Raenette's Press Club Speech
About Helen Suzman
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There are two ways of responding to this: first, one may point out that the ANC has welcomed into its ranks parliamentarians from the apartheid era, including several former Nationalist cabinet ministers, as well as Bantustan functionaries, such as Stella Sigcau and (for a while) Bantu Holomisa, without, apparently, questioning their bona fides. Secondly, the test to be applied in addressing the allegation is a pragmatic one: was it strategically sensible to make use of the highest forum in the land to expose apartheid's iniquities? There can surely be little doubt that Helen's parliamentary activities did far more to discredit apartheid than her presence in Parliament did to legitimate it. Helen's achievements have been acknowledged by many awards and honours. No fewer than 27 honorary doctorates have been bestowed on her, including from Oxford, Harvard, Columbia, Brandeis, Yale, and Cambridge universities, as well as from several South African ones, including her alma mater, Wits. |
She has also twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2002 she was awarded the International Freedom Prize by Liberal International. A perverse “honour”, of which she is inordinately proud, was being declared an “Enemy of the State” by Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe in 2001. In 1989 she was made a Dame of the British Empire – a rare honour for a foreigner.
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At 86 Helen is frail but remains
remarkably active. She is still razor-sharp and her waspish wit is
undiminished. Advancing years have required her to give up previous
pastimes like golf and fly-fishing, but she regularly plays bridge and
entertains. Foreign and domestic journalists continue to descend on her
in droves. After her husband's death in 1994, she moved into a smaller home in Illovo, Johannesburg, where she is assisted by a part-time secretary and two domestic staff. No description of Helen would be complete without reference to her love of animals, both domestic and wild. She is surrounded by dogs, the most notable of which is a boisterous black Labrador named Benjamin. |
February 2004
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For further reading: the obvious place to start is Helen's autobiography In No Uncertain Terms (Jonathan Ball, 1993); Joanna Strangways-Booth's A Cricket in the Thorn Tree: Helen Suzman and the Progressive Party (Hutchinson, 1976) contains valuable information on Helen's earlier times in parliament; a collection of Helen's speeches between 1962 and 1974, edited by Phyllis Lewsen, entitled Helen Suzman's Solo Years (Jonathan Ball, 1991), captures much of the essential Helen; a tribute to Helen, edited by Robin Lee, entitled Values Alive (Jonathan Ball, 1990) contains essays by 18 friends and admirers from varying positions in the political spectrum. Ray Swart's Progressive Odyssey (Human and Rousseau, 1991) is an insider's account of the Progressive Party and its later incarnations, and contains many references to Helen. |