Tribute: The Helen Suzman Foundation mourns the passing for Roshan Arnold
24 May 2022
It is with the greatest sadness that we at the Helen Suzman Foundation announce the passing of our beloved administrator, Roshan Arnold.
Roshan first joined the HSF nine years ago. As Francis Antonie, HSF’s former director notes, “she quickly became the central figure in the social organisation of HSF. Nothing seemed to escape her notice.” That was true whether it concerned visitors to HSF, communications with stakeholders, staff birthdays or catering for events. As Anton van Dalsen recalls, Rosh proceeded on the “assumption that it was unthinkable to have a staff meeting without an array of home-baked muffins and other delicacies, which she herself produced.”
Roshan was the heart of HSF’s Friends of the Foundation – joyfully welcoming new friends and actively nurturing existing friendships. She brought to this endeavour the same customary warmth, humour and kindness as she did during her many years of broadcasting at Radio Islam and work with Life Line.
We, her colleagues, were often the greatest beneficiaries of that extraordinary capacity for friendship. As Sophie Smit remarks, “Roshan celebrated everyone in the office, turning weekly meetings into birthday feasts, and quietly taking care of staff when they needed it.” Christopher Fisher echoes this, saying: “her acts of kindness and words of wisdom betrayed a level of care for me that was unmistakably maternal in its character and effect. I will now treasure various items of Tupperware, unwittingly gifted to me by Roshan, that once contained edible tokens of her affection. She treated me like family and I will forever remember her that way in turn.”