Top 10 Things You Don’t Know About Helen Zille
Helen Zille is the Premier of the Western Cape Province in South Africa. She is also the Leader of the Democratic Alliance and Councillor of the City of Cape Town. Zille previously was the Mayor of Cape Town. She was also the Director of Communications at the University of Cape Town. Here are the top 10 things you don’t know about her.
1) Helen Zille was born in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. Her parents left Germany to come stay in South Africa in the 1930’s.
2) She went to school at Johannesburg’s St Mary’s School and the graduated at Wits, with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
3) She married Professor Johann Maree in 1982, and they have two sons, Paul (born in 1984) and Thomas (1989).
4) 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 Mailin the late 1970s.
5) Zille was heavily involved in the Black Sash movement during the 1980s. She served on the regional and national executives of the organization, and was also vice-chair of the End Conscription Campaign in the Western Cape. During this time she was arrested for being in a “group area” without a permit, and received a suspended prison sentence.
6) On 6 May 2007, Zille was elected as the party leader for the DA. In September 2007, Zille was arrested in Mitchells Plain for protesting against drugs, under the Regulation of Gatherings Act. Four weeks later, Zille and her co-accused were found not guilty.
7) Zille was nominated as one of 820 world mayors and was the first African to win the World Mayor award in October 2008.
8) In April 2008, Zille was asked to address the UN in New York on population and development, offering her experience and lessons as mayor of Cape Town.
9) Zille speaks fluent English, Afrikaans, Xhosa and German.
10) In her own house she has a guest bed room called the Madiba’s room, which was inspired by the Nelson Mandela’s prison room on Rhoben Island.
