Helen Suzman

Born into white privilege in an increasingly racist society, Helen Suzman, who died Jan. 1 at 91, was a lifelong contrarian. She served in South Africa’s Parliament from 1953 to 1989, fighting her government’s repression of the country’s black majority and the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and his fellow antiapartheid fighters. From 1961 to 1974, it was a battle she fought alone as the Parliament’s sole anti-apartheid member.

To the fury of other activists, however, Suzman opposed economic sanctions, arguing that they hurt blacks more than whites. And while she earned the admiration and friendship of Mandela, she did not flinch from criticizing his African National Congress (ANC) once it won power.

I met Suzman for tea in the lush garden of her Johannesburg home last June. She was, she said, “slowly fading away,” with tinnitus in her ears making her head “ring like a church bell.” But she was still feisty and outspoken, especially on the ANC. The party had failed to transform the lives of black South Africans, she argued–“The vast majority have been left behind”–while its leader and the likely next President, Jacob Zuma, “just tells people what they want to hear.” Not an accusation ever leveled at Suzman.