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She was a tireless advocate for equality and justice in South Africa, in the United Kingdom and throughout the world.
'She has always been a marvellous friend and comrade . . . She shows you can be both steadfast and principled and at the same time radiate joy, humour and fun. Babette was a beautiful, brave person, easy to love, hard to say goodbye to . . .' Judge Albie Sachs
Babette was born in 1931 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In 1963, she left with her husband, Mannie Brown, and four children for exile in the UK. Her mother and her grandmother had also been exiles, arriving in Cape Town in 1903 on ‘poor-ships’ from Kovno, Lithuania escaping the Russian pogrom against the Jews. Babette’s mother lived in District Six for some years before moving to Johannesburg where she would marry Babette’s father, Lipman Kotkin, who worked in the coal delivery business.
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