She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize twice and won praise from human rights organisations from around the world. SAPA quoted her daughter Frances Jowell as saying she died peacefully in her Johannesburg home. She was for 36 years South Africa's most famous white crusader against apartheid, waging an often lonely parliamentary battle, Reuters news stated.

She was one of the few whites to earn any respect from black South Africans. Suzman regularly visited jailed black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964.

Remembering Suzman's first visit with him in B-Section of Robben Island prison, Mandela once said: "It was an odd and wonderful sight to see this courageous woman peering into our cells and strolling around our courtyard. She was the first and only woman ever to grace our cells."

The Nelson Mandela Foundation said South Africa had lost a "great patriot and a fearless fighter against apartheid".

The frail-looking champion of non-white rights was the longest serving member of the country's white parliament and had been an unrelenting campaigner for the enfranchisement of the black majority. She retired in May 1989.[\html]