Mandela silent about Suzman’s death

The death of Helen Suzman, the anti-apartheid campaigner and Nobel peace prize nominee, has prompted a rich crop of tributes from her friends and admirers. However, one person who has yet to come forward with words of praise is Thabo Mbeki, who stood down as South Africa's president in September last year.

Suzman (pictured), who was 91, remained forthright about Mbeki's failings until the end of her life. In July last year, she told the BBC: "I'm extremely disappointed at what's happening, and I have to put most of the blame on Thabo Mbeki for two particularly obnoxious things he's done - his denialist attitude to Aids, and secondly Zimbabwe and the dreadful backing of Robert Mugabe.

"But there are other things too - crime, corruption, the failure to deliver on the promise of a better of life for all, the unemployment and the appalling conditions under which millions are still living."

Interestingly, while the chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Achmat Dangor, described Suzman as "a great patriot and a fearless fighter against apartheid", Mandela himself, whom she visited while he was imprisoned on Robben Island, has yet to make any direct comment on her passing.

Mandela clearly admired Suzman, awarding her the Order of Merit (gold) in recognition of her work in 1997, however he made no secret of the fact that he thought her participation in the South Africa political process during the apartheid era - she was an MP from 1953 until her retirement in 1989 – was unacceptable.