Helen’s Life to be Celebrated and Honored
A tribute by Raenette Taljaard

As I write this tribute to a remarkable woman, whom I loved dearly, a cartoon-print of her by legendary New York Review of Books cartoonist David Levine is staring at me sensing the sadness about her passing away.

I obtained it as a gift for Helen’s 90th birthday and she - in characteristically honest and forthright style -summarily dismissed it as a picture that she thought hideous and roundly declared how much she preferred Zapiro’s iconic images of her whilst thanking me for the thought and noble intentions.

Helen always knew what she liked and disliked in the same way as there were no ambiguities or shades of grey for her between right and wrong. Equally, when her academic research led her deeper into the injustices of labour migration in our country she had no ambivalence or hesitation that she had a role to play in a complex society marred by injustice, that she would be its ‘cricket in a thorn tree’ who would speak truth to power with clear moral purpose in Parliament in a country that lost its moral compass.

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Click here to listen to the Eulogy of Helen Suzman by Chief Rabbi Goldstein.
Click here to view the speech Rhoda Kadalie delivered at the Cape Town SA Jewish Board of Deputies

Hardtalk: Helen Suzman

Helen Suzman on meeting Nelson Mandela