Red Ronnie to wed again

29 January 2012 - 02:06 By SHANAAZ EGGINGTON
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FINDING LOVE AGAIN: Former minister of intelligence services Ronnie Kasrils and his bride-to-be, Amina Frense, in Cape Town yesterday Picture: ESA ALEXANDER
FINDING LOVE AGAIN: Former minister of intelligence services Ronnie Kasrils and his bride-to-be, Amina Frense, in Cape Town yesterday Picture: ESA ALEXANDER

Retired spy chief Ronnie Kasrils is getting married today at an intimate ceremony in Cape Town.

Kasrils, 73, confirmed that he would wed Amina Frense, 59, a Cape Town-born journalist and film producer.

He was welcomed home yesterday by his wife-to-be at Cape Town International Airport after a trip to Spain, but refused to reveal the time or location of the wedding. "Just say I got married this weekend. I want to keep the paparazzi at bay," he winked. "We want it to be a very intimate affair."

A few guests invited to the wedding include Essop Pahad, Pallo Jordan, Allister Sparks and Jakes Gerwel.

Frense said it was "wonderful to find someone that you can relate to and who cares about the same values and issues". She will accompany Kasrils on his work-related overseas travels. He is a member of a think-tank in Beirut, Lebanon, as well as a jurist on the Russell Tribunal on Palestine that will meet in New York, in the US in October.

"We are going to be serial honeymooners," he said.

The couple declined to comment on whether the wedding would be conducted according to Muslim rites. Frense is from a Muslim family, whereas Kasrils has a Jewish background.

Kasrils's tribute to his late wife, Eleanor, titled 'The Unlikely Secret Agent', won the 2011 Sunday Times Alan Paton Award for non-fiction. The book described Eleanor's imprisonment, interrogation, internment in a mental hospital, escape and flight into exile.

She died in 2009, and they had been married for 45 years.

Frense is managing editor for television news and current affairs at the SABC. She was also the associate producer for the 1997 film 'Mandela'.

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