Helen Suzman
South African anti-apartheid activist and Member of the House of Assembly / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Helen Suzman, OMSG, DBE (née Gavronsky; 7 November 1917 – 1 January 2009) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician. She represented a series of liberal and centre-left opposition parties during her 36-year tenure in the whites-only, National Party-controlled House of Assembly of South Africa at the height of apartheid.
Helen Suzman | |
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Member of Parliament for Houghton | |
In office 15 April 1953 – 6 September 1989 | |
Preceded by | Eric Bell |
Succeeded by | Tony Leon |
Personal details | |
Born | Helen Gavronsky (1917-11-07)7 November 1917 Germiston, Transvaal, Union of South Africa |
Died | 1 January 2009(2009-01-01) (aged 91) Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa |
Political party | United Progressive Progressive Reform Progressive Federal Democratic Democratic Alliance |
Spouse | Moses Suzman |
Children | 2 |
Relatives | Janet Suzman (niece) |
Alma mater | University of the Witwatersrand |
Signature | |
She hosted the meeting that founded the Progressive Party in 1959, and was its only MP in the 160-member House for thirteen years. She was the only member of the South African Parliament to consistently and unequivocally oppose all apartheid legislation.
Suzman was instrumental in improving prison conditions for members of the banned African National Congress including Nelson Mandela, despite her reservations about Mandela's revolutionary policies, and was also known for using her parliamentary privilege to evade government censorship and pass information to the media about the worst abuses of apartheid. She was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.