15 Things you don’t know about Helen Zille

1.  Helen Zille was born 9 March 1951 in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, the eldest child of parents who separately left Germany in the 1930s

2.  Helen Zille was educated at Johannesburg’s St Mary’s School, Waverley and the University of the Witwatersrand, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree.

3.  Helen Zille is a former journalist and anti-apartheid activist, and was one of the journalists who exposed the truth behind the death of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko while working for the Rand Daily Mail in the late 1970s

4.  Helen Zille began her career as a political correspondent for the Rand Daily Mail in 1974

5.  Helen Zille also worked with the Black Sash and other pro-democracy groups during the 1980s

6.  Helen Zille formed a public policy consultancy in 1989 and in 1993 she was offered the position of Director of Development and Public Affairs at the University of Cape Town

7.  Helen Zille was then invited by the then Democratic Party to write a draft policy for Education in the Western Cape. In 1999 she became a Member of the Western Cape Provincial Legislature, and was appointed MEC for Education

8.  In 2004 Helen Zille became a Member of Parliament with the Democratic Alliance (DA). Within the DA she rose to the level of deputy federal chairperson and served as national party spokesperson and spokesperson for education

9.  Helen Zille was elected mayor by 106 votes to 103 on 15 March 2006, after the DA obtained the support of several smaller parties.

10.  Under Helen Zille, Cape Town’s debt was also cut by nearly R1 billion, which allowed capital for service delivery to be increased by 15%

11.  Crime declined by 90% in the city’s CBD over a period of five years, which Helen Zille attributed to collaboration between the police service, metro police and the Cape Town Partnership

12.  In April 2008, Helen Zille was asked to address the UN in New York on population and development, offering her experience and lessons as mayor of Cape Town.

13.  Helen Zille was nominated as one of 820 world mayors and was winner of the 2008 World Mayor award in October 2008

14.  Helen Zille speaks English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa as well as German, the language of her parents

15.  Helen Zille married Professor Johann Maree in 1982, and they have two sons, Paul (born in 1984) and Thomas (1989). She is a member of the Rondebosch United Church in Cape Town