Helen Suzman, who died on New Year’s Day at the age of 91, is one of the human rights heroes of our time. Archbishop Desmond Tutu said of her that “just by being stroppy” she was able to effect change. He added: “We owe her an enormous, enormous debt. She was a powerhouse against apartheid.” The phrase “larger than life” could have been invented for this fearless crusader with a coruscating wit.
This daughter of European Jewish immigrants, who became a university lecturer, was for many years a lone and very brave dissenting voice in South Africa’s whites-only parliament. When a raging President P.W. Botha accused her of trying to bring the country to its knees and of helping the enemies of South Africa, she put him down sharply: “I am not frightened of you. I never have been and I never will be.” On another occasion she said of the formidable Botha: “If he was female he would arrive in parliament on a broomstick.” Ouch. Her niece, the actress Janet Suzman, said that she remembered her aunt vividly. “You can’t half-remember Helly,” she said. “She made an impression wherever she went and whatever she did. It was her funniness, and her bravery about speaking about apartheid and anti-Semitism. She used humour, and the regime wasn’t altogether used to that ploy.”
She was certainly quick witted — accused by a cabinet minister of asking questions in parliament that embarrassed South Africa abroad, she flashed back: “It’s not my questions that embarrass South Africa, it’s your answers” — but this was a serious woman. Her waspish attacks on the National Party’s apartheid policies over her 36 years in politics earned her the soubriquet “the cricket in the thorn tree.” For being such an articulate and well-informed critic of segregation of blacks, Suzman took many a verbal battering. She was often harassed by the South African police and her phone was permanently tapped. Her technique for dealing with eavesdroppers was to blow a shrill whistle loudly into the mouthpiece of the phone.
Suzman, who was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, regularly visited Robben Island, and managed to gain improvements in the conditions of the prisoners there. In his autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom,” Nelson Mandela said: “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.” It was fitting that Suzman was by Mandela’s side when he signed the country’s new constitution in 1996 as its first black president.
What I particularly like about Helen Suzman is that even when her health was failing she harassed South Africa’s post-apartheid ANC administration, which contained some of her friends. Right up to the end, the cricket in the thorn tree croaked the message of freedom from oppression, whether of the white or black variety. She became disillusioned with then-President Thabo Mbeki’s policies on Zimbabwe and Aids. Attacking Mbeki’s “flaccidness”, Suzman was also highly critical of Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, who declared the aged, irritating wee woman to be an “enemy of the state.” Wonderful.
Helen Suzman is an international role model for human rights activists. I have South African friends whose political consciousness was raised or reinforced by this remarkable lady. I think, for instance, of Margaret Legum, who died more than a year ago. She and her husband, Colin, the Observer’s authoritative southern African correspondent, were exiled to Britain because of their opposition to apartheid. Margaret, an economist who was a member of the Iona Community, wrote six years ago a brilliant and prescient book — given the current global financial crisis — entitled, “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
That title also sums up Suzman’s spirited life-long crusade. Way back in 1963, she was the only MP who voted against the Nationalist government’s legislation to institute 90-day detention without trial, and spoke out against the infamous “pass laws” which meant that black South Africans had to carry passbooks at all times. Ring any bells in Britain today?
The diminutive Helen Suzman is a towering figure for our Orwellian times. I want to celebrate her life in the words of the sassy black American poet Maya Angelou:
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
RON FERGUSON is a former pastor and leader of The Iona Community now living on Orkney Island (Scotland) as a writer and broadcaster. The column first appeared in The Glasgow Herald and is used by permission.
