76 Facts About Helen Zille

Otta Helene Maree, known as Helen Zille, is a South African politician.

Helen Zille has served as the Chairperson of the Federal Council of the Democratic Alliance since 20 October 2019.

Helen Zille served as Federal Leader of the Democratic Alliance from 2007 to 2015 and as Mayor of Cape Town from 2006 to 2009.

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

Helen Zille was selected as World Mayor of the Year in 2008.

Helen Zille was chosen as Newsmaker of the Year 2006 by the National Press Club in July 2007.

Helen Zille started her own podcast, Tea with Helen, in August 2019.

Helen Zille declared her candidacy for Federal Council Chairperson of the DA in October 2019.

Helen Zille was born in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, the eldest child of parents who separately left Germany in the 1930s to avoid Nazi persecution due to the fact that her maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother were Jewish.

Helen Zille was believed to be the grandniece of the Berlin painter Heinrich Helen Zille.

Helen Zille gave corresponding hints by herself in the past but withdrew them in her autobiography published in 2016.

Helen Zille's mother was a volunteer with the Black Sash Advice Office.

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

Helen Zille and her editor Allister Sparks were convinced Kruger's story was a cover-up, and Helen Zille obtained concrete proof of this after tracking down and interviewing doctors involved in the case.

Helen Zille resigned from the Rand Daily Mail along with editor Allister Sparks, after the paper's owner, Anglo American, demanded that Sparks quit the paper's equal rights rhetoric.

Helen Zille was heavily involved in the Black Sash movement during the 1980s.

Helen Zille served on the regional and national executives of the organisation, and was vice-chair of the End Conscription Campaign in the Western Cape.

Helen Zille was actively involved in the South Africa Beyond Apartheid Project and the Cape Town Peace Committee.

Helen Zille later gathered evidence for the Goldstone Commission which investigated attempts to destabilise the Western Cape before the elections in 1994.

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.

Helen Zille was then invited by the Democratic Party to write a draft policy for Education in the Western Cape.

In 2004, Helen Zille became a Member of Parliament with the DA.

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

Helen Zille has faced considerable opposition and confrontation from the ANC.

Helen Zille called for the promotion of drug rehabilitation centres and further funding from the government to battle drug abuse and met with local communities to discuss the issue.

Helen Zille objected to plans to incorporate the metro police into the broader police service, arguing that such a move would remove considerable power from local government and vest more control in the hands of the National Police Commissioner at the time, Jackie Selebi, who was later convicted of corruption.

On 15 March 2007, Helen Zille declared herself a candidate to succeed outgoing leader of the DA, Tony Leon.

When she became the leader of the DA, Helen Zille challenged the majority government on several issues.

Helen Zille has accused the national government of rewarding criminals by placing individuals convicted of serious crimes high up on their national parliamentary lists.

Helen Zille has said that the DA would reinstate child protection units, the South African Narcotics Bureau and the Scorpions unit, all of which have been disbanded.

Helen Zille said the party's comprehensive new crime plan would include provisions for a Victims of Crime Fund.

Helen Zille warned against the controversial National Health Amendment Bill, legislation allowing greater state intervention in private health care.

Helen Zille warned that the state would destroy the system.

Helen Zille outlined the possibility that the Bill could drive away thousands of skilled medical professionals.

Helen Zille cited racism directed towards those in the judiciary, and has criticised the perceived double standards vocally.

Helen Zille was then arrested when she visited the police station to investigate.

Helen Zille appeared in the Mitchell's Plain Magistrates Court later that week for contravening the Regulation of Gatherings Act.

Helen Zille was expected to sue the Minister of Police for wrongful arrest.

Helen Zille subsequently appeared briefly before the Mitchell's Plain Magistrates Court together with a group of ten persons who had been arrested with her.

In October 2007, Helen Zille was acquitted of all charges brought before the Mitchell's Plain Magistrates Court on the grounds that the prosecution's case against her and nine other defendants did not stand a chance of succeeding.

Helen Zille reiterated her intention to sue the South African Police Service branch in the Western Cape for wrongful arrest.

In March 2008, Helen Zille took her anti-drugs campaign to Johannesburg, leading a protest march.

Helen Zille is a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reformation of the United Nations; she believes that it is necessary as it will "ensure that the citizens of every country feel more connected to the UN and its programmes".

Helen Zille was the winner of the 2008 World Mayor Award in October 2008, out of 820 world mayors nominated.

Helen Zille was selected as the candidate for Premier of the Western Cape, and her party succeeded in winning a 51.46 percent of the province's vote.

In May 2009, shortly after being elected Premier, Helen Zille wrote a letter to the Cape Argus newspaper that was accidentally copied by her spokesperson to the Sowetan newspaper.

The paper stated that Helen Zille had "launched an extraordinary new attack" on Zuma.

The ANC Youth League claimed Helen Zille was racist, and that her all-male cabinet consisted of "boyfriends and concubines so that she can continue to sleep around with them".

The ANC criticised Helen Zille, but distanced itself from the remarks of its Youth League, stating that they were "deeply embarrassing".

In May 2009, Helen Zille accused the ANC of asset stripping.

Helen Zille related to the transfer of 1 000 hectares of provincial land in the Western Cape to a national body.

Helen Zille alleged that the deal was done "secretly, in bad faith and with an ulterior motive".

When confronted about the membership, Helen Zille noted that no other ordinary members were subject to tests or "due diligence" investigations, but that the DA's constitution required Dalindyebo's membership to be terminated if his appeals failed.

Helen Zille was constitutionally barred from running for a third term as premier, as the South African constitution prohibits a premier from serving more than two consecutive terms.

Helen Zille soon suspended her IRR fellowship in October 2019.

Helen Zille tried to reach out to EFF leader, Julius Malema, but he rejected the invitation.

Helen Zille was elected as Federal Council Chairperson of the DA in October 2019 after the retirement of incumbent James Selfe.

Helen Zille announced her candidacy for the position after she described the party as being in "distress and political turmoil" following the first period of electoral decline in the party's history.

Helen Zille was re-elected to the position in April 2023.

The DA and mayor Helen Zille drew criticism for their response to the 2008 xenophobic attacks in Cape Town.

In particular, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel accused Helen Zille of "fanning the flames", by speaking out against foreign drug dealers while on a visit to Mitchell's Plain.

Helen Zille responded that she had been completely misquoted, and challenged Manuel to read newspaper transcripts of her speech.

Helen Zille has accused the ANC government of creating a dependency culture lacking of economic development that has fuelled xenophobia.

Helen Zille's statement followed on from a protest in Grabouw about overcrowding at a local school.

Helen Zille later apologized and said she was "very, very sorry about the impact of those words".

Helen Zille said "What I was trying to show up was what Education Minister Angie Motshekga calls a 'horror story' of education in much of the Eastern Cape".

In March 2017, after a trip to Singapore and Japan which cost R600,000 for five people, Helen Zille commented on Twitter that the legacy of colonialism was not all bad because it had left a legacy of infrastructure and institutions, which South Africa could build upon.

Helen Zille was investigated for her comments about the legacy of colonialism by the Human Rights Commission for "a potential violation of human dignity".

Helen Zille agreed with her that colonialism was not solely negative, and noted that many prominent intellectuals, including Chinua Achebe, Ali Mazrui, Godfrey Mwakikagile and Manmohan Singh, have expressed similar sentiments.

The ANC and Economic Freedom Fighters both demanded that Helen Zille be removed from her position as Western Cape Premier.

Helen Zille's continued defence of her comments exacerbated internal friction in the Democratic Alliance between her and her detractors, and was seen to undermine the party leader, Maimane.

Helen Zille defended herself by stating that she had gone without an assistant in order to limit the expense of the trip.

In late-June 2020, Helen Zille commented on Twitter that "There are more racist laws today than there were under apartheid".

Helen Zille pointed out that, based on research by James Myburgh, the Apartheid government passed 59 pieces of race-based legislation over a period of 70 years, whereas the post-Apartheid government has passed 90 laws with racial representativity mandates over a period of 25 years.

Helen Zille married Professor Johann Maree in 1982, and they have two sons.

Helen Zille is a member of the Rondebosch United Church in Cape Town.