Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Helen Zille - Politics in SA

From the Denver Post:
Helen Zille has a sharp tongue and a short fuse, and she doesn't dodge a fight. In apartheid times she enraged South Africa's white rulers, and lately she has ruffled South Africa's black political establishment.

Having won plaudits as mayor of Cape Town, she is now leader of the main opposition and her province's premier—a striking example of democracy at work in a country that is ruled by blacks but leaves room for white politicians like Zille.

That's a tall order, given that her Democratic Alliance is still perceived as mainly white and most black South Africans are loyal to the ANC which liberated them from oppression. Zille says that 15 years after apartheid formally ended, race no longer should dominate politics.

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