INSLA

Former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils and editor Amina Frense sign the marriage register yesterday.

JANELLE SCHROEDER

Staff Reporter

WEDDING jitters were absent when former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils and Amina Frense made their vows official in Wynberg.

Inside the packed marriage room at the Wynberg Home Affairs office yesterday, Kasrils and Frense, the SABC’s managing editor for television news and current affairs in Joburg, signed the marriage register in the presence of family and friends.

Also there were members of Passop (People against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty), the non-profit organisation Kasrils supports as a member of its board.

Belinda Februarie of Home Affairs presided over the ceremony, which even included the tossing of the bouquet.

The celebration was a continuation of a private exchange of vows on Sunday.

The casually dressed couple thanked the crowd for attending and praised Home Affairs for its work.

“We are proud as South Africans that our department is a positive experience.

“It is so important to issues of immigration and it shows what the new government stands for,” said Kasrils before Februarie handed over the marriage licence. On receiving it, Frense jokingly asked her husband: “Are you legal now darling?” to which he responded, “Thanks to you.”

The party continued at the nearby Passop headquarters, where founder and director Braam Hanekom toasted the couple.

Passop protects and lobbies for the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants. 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.

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.

This was the second marriage for Kasrils, whose first wife, Eleanor, died in 2009.

janelle.schroeder@inl.co.za