Helen Zille, mayor of Cape Town, South Africa, has won the 2008 World Mayor prize by City Mayors, an international urban affairs think tank.
 
Once a political journalist with the liberal Rand Daily Mail, Helen Zille was a leading anti-apartheid critic, famously exposing the circumstances behind Steve Biko’s death in police custody in 1977.

At the height of apartheid, she joined the Black Sash white women’s resistance movement and was a peace activist in her adopted city of Cape Town. She currently leads the Democratic Alliance party, South Africa's official opposition.
 
The City Mayors group commended Zille for dedicating her professional life to improving the well-being of South Africans.
 
The think tank aims to raise the profile of mayors as well as to honor those who have made "long-lasting contributions to their communities and are committed to the well being of their cities nationally and internationally.”

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Source: GIN
Photo: Africa daynamics