Entrevista: Helen Ziller líder da oposição e candidata ás eleições da África do Sul

Helen Zille, uma das mulheres mais fortes da África do Sul conversa com Robyn Curnow, da CNN, no African Voices desta semana. Zille começou como jornalista, durante o período do apartheid, fazendo rebentar na opinião pública histórias célebres como a do assassinato de Steve Biko. Com longo percurso activista, comanda actualmente os destinos da Cidade do Cabo, eleita no cargo de Premier of the Western Cape Province. À frente do principal partido da oposição, a Aliança Democrática (Democratic Alliance), é actualmente a maior ameaça ao domínio político do ANC, que em breve terá que a enfrentar nas urnas. 

Para ver aqui:  parte 1 | parte 2 | parte 3

Helen Zille: South Africa's vigorous voice of opposition

Tough and charismatic, South African opposition leader Helen Zille is one the country's most powerful women.
Since she was elected leader of the Democratic Alliance in 2007, Zille has been concentrating her efforts on broadening the appeal of her party.
In order to challenge a longstanding political powerhouse such as the ruling African National Congress (ANC) -- which took about 66% of the vote in the last general election in 2009 -- Zille wants to move her party away from just being seen as the political home of South Africa's white liberals.
The Democratic Alliance (DA), which has a strong support base among whites and South Africans of mixed race, won 16% of the national vote two years ago.
"Growing the base of a political party on the foundation of a political philosophy and a value set is very difficult in a racially-divided context, where people tend to see politics as a choice between different race groups," she says.
"And so growing your base across all barriers requires a mix of strategies," adds Zille, who is also premier of the Western Cape province, where her party beat the ANC.
Under Zille's leadership, the DA has become the most vocal opponent of the ANC, which is led by President Jacob Zuma.
Before the 2009 election, the party strongly opposed Zuma's presidential bid, with Zille spearheading the DA's legal campaign against the dropping of his corruption case.
An investigative journalist before entering the political arena, Zille made her name in 1977 when she exposed how activist Steve Biko was killed by apartheid police while in detention.
Her story in the liberal Rand Daily Mail refuted the regime's version that Biko's death was the result of a hunger strike and was seen as a watershed moment for South Africa as it uncovered one of the darkest episodes in the country's history.
"I have no doubt that our politics would have taken a very different turn had he lived and had he led and when he died in detention we all knew what a critical moment that was and we all understood that a big cover-up was in progress," Zille says.
Soon after breaking the Biko story, Zille left journalism to become a political activist. She worked in a number of non-governmental organizations and human rights groups, including the Black Sash, a women's civil rights movement.
She later joined the DA and became mayor of Cape Town in 2006 -- marking the first loss for the ANC in a major South African city. In May 2007, Zille was elected party leader of the DA and in 2009 she became premier of the Western Cape province.
While Zille admits that winning elections in a big city like Cape Town and a major province like Western Cape is a big improvement for the DA, she is determined to make further gains.
"We've got to build this democracy. And democracies, especially on our continent, have failed because too much power has been concentrated in too few hands, been abused and led straight to corruption and the criminal state. We're not going to have that in South Africa."
Her vigorous stance against Zuma has not been without controversy. Zille and ANC leaders have often traded bitter words, and she's been lampooned by national media. But Zille says she remains unfazed by vehement criticism.
If anything, she says, such attacks indicate that the DA is becoming a risk to the ANC. And with the local government elections scheduled for later this year, Zille says she's preparing to deal with the harshest criticism she's ever faced.
"This election campaign that we're going into now for 2011 is going to be vicious beyond anything that you can ever imagine and I'm already steeling myself to face the kind of attacks that I've never faced before," she says.

by Robyn Curnow
in CNN - "African Voices"


Cf. também:

• Helen Zille winner of the 2008 World Mayor Prize
• Helen Zille's blog
• Helen Zille's interactive social media profile at Zoopy.com
• City Mayors profile | profile Español
• Quotes about Cape Town's mayoral system
• Zille voted Newsmaker of the year
• CapeInfo interview with Helen Zille
• Interview with Helen Zille at metkere.com

Political journalism

Zille began her career as a political correspondent for the Rand Daily Mail in 1974.^[2] During September 1977, Minister of Justice and the Police J.T. Kruger announced that anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko had died in prison as the result of an extended hunger strike. Zille and her editor Allister Sparks were convinced Kruger's story was a cover-up, and Zille obtained concrete proof of this after tracking down and interviewing various doctors involved in the case.^[1]
The Rand Daily Mail's lead story, headlined "No sign of hunger strike - Biko doctors", sent shockwaves through South Africa, and Kruger immediately threatened to ban the paper, while Zille received death threats.^[1] Zille and Sparks were represented at the subsequent quasi-judicial Press Council by leading defence lawyer Sydney Kentridge, but the two were nonetheless found guilty of "tendentious reporting", and the paper was forced to issue a "correction". Kentridge later helped confirm the accuracy of Zille's account when he represented the Biko family at the inquest into his death. That inquest found Biko's death had been the result of a serious head injury, but failed to find any individual responsible.^[3]
Zille resigned from the Rand Daily Mail along with editor Allister Sparks, after the paper's owner, Anglo American, demanded that Sparks tone down the paper's equal rights rhetoric.^[4]

Notes:
1 "Steve Biko's legacy lives on - Zille
2 "Who's Who: Mrs Helen Zille"
3 "Steve Biko: XI - The Verdict"
4 "The Zille to weaken Zuma's grip 

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