Johannesburg - Helen Suzman, who spent more than a decade as a lonely parliamentary voice against the racial policies of the former white minority South African regime, died Thursday at age 91, reported the SAPA news agency.

Suzman's daughter, Frances Jowell, told the news agency that Suzman died peacefully in her home in Johannesburg.

Suzman joined parliament as a member of the opposition United Party in 1953. After an internal party divide, she joined the newly created Progressive Party and proceeded to be that party's only member of parliament from 1961 to 1974, when seven other party members joined the legislature.

During her political career, she was often hailed as the most effective parliamentary critic of apartheid, the racially segregationist policy of South Africa from 1948 to 1990.

Due to her stances, she developed a particularly acerbic relationship with former president PW Botha, reported the SAPA news agency.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela, who was a political prisoner during the apartheid era, has referred to her as a "remarkable South African woman."

She retired from politics in 1989.

Suzman was born November 7, 1917 in Germiston, near Johannesburg, the daughter of Lithuanian immigrants. (dpa)