SOUTH AFRICA: Anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman is laid to rest with South African Presidents past and present to pay their respects

Record ID: 454724

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: Anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman is laid to rest with South African Presidents past and present to pay their respects
  • Date: 5th January 2009
  • Summary: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (JANUARY 4, 2009) (REUTERS) JEWISH MEMORIAL CHAPEL AT THE WESTPARK CEMETERY MOURNERS INSIDE CHAPEL COFFIN OF LATE HELEN SUZMAN WHEELED INTO CHAPEL SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT KGALEMA MOTLANTHE AND FORMER PRESIDENT F.W. DE KLERK WATCHING VARIOUS OF MOURNERS AND FAMILY MEMBERS LISTENING RABBI ADDRESSING MOURNERS MORE OF MOURNERS MOURNERS WALKING TO GRAVESIDE COFFIN WHEELED TO GRAVE MOURNERS AT GRAVESIDE COFFIN ON GRAVE RABBI ADDRESSING FAMILY MEMBER PRESIDENT KGALEMA MOTLANTHE PUTTING SOIL INTO GRAVE MOURNERS AT GRAVEYARD
  • Embargoed: 20th January 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: People
  • Reuters ID: LVA44VZGG0216CC7UKV9GEAZNI1G
  • Story Text: Hundreds of mourners gathered on Sunday (January 4) to bid farewell to anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman, who for decades was South Africa's most famous white crusader against segregation.
    Suzman died on Thursday (January 1) at the age of 91 years. She was the longest-serving member of the country's white parliament and waged an often lonely battle to enfranchise the black majority.
    Mourners at her funeral included South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, opposition leader Helen Zille, former president F.W. de Klerk and ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe.
    Suzman became one of the few whites to earn respect from black South Africans when she started making regular visits to Nelson Mandela, the black nationalist leader sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964.
    Suzman and Mandela, who was released from prison in 1990, became close friends after he was elected South Africa's first black president in 1994.
    Her arch foe President P.W. Botha dubbed her "Mother Superior" in sarcastic reference to her scolding attacks on the Nationalists. She once said of Botha that if he was female he would arrive in parliament on a broomstick.
    Suzman was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and won praise from human rights organisations from around the world for her crusade against apartheid.
    She was born Helen Gavronsky to Lithuanian immigrant parents in Germiston near Johannesburg on November 7, 1917 and married physician Moses Suzman in 1937. They had two daughters.
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