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NATIONAL NEWS AND VIDEO - On Monday 6 May, Premier Helen Zille tweeted: "Signing my last Bill of my term in office. The Western Cape Appropriation Bill 1-2019. Otherwise known as the Budget."

So ended a ten-year, uninterrupted term as premier for Zille as the country readies itself to go to the polls on Wednesday, May 8.

Zille is appropriately credited as the driving force behind the official opposition in Parliament and the governing party in the Western Cape, the Democratic Alliance.

Known as the journalist who uncovered the Steve Biko scandal in 1977, Zille was an anti-apartheid activist long before she ventured into politics in 1999. She served as Western Cape MEC for Education (1999-2001) before she was elected the leader of the official opposition in the Western Cape provincial government. In 2004 she became a member of Parliament and in 2006 the mayor of Cape Town.

In 2007 she took over the reins from Tony Leon in leading the DA. In 2008 she was voted the Best Mayor of the World. In 2009 she started her first term as premier. In 2015 Zille announced that she would not stand for re-election as the DA's leader in its 2015 elections. On Monday, 6 May 2019 she ended her second term as premier.

Zille was heavily involved in the Black Sash movement during the 1980s, serving on the regional and national executives, and was the vice-chair of the End Conscription Campaign in the Western Cape. She and her husband offered their home as a safe house for political activists during the 1986 State of Emergency, and she was temporarily forced into hiding with their two-year-old son as a result. Zille was also actively involved in the South Africa Beyond Apartheid Project and the Cape Town Peace Committee.

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Under her leadership the DA has grown exponentially. In the 2009 general elections the DA won 42.0 percent of the province's vote and achieved 16.66 percent of the national vote.

In 2014 the DA won 59.38% of the vote and 26 seats in the Western Cape provincial legislature. The party also won 89 seats in the National Assembly and 22.23% of the national vote. Zille was sworn into a second term with 27 votes out of 42, giving the DA a comfortable majority.

Her political career was not without controversy, with her penchant for Twitter often landing her in trouble and tainting her reputation. Zille told the Mossel Bay Advertiser she plans to remain active in politics after the 2019 election, and most definitely do so as part of the Democratic Alliance.

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