Helen Zille is the current Mayor of the City of Cape Town. She has held this office since 15 March 2006. She is a member of the Democratic Alliance political party.

Ms Zille has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Witwatersrand.  In her early career, she worked as a political journalist for the Rand Daily Mail. She later worked as Head of Public Relations at the University of Cape Town. She joined the then Democratic Party in the mid-1990s, and was elected to the provincial parliament in the 1999 general election under the banner of the Democratic Alliance. She served as Minister of Education of the Western Cape Province from 1999 – 2001, after which she became an MP for the DA, and was their National Spokesperson.

Ms Zille is married to Johann Maree, and has 2 sons, Thomas and Paul.

Quote from Helen Zille:
"Our vision is a city that is safe, clean, efficient, economically growing and sustainable."  Feb 2006

Sources:

• Helen Zille
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_ZilleMail & Guardian