Helen Zille

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Helen Zille
Helen Zille
Born 9 March 1951
Johannesburg
Political party Democratic Alliance

Helen Zille (9 March 1951 -) is the mayor of Cape Town in South Africa's Western Cape province and a member of the Democratic Alliance political party. She was formerly employed as a journalist, and is best-known for exposing Steve Biko's death.

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[edit] Early Life and Career

After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Zille began her career as a political journalist for the Rand Daily Mail, she famously exposed the truth behind Steve Biko's death. At this time she became politically active in the Democratic Party Her editor at the time, Allister Sparks recalls: 'She was the star cadet on the Rand Daily Mail'.

She was previously involved in the Black Sash movement, the End Conscription Campaign, the South Africa Beyond Apartheid Project and the Cape Town Peace Committee. She also gathered evidence for the Goldstone Commission which investigated attempts to destabilise the Western Cape before the elections in 1994. Zille is also able to speak isiXhosa.

She held the position of head of Public Relations for the University of Cape Town. As head of governing body of Grove Primary School in 1997, she led a successful challenge against government policy limiting governing bodies' powers to appoint staff[1].

She was the MEC for Education in the Western Cape and subsequently became a Member of Parliament for the DA. Within the DA she rose to the level of deputy federal chairperson and was the national party spokesperson and spokesperson for education.

She was a finalist in the South African Woman of the Year Award in 2003 [2].

[edit] Mayoralty

In the 2006 municipal elections, the DA became the single largest party in Cape Town with 42% of the vote, ahead of the African National Congress (ANC). Helen Zille was elected by 106 votes to 103 on 15 March 2006, after the DA obtained the support of several smaller parties.

Zille has faced considerable opposition and confrontation with the ANC, in September 2006, the provincial ANC MEC Richard Dyanti, announced he planned to replace the city's political system. Dyanti wanted to impose an executive committee system, changing the mayoral committee system, the move would have resulted in Zille being stripped of her executive mayoral powers and her power considerably reduced. Under this policy, the winning party would not be able to assign every one of the ten seats - rather these would be allocated on a proportional representation basis. The matter was later resolved, with Dyanti and Zille settling on the terms of retaining the current mayoral system whilst the ANC was provided with two additional sub-committees in areas of the city controlled by the ANC.

[edit] Position in the DA

On 15th March 2007 Zille declared herself as candidate to succeed the outgoing leader of the Democratic Alliance, Tony Leon, at the party's federal congress in May of 2007. She is regarded as a strong contender. [3]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


Preceded by
Nomaindia Mfeketo		 Mayor of Cape Town
2006 -		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
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