Veteran South African anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman died yesterday aged 91. Her daughter Frances Jowell said she died peacefully home in Johannesburg.

Veteran South African anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman died yesterday aged 91.

Her daughter Frances Jowell said she died peacefully home in Johannesburg.

The family plans to follow a private funeral this weekend with a public memorial in February.

Helen Suzman had a special place in South African history, being generally recognised as the most effective parliamentary fighter against apartheid policies.

For 13 years - from 1961 to 1974 - she was the sole representative in the South African parliament of the liberal Progressive Party, forerunner of the Democratic Party.

Suzman was born in Germiston, Gauteng, on November 7, 1917 to a Jewish Lithuanian immigrant couple.

In 1937, aged 19, she married doctor Moses Meyer Suzman. The couple had two daughters.

She became an MP for the opposition United Party (UP) in 1953. By 1959 the UP was deeply divided between conservative and progressive groups and 11 MPs, including Suzman, resigned to form a new Progressive Party (PP) In the 1961 general election Suzman was the only member of the party to retain her seat. She remained its sole parliamentary representative until 1974, when she was joined by seven colleagues.

Suzman retired from politics in 1989. During her parliamentary career she was hailed as apartheid's most effective parliamentary critic.

In recognition of her role, Suzman received honorary doctorates from a number of leading universities throughout the world and South Africa. Among them were Oxford, Cambridge, Columbia (New York), Harvard, Witwatersrand and Cape Town. She was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1978 she received the United Nations Award for Human Rights.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela, whom Suzman visited on Robben Island during his imprisonment there, has referred to her as "a remarkable South African woman".

World-renowned South African author Nadine Gordimer said: "Helen Suzman had the brains and dignity to stick to her weapons and their target; her impeccably informed gift of debate hit the bull's eye of apartheid laws."

Senior Labour MP Peter Hain, who grew up in South Africa, paid tribute to Suzman. He said: "She was a doughty champion of human rights and a thorn in the side of the apartheid government in some of the most difficult, darkest times.

"In her visits to Nelson Mandela and his comrades on Robben Island, she also helped improve conditions in the prison. So she was an important figure in the change that came about."