Helen Suzman, 91, long a foe of apartheid

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - South African antiapartheid activist Helen Suzman, 91, who won international acclaim as one of the few white lawmakers to fight against the injustices of racist rule, died yesterday at her home in Johannesburg.

Ms. Suzman, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, 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.

Ms. Suzman was a "great patriot and a fearless fighter against apartheid," said Achmat Dangor, chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

For 13 years, Ms. 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 she retired from parliament in 1989, she served with various top public institutions, including on the Independent Electoral Commission that oversaw South Africa'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.

Mandela said then, "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."

Ms. Suzman first visited Mandela in prison on Robben Island in 1967, when she heard his grievances about prison conditions. "It was an odd and wonderful sight to see this courageous woman peering into our cells and strolling around our courtyard," he later recalled.

Ms. Suzman was born in the mining town of Germiston, east of Johannesburg, to Lithuanian-Jewish parents who had fled anti-Semitism. Her childhood was the charmed one of most whites: tennis, swimming lessons and private schooling.

When she got to college, she began to speak out against the conditions under which black people were forced to live, especially the dreaded pass system that restricted their movement.

In 1953, she was elected to parliament for General Jan Smuts' United Party. A few years later, she helped form the liberal democratic Progressive Party; a later reincarnation of it is still the official opposition. A snap election in 1961 devastated the party, leaving Ms. Suzman on her own until 1974. She kept her seat until retiring in 1989 at age 72.