STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
A legendary opponent of apartheid in South Africa has died. For many years, Helen Suzman was the only member of parliament to speak out forcefully against racial segregation. Nelson Mandela said she was the only woman to visit him and other black prisoners. Helen Suzman was white. Back in 1993, she spoke with NPR a few months before the country's first multiracial elections.
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M: Trying to maintain segregation in an integrated economy was absolutely hopeless, and it meant terrible disaster to the lives of millions of people. Naturally, bitterness built up over the years and black resistance escalated. And that's why the government, over and over again, had to introduce states of emergency.
INSKEEP: Helen Suzman was 91. She died on New Year's Day. And to learn more about Suzman's life, we've called Charlayne Hunter-Gault in Capetown, South Africa. Welcome back to the program.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER: Thank you, Steve. It's great to be here. Happy New Year.
INSKEEP: Happy New Year to you. Helen Suzman sounds like a courageous woman, particularly since she was fighting this cause many, many, many years ago.
HUNTER: Yes. She was an amazing woman, and I'm so happy that I got to know her over the years. She was the lone voice in parliament fighting against the repressive laws that - particularly the ones that kept people, black people, from moving around. You know, they had to carry passes, and also there were times when whites wanted particular areas of land and property, and they would have what they called forced removals. They would just move black people out to some place way away from where their normal homes were and think nothing of it. And so, she fought against all of those things. And also, another one of the more repressive of the apartheid laws was detention without trial, and she, herself a trained lawyer, as the sole representative of her party, the Liberal Progressive Party in parliament, she stood up, she spoke truth to power, and she never, never backed down in the face of just enormous opposition.
INSKEEP: What was she like when you were in the room with her?
HUNTER: In fact, you know, I was just reading one of the obituaries and - in which they said that, you know, several people she told over the past few weeks that she was about to leave the earth, she was passing on. But one of her colleagues was telling me that he was forever - she was forever calling him to see if he would take care of her dogs because she said, you know, I'm not going to be here very long. Well, that went on for several years.
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HUNTER: But she was the most self-deprecating person. She achieved just an enormous amount in terms of bringing apartheid and this retched system to the eyes and ears of the international - and conscience of the international community, but she was very self-deprecating.
INSKEEP: Just a couple of seconds left: Was she satisfied, do you think, with what happened after the end of apartheid?
HUNTER: No. You know, Helen Suzman was the kind of woman who spoke truth to power no matter what, and while she was hailed by Mandela as being a champion that helped end apartheid, she spoke truth to the black-led government, too. There were many things that they were doing that she was opposed to, and so she never, you know, hesitated to call out what she saw as people committing injustices or not staying on the right democratic path.
INSKEEP: OK.
HUNTER: And you know, calling people to account...
INSKEEP: OK.
HUNTER: Over something that she herself fought for, for many, many years.
INSKEEP: Charlayne Hunter-Gault in the death of Helen Suzman. You're listening to NPR News.