Saying Helen Zille is not an influential woman in the world of politics would be a disservice to her illustrious career as an opposition leader and strategist, considering the role she has played in positioning young women in key political roles, and challenging the status quo. However, controversial things she does, tweets and says, sometimes threaten her illustrious legacy in politics.
Helen Zille has mentored a number of young black women in the DA, and used her influence to promote women in strategic leadership roles. It is not a secret that Helen Zille influenced the ascendency of Lindiwe Mazibuko to DA leadership back in 2011. The same Helen also endorsed the appointment of a young Mbali Ntuli as the former Provincial Campaigns Director for the DA in KZN and had Phumzile Van Damme as an MP of the DA. Phumzile ended up in strategic legislative portfolio committees where her impact was felt far and wide, especially the telecommunications one.
Her notable achievements include substantially reducing crime in the Western Cape by over a 10-year period, although she struggled to properly address the gangsterism problem in some communities. She secured the FIFA World Cup for Cape Town (when she was an Executive Mayor) and also helped push a Western Cape investment drive that helped curb the unemployment rate of Cape Town during her tenure etc.
In her early days, Zille worked as a journalist covering politics for the Rand Daily Mail during the apartheid era, she worked at the newspaper establishment for 8 years. Zille developed her love for governance and politics during her tenure as a journalist and she became actively involved in politics. It was during her time as a journalist that she uncovered the truth about the death of Steve Biko, a leader of the Black Consciousness Movement, who died while in police custody. Zille quickly gained a reputation for being a prominent critic of apartheid. Zille was involved in NGOs and was a member of several anti-apartheid organizations such as the Black Sash, the Open Society Foundation and the Independent Media Diversity Trust. During this time, she was also the press officer for the University of Cape Town
Just like that, her pollical career took off as she joined the Democratic Party, which later changed to the Democratic Alliance. In 2006, the DA became the largest party in Cape Town, and Zille was elected as mayor of the city. As Mayor of Cape Town, she has fought against drug abuse, and gangsterism, and sought to improve economic growth, create employment and improve service delivery in the Western Cape. It seems as if her focus and efforts into eradicating the City of Cape Town of all its ills was not in vain because Zille was awarded the Mayor of the Year Award in 2008. On 5 May 2009, Zille became the Premier of the Western Cape, controlling the only province not run by the African National Congress (ANC). This was a massive achievement as this was the first time a woman was at the forefront of politics and actually dominating the scene. Zille helped promote women’s leadership and political participation within South Africa at a time when women were underrepresented in politics
One would argue that Helen Zille’s strategic move of including diversity in the DA helped the DA get a more diversified group of voters including what is known as “The black vote” where the DA saw an increasing number of people of colour voters during her tenure, which could be directly linked to Helen Zille’s influence in politics. Zille was once a finalist for the Shoprite Checkers Woman of the Year Award, due to her endeavours in promoting equal education in the Western Cape.
With all these accolades she has never been shy to stubbornly court controversy. From publicly justifying colonialism in South Africa in her tweets (which is highly insensitive given our history as a nation) to getting into pointless Twitter wars with young people, she has done it all. Zille has also been accused of putting people in positions of power in the DA in order for them to be loyalists to her and push her own separate agendas. She has fallen out with most of her mentees and has been pointed out as someone who has no sense of manners, soft skills or the ability to read the room. Zille has had a number of failed coalitions, in fact, she and the DA have spent more time trying to hold coalitions intact than actually delivering the service they are supposed to deliver.
One can actually argue whether Helen Zille is really influential or if she is a power-hungry “bully” who will get you removed from power and influence once you clash with her or do not follow what she has to say, for instance: Mmusi Maimane was speculated to have quit at the DA after he was held responsible for the DA losing ground elections, by the DA committee (Which is mostly white). Ultimately this may have not been the core issue, Mmusi quitting may have been an indicator of the DA’s long resistance to change of leadership and the making of real changes. In this way, whether or not Maimane was great at leading the opposition, his resignation is significant on the grounds that it features one of the central issues of being part of Helen’s leadership in the DA which basically states that the best way to do anything is the manner in which white men (read Helen) did it before and want it to be done.
Another example of this can be seen when Herman Mashaba threatened to resign from the DA following the nomination of Helen as a chairperson for the federal council. He followed through on his threats and resigned as soon as she got elected, he believed that the DA (read Helen) would collapse his administration and criticise his leadership. There has been a pattern of influential black leaders leading the SA through shock resignations, and one would ask, did Helen have a role to play in all that, as Twitter always speculates?
It is not a secret that Helen Zille holds great influence and power in politics. Whether she uses that power to promote women’s participation in politics and governance or uses it to kick people out of their seats when they dare disagree with her views or line of thinking, is an open discussion. What we can however not question, is her influence!
