In this file photo taken on March 14, 2018, former apartheid struggle stalwart and human rights lawyer George Bizos looks on at the inaugural George Bizos Human Rights Award in Johannesburg. South African lawyer and human rights activist George Bizos, who defended anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela and became his friend after helping him escape the death penalty, has died on September 9, 2020, at the age of 92, the South African president announced. (Photo by GULSHAN KHAN / AFP)
On his CV George Bizos listed his finest accolades, including having represented some of the founding fathers of South Africa’s democracy in court and received a host of international humanitarian awards. Also there, though, was that he was “a keen vegetable gardener” and, perhaps his proudest achievement, his family.
“He was a great family man, with a great set of family values,” his son, Damon Bizos, said on Thursday, speaking in the wake of his father’s death a day earlier.
Bizos died at his home in Parktown, aged 92. Damon said his father’s health had started to slip and that he had been at home for several months.
He died surrounded by family.
As he and his family grieved their loss, Damon said they found comfort in knowing Bizos had lived “an extraordinary life”.
“He couldn’t have done anything better,” Damon said.
He was still learning just how many lives his father had touched and recently discovered Bizos had taken from his own pocket to help political detainees’ families during apartheid.
“And he never said anything,” Damon said. “He was never one to blow his own trumpet”.
But Bizos was also a proud family man and Damon spoke of having many cherished memories of spending time with his father on the weekends.
“He worked hard and would often be very busy during the week but Sundays were family days. He always made sure he wasn’t working on Sundays and we would have these wonderful big Greek family gatherings,” he said.
Bizos’ wife – Arethe Daflos, known as ‘Rita’ – was the love of his life.
He met Daflos, then an art student, in 1948.
The two were married in 1954 and they remained inseparable up until Daflos’ death in 2017, shortly before Bizos’ 90th birthday.
“He loved her so dearly,” Damon said. “We grew up in a household full of love.”
As a father, Bizos encouraged his children to follow their own paths.
“He never gave direct advice,” Damon said, “but through the example he set, we learnt hard work, determination, stamina and to never compromise on what we believe in.”
Bizos is survived by his three sons and seven grandchildren.
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