South African anti-apartheid activist Helen Suzman, who won international acclaim as one of the few white lawmakers to fight against the injustices of racist rule, has died on New Year’s. She was 91. Suzman was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and fought a long and lonely battle in the South African parliament against government repression of the country’s black majority and the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela.
Nelson Mandela Foundation chief executive Achmat Dangor said Suzman was a “great patriot and a fearless fighter against apartheid.” For 13 years, Suzman was the sole opposition lawmaker in South Africa’s parliament, raising her voice time after time against the introduction of racist legislation by the National Party government.
After her retirement from parliament in 1989, she served on a variety of top public institutions, including the Independent Electoral Commission that oversaw the country’s first multiracial elections in 1994. She was at Mandela’s side when he signed the new constitution in 1996 as South Africa’s first black president. A year later, Mandela awarded her a special gold medal in honor of her contributions.
“It is a courage born of the yearning for freedom; of hatred of oppression, injustice and inequity whether the victim be oneself or another; a fortitude that draws its strength from the conviction that no person can be free while others are unfree,” Mandela said at the time. Source: Huffington Post
The world has lost another icon who worked tirelessly for equal rights for all. Rest in peace, Ms. Suzman, you have done well.
Filed under: Apartheid, Blacks, Helen Suzman, Nelson Mandela, Racism, South Africa
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