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Helen Suzman, the Liberal Member of the Old South African Parliament

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Helen Suzman, the Liberal Member of the Old South African Parliament Helen suzman AN AppreciatIoN Helen Suzman, the liberal member of the old South African parliament, renowned for her courageous and unrelenting fight for human rights and justice, died peacefully in her home in Johannesburg in the small hours of New Year’s Day 2009. Her Liberalism was more than a political creed; it was a state of mind, a way of life, a responsibility towards others. Colin Eglin, a co-founder of the anti- apartheid Progressive Party, recalls her. 32 Journal of Liberal History 66 Spring 2010 Helen suzman AN AppreciatIoN he expressions of grief judiciary, transparent governance, invested in land, property and at her death, of respect and an open society in which other businesses for her person, and of individuals would be free to make Samuel Gavronsky, wanting gratitude for her life choices. She campaigned for the the best available schooling for his and her service that abolition of the death penalty. She two daughters, arranged for Helen Tcame from all sections of the fought for human rights. and her sister Gertrude to go to South African people and from During the dark days of apart- Parktown Convent, a Catholic representatives all political par- heid she did more than any other school for girls. Upon complet- ties were testimony to the impact person to keep liberal values ing her schooling Helen enrolled she had made on the politics of alive. Indeed, South Africa’s new at Witwatersrand University to South Africa and on the lives of its democratic constitution, with the study for the degree of Bachelor of citizens. liberal values that it embraces, Commerce. Helen served in parliament is testimony to the inspirational She interrupted her studies from 1953 to 1989, the years dur- impact that Helen’s work and in 1937 when she married Mosie ing which successive National example made on the politics of Suzman, an eminent physician Party governments were impos- South Africa from a large and well-known ing the policy of apartheid on the Jewish family in Johannesburg. people of South Africa. Apartheid ~ Helen and Mosie moved into a deeply offended Helen’s sense of spacious new home and took part justice and violated the liberal Helen Suzman was born in Ger- in the social and cultural life of values that she embraced. She was miston, a small mining town a the relatively prosperous com- angry at the hurt it was doing to few kilometres from Johannes- munity. They had two daughters, millions of her fellow citizens, and burg, on the day of the Russian Frances, born in September 1939, at the damage it was doing to the Revolution, 7 November 1917. and Patricia, born in January 1943. fabric of South African society. Her father, Samuel Gavronsky, In the Second World War She spoke out against racial and his brother Oscar had emi- Mosie joined up to the South discrimination, against race classi- grated from a small Jewish village African Medical Corps and fication, group areas, job reserva- in Lithuania and in due course was posted to serve in Egypt. tion, and detention without trial. married two sisters who had also Helen completed her Batchelor She campaigned for the repeal of emigrated from Eastern Europe. of Commerce course at Wit- the Pass Laws. She condemned The Gavronsky brothers, who on watersrand University in a year the abuse of power. She worked their arrival in South Africa could and, on applying to join up she for a South Africa in which there speak neither English nor Dutch, was assigned to a position with would be freedom of expression, went into business together. In Helen Suzman the War Supplies Board. In 1945, the rule of law, an independent due course they prospered and MP (1917–2009) after the war, Helen returned to Journal of Liberal History 66 Spring 2010 33 helen suzman: an AppreciatIoN heading? Governed by a political party that had opposed the war effort, that harboured many peo- ple who had been pro-Nazi, and that was committed to enforce the policy of apartheid in the political, economic, educational, and social life in South Africa? She reacted by becoming actively involved in politics. She joined the United Party, served on a constituency committee and became heavily involved as the Information Officer of the Wit- watersrand Women’s Council of the party. She stood as a United Party candidate in the 1953 elec- tion and was elected unopposed as the Member of Parliament for Houghton, a position that she held continuously until she retired in September 1989. When Helen came to Cape Town for her first parliamentary session she became a member of a caucus of a United Party that was confused in trying to define an identity relevant to the poli- tics of post-war South Africa; the party was divided on the issue of an alternative to the Nationalist policy of apartheid. Helen was soon identified as an outspoken member of the ‘liberal group’ in the caucus. She and a caucus colleague defied the party’s decision to vote for the Separate Amenities Bill by walking out of the House when the Bill was put to the vote. She was one of the group of liberal backbenchers who declared their commitment to restore Coloured voters to the common voters roll (from which Witwatersrand University, first Helen Suzman Whites no longer required their the Nationalist government was to take up a tutorship and then to Top: In her office, services. removing them), at a time when become a lecturer on economic while an MP. Helen was appalled by what she the leadership of the party was history. During this period she Bottom: At a learned of the disastrous impact trying to avoid taking a stand on joined the South African Insti- mass funeral. these inhuman laws had on Black this issue. tute of Race Relations. individuals, their families, and Helen’s maiden speech in par- In 1946 the Institute asked her their communities. The Fagan liament was on women’s rights, to assist in preparing evidence Commission recommended a and she went on to take part in that it could present to the Fagan new approach, namely that the every debate that affected wom- Commission, which had been pervaded urbanisation of Blacks en’s rights during her thirty-six established by General Smuts, should be recognised and should years in parliament. However she then Prime Minister, under Judge be accommodated within the law. emphasised that while the issue of Henry Fagan to review the laws However before Smuts could act women’s rights still had to be dealt that applied to the Blacks in the on this recommendation he and with, the issue of race discrimi- urban areas. These laws, com- his party were ousted from power nation and the denial of rights monly known as the ‘Pass Laws’, in May 1948 by the pro-apartheid to Black South Africans was the were based on a policy that went National Party. matter of overriding concern. back to 1922; the laws allowed Helen was shocked. The Pass Blacks to come to the urban areas Laws were not only going to stay, ~ when their services were required they were going to be enforced by the Whites, but had return to even more harshly. But more Helen and I first met in June the Native Reserves when the than this: where was South Africa 1954 at a lunch arranged by Tony 34 Journal of Liberal History 66 Spring 2010 helen suzman: an AppreciatIoN Delius, the poet, author and par- of the United Party in August ‘hands on’ politician and a tena- liamentary correspondent of the 1959, Helen was one of the cious fighter for the causes she Cape Times. She was complet- focal points of the conserva- believed in. She made sure of her ing her second year as MP for tives’ onslaught on the liberals. facts. She went to see for herself. Houghton, while I was about to This came to a head when, at the She visited prisons, spoke to become a member of the Cape behest of the conservatives, the political prisoners and detainees Provincial Council. I found her congress adopted a resolution and saw the conditions in which to be very attractive, physically, through which the party reneged they were held. She went to find politically and intellectually. I on an undertaking it had given out what was happening in the realised that behind her sparkling to provide land for ‘native set- squatter camps. She spoke to peo- blue eyes there was a sharp mind tlement.’ Helen was one of nine ple being harassed under the Pass and a tough will. We seemed to be of us public representatives who Laws or being evicted from their on the same political wavelength, met that evening and issued a homes under the Group Areas and to share the same judgment of statement condemning the con- Act. the political players of that time. gress resolution, knowing that Armed with first-hand infor- That lunch marked the start of a our action would lead to our mation she returned to the fray, personal friendship and a mutu- expulsion or resignation from the questioning harassing, badger- ally supportive relationship that party. ing the apartheid ministers and lasted for more than fifty years A week later, a number of lib- bureaucrats. Using parliament during which we worked together erals who had resigned from the as a platform she demanded the in liberal opposition politics both party met in Helen’s Johannes- attention of the apartheid rul- inside and outside parliament. burg home to form a ‘progres- ers, she got the ear of the media, Over the years I came to sive group’ with the intention of she endured the vilification of appreciate her keen intellect, developing it into a liberal anti- the racial bigots, she earned the to understand her commitment apartheid political party.
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