Anti-apartheid icon Suzman buried

Anti-apartheid icon Suzman buried
Hundreds of mourners have attended the funeral of South Africa's celebrated anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman, who died on New Year's Day aged 91. Mrs Suzman, who for years was the only lawmaker to openly condemn the whites-only regime, was buried in a private Jewish ceremony in Johannesburg. The mourners included President Kgalema Motlanther and the last leader of apartheid regime, F W de Klerk. Mr de Klerk described Mrs Suzman as "one of South Africa's great icons".
"Suzman was my mentor, she was opposed to the abuse of power by the old apartheid regime," South Africa's opposition leader Helen Zille - who also attended the funeral - said. "She was also opposed to the current abuses of power by the current ANC [African National Congress] government," Ms Zille added. For 13 years, Mrs Suzman, the daughter of Jewish Lithuanian immigrants, was the only MP to openly condemn South Africa's whites-only apartheid regime. She was made an honorary dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1989. She was also twice-nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Mrs Suzman, who had been in a frail condition recently, died at her home in Johannesburg early on Thursday.

What a sad loss of an amazing voice. Her role to continually attack the apartheid regime and to demand answers from Police Chiefs after they had carried out yet another injustice and her visting the victims of that tyranny made her a conscience to a political process that simply tried to smother that conscience. She was an amazing person.