He commended PASSOP on its efforts and successes over recent months and years towards a better realisation of the rights of immigrants in South Africa.
We are proud to have been part of such a great union. Mrs. Frense is the SABC’s current managing editor for television news and current affairs and has had a long career as a journalist and activist. Mr. Kasrils joined the ANC in 1960 and was a vocal anti-apartheid activist and a founding member of Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was appointed deputy minister of defence in 1994 by Nelson Mandela and held that position until 1999 when he became minister of water affairs and forestry. He was appointed minister of intelligence services in 2004 and left the cabinet after the resignation of President Thabo Mbeki in 2008.