SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Anti-Apartheid Campaigner Helen Suzman Dies at 91
Progressive party MP spent a decade as sole parliamentary opponent to old South African system
Jan 01, 2009
Helen Suzman, who waged a lonely campaign against apartheid in South Africa's parliament for more than a decade, has died at the age of 91.
Her daughter, Frances Jowell, said she died peacefully this morning at her home in Johannesburg, and a private funeral would take place this weekend.
Jowell added: "We are waiting for family and all grandchildren to arrive."
For 13 years, from 1961 to 1974, Suzman was the sole representative in parliament of the liberal Progressive party, and her opposition to apartheid made her a thorn in the flesh of the National party government. She became known as a "cricket in the thorn tree" for her outspoken views.
She was regularly jeered in parliament with taunts such as "Go back to Moscow" or "Go back to Israel" - a reference to her Jewish family. Her arch-rival, President PW Botha, described her as "Mother Superior" in sarcastic reference to her attacks on the Nationalists.
The enmity was mutual. In a typical parliamentary exchange in which Botha warned her against breaking the law, she said: "I am not frightened of you. I never have been and I never will be. I think nothing of you."
She once said of Botha: "If he was female he would arrive in parliament on a broomstick," and described him as a "bad-tempered, irate debater and a bully", after his death at the age of 90 in October 2006.
Suzman was born in Germiston, in South Africa's Gauteng province, on 7 November 1917 to a Jewish Lithuanian immigrant couple, Samuel and Frieda Gavronsky. Her mother died two weeks later and her father remarried a few years afterwards.
Suzman matriculated in 1933 from Parktown Convent, Johannesburg, where a rose garden honouring "her lifelong struggle for justice and human rights for all South Africans" was unveiled in 2003.
A rose was also named after her later in her life. The Helen Suzman Rose (Foxy Lady) has baby pink buds unfolding to light pink-white flowers with a strong fragrance.
In recognition of her role Suzman received honorary doctorates from leading universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Columbia, Harvard, Witwatersrand and Cape Town.
Suzman was twice nominated for the Nobel peace prize and for the chancellorship of the University of the Witwatersrand.
In 1978 she received the United Nations award for human rights, and she was honored with an exhibition showcasing her life and work in film, print and photography at the South African Jewish Museum in March 2005.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela, whom Suzman visited on Robben Island during his imprisonment, has referred to her as "a remarkable South African woman".
"It was an odd and wonderful sight to see this courageous woman peering into our cells and strolling around our courtyard. She was the first and only woman ever to grace our cells," Mandela said in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Helen Suzman, who waged a lonely campaign against apartheid in South Africa's parliament for more than a decade, has died at the age of 91.
Her daughter, Frances Jowell, said she died peacefully this morning at her home in Johannesburg, and a private funeral would take place this weekend.
Jowell added: "We are waiting for family and all grandchildren to arrive."
For 13 years, from 1961 to 1974, Suzman was the sole representative in parliament of the liberal Progressive party, and her opposition to apartheid made her a thorn in the flesh of the National party government. She became known as a "cricket in the thorn tree" for her outspoken views.
She was regularly jeered in parliament with taunts such as "Go back to Moscow" or "Go back to Israel" - a reference to her Jewish family. Her arch-rival, President PW Botha, described her as "Mother Superior" in sarcastic reference to her attacks on the Nationalists.
The enmity was mutual. In a typical parliamentary exchange in which Botha warned her against breaking the law, she said: "I am not frightened of you. I never have been and I never will be. I think nothing of you."
She once said of Botha: "If he was female he would arrive in parliament on a broomstick," and described him as a "bad-tempered, irate debater and a bully", after his death at the age of 90 in October 2006.
Suzman was born in Germiston, in South Africa's Gauteng province, on 7 November 1917 to a Jewish Lithuanian immigrant couple, Samuel and Frieda Gavronsky. Her mother died two weeks later and her father remarried a few years afterwards.
Suzman matriculated in 1933 from Parktown Convent, Johannesburg, where a rose garden honouring "her lifelong struggle for justice and human rights for all South Africans" was unveiled in 2003.
A rose was also named after her later in her life. The Helen Suzman Rose (Foxy Lady) has baby pink buds unfolding to light pink-white flowers with a strong fragrance.
In recognition of her role Suzman received honorary doctorates from leading universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Columbia, Harvard, Witwatersrand and Cape Town.
Suzman was twice nominated for the Nobel peace prize and for the chancellorship of the University of the Witwatersrand.
In 1978 she received the United Nations award for human rights, and she was honored with an exhibition showcasing her life and work in film, print and photography at the South African Jewish Museum in March 2005.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela, whom Suzman visited on Robben Island during his imprisonment, has referred to her as "a remarkable South African woman".
"It was an odd and wonderful sight to see this courageous woman peering into our cells and strolling around our courtyard. She was the first and only woman ever to grace our cells," Mandela said in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.
Helen Suzman, who waged a lonely campaign against apartheid in South Africa's parliament for more than a decade, has died at the age of 91.
Her daughter, Frances Jowell, said she died peacefully this morning at her home in Johannesburg, and a private funeral would take place this weekend.
Jowell added: "We are waiting for family and all grandchildren to arrive."
For 13 years, from 1961 to 1974, Suzman was the sole representative in parliament of the liberal Progressive party, and her opposition to apartheid made her a thorn in the flesh of the National party government. She became known as a "cricket in the thorn tree" for her outspoken views.
She was regularly jeered in parliament with taunts such as "Go back to Moscow" or "Go back to Israel" - a reference to her Jewish family. Her arch-rival, President PW Botha, described her as "Mother Superior" in sarcastic reference to her attacks on the Nationalists.
The enmity was mutual. In a typical parliamentary exchange in which Botha warned her against breaking the law, she said: "I am not frightened of you. I never have been and I never will be. I think nothing of you."
She once said of Botha: "If he was female he would arrive in parliament on a broomstick," and described him as a "bad-tempered, irate debater and a bully", after his death at the age of 90 in October 2006.
Suzman was born in Germiston, in South Africa's Gauteng province, on 7 November 1917 to a Jewish Lithuanian immigrant couple, Samuel and Frieda Gavronsky. Her mother died two weeks later and her father remarried a few years afterwards.
Suzman matriculated in 1933 from Parktown Convent, Johannesburg, where a rose garden honouring "her lifelong struggle for justice and human rights for all South Africans" was unveiled in 2003.
A rose was also named after her later in her life. The Helen Suzman Rose (Foxy Lady) has baby pink buds unfolding to light pink-white flowers with a strong fragrance.
In recognition of her role Suzman received honorary doctorates from leading universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Columbia, Harvard, Witwatersrand and Cape Town.
Suzman was twice nominated for the Nobel peace prize and for the chancellorship of the University of the Witwatersrand.
In 1978 she received the United Nations award for human rights, and she was honored with an exhibition showcasing her life and work in film, print and photography at the South African Jewish Museum in March 2005.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela, whom Suzman visited on Robben Island during his imprisonment, has referred to her as "a remarkable South African woman".
"It was an odd and wonderful sight to see this courageous woman peering into our cells and strolling around our courtyard. She was the first and only woman ever to grace our cells," Mandela said in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.