In Memoriam: Helen Suzman, DBE, MP

One of the great figures in twentieth-century South African history died today.




Helen Suzman stood alone as the sole representative of Liberalism (in its classic sense, not the modern fakes masquerading under that banner) in the South African parliament during the 1960's and early 1970's. As such, she displayed enormous courage, fighting the apartheid policies of the National Party Government, going out into the townships and homelands created by them, meeting political prisoners in jail, and using her Parliamentary office to expose the fundamental evils of those policies. Needless to say, she was hated and reviled by those who supported them.

As her obituary in today's Guardian newspaper puts it:

In the 1961 general election – the year in which South Africa become a republic – the Progressives were almost wiped out, except for Helen, who won her seat in the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton. This marked the beginning of her 13 lonely years as a liberal MP (for six years of them the only woman among 165 male, very chauvinist MPs).

It was during these years that she built her reputation. She possessed four qualities in particular. Firstly, she was completely fearless, confronted though she was by some of the most menacing and odious politicians of any parliament ever. Secondly, she seemed to have more energy than anyone else - she often attributed her physical health to the fact that she never drank wine, only whisky (although she missed Harold Macmillan's "wind of change" speech in the South African parliament in 1960 because she had infectious hepatitis).

Thirdly, Helen had an unfailing sense of humour, sometimes lovely and light, at other times cutting and caustic. Fourthly, she pursued with extraordinary tenacity the principle that should be inscribed on her tombstone - "let right be done".

She seemed to regard the ministers with whom she fought as denizens of some primeval forest. Without this humour, she could never have survived. She described how government MPs used to bleat "Mau Mau" when she stood up, or shout "go back to Moscow/Ghana/Israel". In her autobiography, In No Uncertain Terms, she notes, whimsically: "I came from none of them."

Helen's reputation was built not on lofty thoughts and resounding speeches, but on hard work. One by one, as they came off the assembly line, she shredded the bills that removed civil liberties. One by one, she tore her parliamentary colleagues apart for their callousness, ignorance and ineptitude. Day after day, she would meet the poor, either in her office, or more often in their own shacks, listening to their tales of sorrow and sadness, of hurt and hatred.

With typical chutzpah, she would accost ministers in the parliamentary lobby or beard police officers in their dens, and demand to know why some nameless person of colour was being deprived of his or her rights.

Perhaps the most rewarding visit Helen ever made outside parliament was to Robben Island to see Mandela and the other prisoners – rewarding because it signalled to the prisoners that they were not forgotten.

Mandela says he came to know Helen "very well" during her visits, which continued after he was transferred to Pollsmoor prison on the mainland. As the lone Progressive MP Helen had decided, quite clinically, to "use parliament to expose the tragic effect" of apartheid laws. She used to quote Theodore Roosevelt: "I did what I could, where I was, with what I had."

Nelson Mandela said of Mrs. Suzman in his autobiography:

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.

I had the great privilege of meeting Mrs. Suzman on several occasions. She encouraged the work that our group was trying to do in the Black townships during the 1980's, and helped us to get funding and other support from people who knew and trusted her.

Israel awards the title 'Righteous Among The Nations' to those who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust. In terms of her activities to help the oppressed majority of South Africans, I think Helen Suzman would eminently qualify for that same title.




May her soul rest in peace. We shall not forget her.

Peter