An American woman was awarded on Tuesday one of South Africa's highest state honours for forgiving the men who stoned her daughter to death in the dying days of apartheid.

Linda Biehl was named to the Order of Companions of O R Tambo by President Thabo Mbeki at a ceremony in Pretoria, the office of the presidency said in a statement on its website.

Biehl and her husband Peter captured the hearts of South Africans in 1993 when they publicly forgave the killers of their daughter, Amy Biehl, a Fulbright scholar who was working with poor communities in the country.

The 26-year-old woman was killed on Aug. 25, 1993 when she drove into the Guguletu township outside Cape Town to drop off three black friends and was attacked by a crowd returning from a rally of the militant Pan African Congress.

Members of the mob chased Biehl and stoned and stabbed her to death as she begged for mercy in the dust.

The murder, coming about one year before the country's first all-race elections, shocked the country and the world.

The four black youths convicted of the crime were released from prison in 1998 after they were granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was set up in 1995 to investigate rights abuses during apartheid.

The Biehls did not oppose the amnesty, and they later hired two of the murderers to work in a foundation they set up in their daughter's name. The foundation helps community projects in the townships where Amy Biehl worked.

Linda Biehl was among some three dozen people honoured for contributing to South Africa's democracy. Previous winners of the Tambo award include U.S. civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi, the father of Indian independence.

Peter Biehl died in 2002.