Helen Suzman, one of South Africa's most celebrated white anti-apartheid campaigners, has died at the age of 91.

The SAPA news agency quoted her daughter Frances Jowell on Thursday as saying she died peacefully in her Johannesburg home.

Suzman was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize twice.

She won praise and awards from human rights organisations from around the world.

For 13 years, Suzman was the only opposition politician in South Africa's parliament, raising her voice time after time against the introduction of racist legislation by the National Party government.

Her greatest achievement was helping to ensure that the pass laws, which restricted the movement of black people, were abolished.

Achmat Dangor, chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation said Suzman was a "great patriot and a fearless fighter against apartheid".

She visited Mandela, a leader of the then banned African National Congress, in prison in 1967.

Suzman retired in 1989, after being a member of the parliament for 36 years.

Her parents moved to South Africa after fleeing anti-Semitism in Russia.