What if Helen Suzman was an underground ANC member of the Mandela Detachment?

A lot has been written about the passing away of South Africa greatest liberal hero, Helen Suzman.

I guess the reasons for this are obvious: she held center stage in national politics when Nelson Mandela was in jail, Oliver Tambo in exile, Steve Biko murdered and Robert Sobukwe restricted.

But I must say that I find offerings and responses to be knee-jerk and predictable. Generally, we are still suffering political myopia and burdened with the heavy load of apartheid baggage.

To those of a darker hue, Suzman was “white” and thus could not understand or identify with the so-called “black” struggle.

To those who are light complexioned, she is a true revelation of how “whites” fought for black freedom.

Well, I am not sure if any of this helps.

What I want to offer is this: what if Helen Suzman was an underground member of the Nelson Mandela Detachment?

Is it not possible that, through her prison visits and contact with Mandela, he could have gotten her to be a clandestine member of the ANC underground?

Is it not possible that Suzman could have stayed on in the white supremacist parliament for 36 years because she was the conduit for the ideas of Mandela and the banned ANC?
You see, it does not matter much now to look at people’s skin colour and on the basis of that decide whether they fought the good fight for freedom or not.

There are countless people in this country who have made their contribution inside and outside of the public eye.

Of course, Suzman was in the full glare of the publicity spotlight.

But we should not rule out the possibility that she could have been carrying out Mandela’s orders.

She was that lone voice in the wilderness … that millions of Africans looked up to and identified with.

In fact, millions of Africans just loved and appreciated her personal self-sacrifice!

She was a voice of conscience that offered them HOPE.

She used her position of white privilege to undermine the racist and oppressive system.
In fact, she used her position as a white MP to read out a large section of the closing statement of Mandela when his voice could no longer be heard because he was banned.

It is a serious mistake for all of us, 15 years after freedom and democracy, to continue to look at the colour or size of who did what.

Perhaps it is time that we knitted the parts together so that we can come up with a genuinely South African weave.

Also, it is none other than Mandela himself who said in 1958: “The Parliamentary forum must be exploited to put forth the principle of a democratic and progressive South Africa. Let the democratic movement have a voice both inside and outside parliament.”

Maybe we need to appreciate that underground political activity covered a wide range of people, situations and perspectives.

If Suzman and Mandela are of the same age and were close for so many decades, for instance, is it not possible that they could have shared and pursued the same dream?

Were these two great visionaries not a team?

I guess Suzman is not here to speak for herself, now.

But who knows, she could have been performing to Mandela’s instructions and expectations.

Let her soul rest in peace and we do what we have to do to carry the South African dream and vision forward.

She was an agent of what she wanted to see.

That is the biggest contribution that anyone can make to the creation of a non-racist, non-sexist and democratic South Africa!

And it does not matter whether you are white or … black!