Cope salutes Helen Suzman

2009-01-01 19:06

Johannesburg - President of the Congress of the People Mosiuoa Lekota said on Thursday that he - and others imprisoned on Robben Island - would always remain indebted to the late former anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman.

"No doubt, those of us who spent years of imprisonment on Robben Island will always remember with gratitude Helen's dispersed visits to the island to inspect the conditions under which we were kept," Lekota said.

"She would then return as a lone voice to expose the apartheid regime's inhuman treatment of political prisoners."

Lekota said these visits and the subsequent exposure of living conditions on the island led to substantive improvements in prisoners' conditions of incarceration, "for which we will always remain indebted to her".

Lekota said that collectively, South Africans should now reflect on how best to acknowledge Suzman's significant contribution to society and in what ways her legacy could be preserved.

"On behalf of the Congress of the People and together with all other South Africans, we halt in step to salute an individual who devoted the best years of her life advocating an open and democratic South Africa," Lekota said.

- SAPA