Helen Suzman knows best the role of the official opposition, so her letters to Douglas Gibson and Tony Leon (September 11 and 12) give the Democratic Alliance (DA) a chance to grow as a party.

Her message? How you do things matters as much as what you do.

Her advice? Be adult, concede “Pensiongate” backfired and apologise to Zanele Mbeki.

The result? The DA loses some face, but it gets back to pointing fingers with clean hands.

The problem? The DA tries too hard to be heard and too little to be liked, so when it is right, few listen, and when it is wrong, many jeer.

The lesson? No one is perfect, be humbler about DA mistakes and kinder about African National Congress mistakes.

The reward? A popular party we can respect.

One good outcome already: a struggle hero out of silence. Does the editor have a column for her?