CENTENARY
Helen Suzman’s legacy continues to shine a light on the political process
Feisty anti-apartheid campaigner’s tireless contribution offers lesson to this day and deserves to be celebrated
As the Progressive Party’s only MP between 1961 and 1974, Helen Suzman did more than anyone to oppose the legislative juggernaut of apartheid. She brought its horrors to international attention. Suzman would have turned 100 on Tuesday. Yet in a country obsessed with paying homage to its heroes and marking anniversaries, her centenary seems to be passing by largely unnoticed. Much has been said and written in 2017 about Suzman’s co-centenarian, former ANC president Oliver Tambo. In contrast, the public commemoration of Suzman has been muted. That is because the governing party’s nationalist narrative of history has triumphed. In fact, it has prevailed to such an extent that even the ANC’s political rivals feebly echo it or mimic it or try to lay claim to it for contemporary profit. This has inevitably led to the marginalisation of historical figures from outside the ANC tradition. Suzman was a great South African. She was a liberal. The party she represented in Parliament was a proge...
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