With all the news and publicity surrounding Helen’s Zille’s appointment to the position of leader of the Democratic Alliance, not to mention the position she already holds as Cape Town City mayor, we thought it apt to reprint a story that was run in the Old Girls Newsletter of June 2001. Helen was an Old Girl over the years of 1962 to 1968, and we are proud of her achievements and congratulate her on her successes. 

HELEN ZILLE (St Mary’s School 1962 – 1968)
From Newsletter: June 2001 
Even if you don’t remember her from St Mary’s, its difficult not to know who Helen Zille is. Throughout her career, both as a journalist and a politician, Helen has stood out from the crowd just as she did at school. Today, as the Western Cape Minister for Education, Helen is recognized as “the DP’s bright star, who has an ability to find trouble at its source – and deal with it.” (Leadership Magazine, February 2000)

Her approach is ‘hands-on’, trying to be accessible to the public so that they can address relevant education issues directly with her. It was reported when Helen had no response from a local police station after reporting vandalism at a school in Guguletu, she drove to the station to find the staff watching ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’. Such incidents add to her steely reputation. Helen spends a great deal of her time in the field. 95% of the time is devoted to problems facing disadvantaged schools. The policy of her department is to develop a framework that requires everyone’s involvement, teachers, pupils and parents, in the running of their schools.

This approach was informally put into practice by Helen in the mid 1990’s. 

She became involved in her son’s school, Grove Primary. As chair of the school’s governing body, with good legal advisors and the support of eighty other schools facing the same problems, she successfully took on the government over the school’s rights to nominate teachers for appointment. This particular case was extensively covered in the media. Shortly afterwards the leader of the Democratic Party in the Western Cape, Hennie Bester, asked Helen to write a draft policy for Education. She then agreed to make herself available on the party’s provincial list for the 1999 general election. She was duly elected and was appointed as the Western Cape’s Education Minister.  

Helen studied English, German and Afrikaans at Wits and then Economic History at UCT. While at Wits she was on the Rag Committee and the Academic Freedom Committee. At UCT she was the features editor for the student newspaper. Her most valuable skill learnt at university was to work through lengthily texts, extracting valuable information very quickly. For her career shorthand and typing skills have been invaluable as well as being bilingual. She is still struggling to learn Xhosa, which she needs to do for her particular work. Helen’s university years ‘were a time of growth, paving the way for great personal fulfillment and happiness in later years’. 

Unusual she certainly is. Hugh Murray, former editor of Leadership, preceded Helen as political correspondent at the Rand Daily Mail, where both worked on such groundbreaking stories as the death in detention of the Black Consciousness leader, Steve Biko, and the infamous information scandal, Muldergate. “Some believe Helen’s special leadership and management skills will bring her even higher national office,” says Murray. 

Helen herself vividly remembers the experience of being the Rand Daily Mail’s political correspondent in the late ‘70’s, a very difficult period in South Africa. “This stage of my career was the foundation of everything that followed,” she says. Helen met her husband, Johann Maree, in 1980. She resigned from the Rand Daily Mail and moved to Cape Town where Johann was based.  

Despite being newly married and having two sons, Paul, who is now 16 and Thomas now 12 years, Helen continued her political activism. She was involved in many non-governmental organisations but did most of her work for the Black Sash, editing the organisation’s magazine and serving on the regional and national executives. 

As if she wasn’t busy enough, Helen was also vice-chair of the End Conscription Campaign in the Western Cape. She recalls this as a very challenging time. At one point she was arrested for being in a black “group area” without a permit, earning a suspended prison sentence. Undaunted, she and the ever-supportive Johann offered their home as a safe house for political activists during the 1986 State of Emergency. For a while she was forced into hiding with their two-year-old son. It was at this time that Helen realized the need for a negotiated settlement and felt she could play a part in preparing the way. 

By 1990 when political organisations were unbanned she was already working as a facilitator in local negotiations between groups that were historically antagonistic towards each other. 

As the demand for her services grew, she formed a public policy consultancy specialising in change management. The company is still going today although Helen is not directly involved in it. 

Typically, she doesn’t regret the years of extra pressure piled on top of the sleep deprivation all young mothers go through. What Helen remembers about those years is the financial management and strategic planning skills she developed which are essential to her position today. 

By the mid ‘90s Helen was offered the position of Director of Development and Public Affairs at Cape Town University. This is when she became particularly interested in education since her sons were at school by this time. As you’d expect, despite everything else that was happening in her life she still found time to pursue her love of music and drama by accepting a position on the Board of the Baxter Theatre Centre. 

Of all the events Helen could point to as being the most important of her eventful life, she puts meeting Johann at the top of her list. Johann is Professor of Industrial Sociology at UCT. Although she was always going to be a high achiever, his support of her success is clear. “Johann has always taken my work as seriously as his own,” she says.  

In fact his support makes her high profile job possible since, despite his own career commitments, he is the dominant homemaker in the family as Helen’s job takes her away so often. 

With her depth of knowledge about education, Helen’s feelings about St Mary’s are particularly interesting. “I hear good things about the school today and I do remember many of my teachers with warmth. I loved drama, choir and debating, loves that have stayed with me. But I’m inevitably conscious of my own experiences of being schooled in the ‘60s and I would describe St Mary’s then as being very conventional.” While a boarder Helen remembers bread and butter pudding, going to chapel in curlers on a Saturday and also being gated on an exeat Sunday. In her final year at St Mary’s Helen was Head Day Girls, head of her house (Phelps) and represented the school on the Junior City Council. Helen’s parents are still living in Johannesburg; she has a younger sister and brother. Carla her sister matriculated from St Mary’s in 1970. 

“When I look back today, I recall the emphasis on conformity and constraints, rather than inspiration to tackle new challenges. I think the most positive change in education is the emphasis on life orientation and guidance, when this is led by mature, empathic educators.” 

Sheila Boardman who was a year below Helen said “I was certainly aware of her debating and organisation ability. She was always very clear about her goals, and was very direct and open. This was quite unusual for girls at that time.”

When one considers that a 60’s education produced a politician as outspoken and energetic as Helen Zille, one can’t help but wonder at the amazing people that will be produced by the modern education system she is so instrumental in developing.

By Biddy Collings in conjunction with Shirley Fairall (Freeland Editor Fairlady Magazine).