Helen Suzman
| Helen Suzman | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Member of Parliament for Houghton | |
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In office 1953–1989 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
Helen Gavronsky 7 November 1917 Germiston, South Africa |
| Died | 1 January 2009 (aged 91) Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Political party |
United Party Progressive Party Progressive Reform Party Progressive Federal Party |
| Spouse(s) | Moses Suzman |
| Children | Frances Patricia |
| Alma mater | University of the Witwatersrand |
| Religion | Judaism |
Helen Suzman, DBE (7 November 1917 – 1 January 2009) was a liberal South African anti-apartheid activist and politician.
Suzman, a lifelong citizen of South Africa, was born Helen Gavronsky in 1917 to Samuel and Frieda Gavronsky, Jewish Lithuanian immigrants. Suzman matriculated in 1933 from Parktown Convent, Johannesburg. She studied as an economist and statistician at Witwatersrand University. At age 19, she married Dr Moses Suzman (died 1994), who was considerably older than she was; the couple had two daughters. She returned to university lecturing in 1944, later giving up her teaching vocation to enter politics. She was elected to the House of Assembly in 1953 as a member of the United Party for the Houghton constituency in Johannesburg.
Suzman and eleven other liberal members of the United Party broke away to form the Progressive Party in 1959. At the 1961 general election all the other Progressive MPs lost their seats, leaving Suzman as the sole parliamentarian unequivocally opposed to apartheid for thirteen years from 1961 to 1974. She was often harassed by the police and her phone was tapped by them. She had a special technique for dealing with eavesdropping, which was to blow a whistle into the mouthpiece of the phone.
An eloquent public speaker with a sharp and witty manner, Suzman was noted for her strong public criticism of the governing National Party's policies of apartheid at a time when this was atypical of white South Africans. She found herself even more of an outsider because she was an English-speaking Jewish woman in a parliament dominated by Calvinist Afrikaner men. She was once accused by a minister of asking questions in parliament that embarrassed South Africa, to which she replied: "It is not my questions that embarrass South Africa; it is your answers."
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