Gideon Rachman: Memories of Helen Suzman

FT: My earliest political memories are of Helen Suzman, the veteran anti-apartheid MP, who died yesterday.
I was born in London, but I lived in South Africa for three years from 1968-70 - between the ages of five and eight. I think it was probably possible to grow up in London completely oblivious to politics, but that wasn’t really an option in South Africa. My first political memory is of a general election in apartheid South Africa - seeing posters for Suzman being nailed to trees in the rich, liberal Johannesburg constituency of Houghton that she represented.

Reading the obituaries of Suzman this morning, I was struck both by her bravery and her wit. She was the only anti-apartheid MP for many years and she was sharp. I particularly liked her reply, when accused by the prime minister of asking parliamentary questions that embarrassed South Africa - “It’s not my questions that are embarrassing. It’s your answers.”