[11] Following her departure from the premiership in May 2019, she joined the South African Institute of Race Relations as a senior policy fellow in July 2019, though she suspended her fellowship in October 2019.

Helen Zille was born in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, the eldest child of parents who separately left Germany in the 1930s to avoid Nazi persecution due to the fact that her maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother were Jewish.

[16] The Berlin genealogist Martina Rhode had documented before that there was a mix-up in the handwritten notes of her uncle Heinrich between people with the same name but different birthplaces and dates of birth.

[7] Consequent to the publication of the story, headlined "No sign of hunger strike—Biko doctors", Minister Kruger immediately threatened to ban the newspaper, and Zille received death threats.

Zille and her husband later 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.

[28] In the 2006 municipal elections, the DA became the single largest party in Cape Town with 42.0% of the vote, ahead of the African National Congress (ANC).

In September 2006, the provincial ANC MEC Richard Dyantyi announced that he planned to replace the city's mayoral system with an executive committee.

The move would have resulted in reduced mayoral power, and the governing party would not itself have been able to assign the ten seats on the committee, which would instead have been allocated on a proportional representation basis.

[43] In August 2008, Zille announced proposals to boost the size of the police force to 250,000, employ an additional 30,000 detectives, improve detention programmes and use of information technology, and radically overhaul the justice system.

[48][49] In June 2008, she challenged the president of the ANC and the 2009 presidential candidate, Jacob Zuma to a public debate on ten key issues such as the arms deal, disbanding of the Scorpions, the situation in Zimbabwe, HIV/AIDS and labour legislation.

[52][53] Eight members of a group called the People's Anti-Drug and Liquor Action Committee (PADLAC) were arrested in September 2007 outside the Mitchell's Plain police station.

[56] In October 2007, Zille was acquitted of all charges brought before the Mitchell's Plain Magistrates Court on the grounds that the prosecution's case against her and nine other defendants did not stand a chance of succeeding.

Zille reiterated her intention to sue the South African Police Service (SAPS) branch in the Western Cape for wrongful arrest.

[61] In April 2008, Zille was asked to address the United Nations in New York City on population and development, offering her experience and lessons as mayor of Cape Town.

[64][65] The ruling ANC used its majority in the National Assembly to block a motion by the DA acknowledging Zille's achievement in winning the award.

Nationally, the DA gained significant ground as official opposition, winning 16.66 percent of the vote, and increasing its tally of seats in both houses of Parliament to 80.

The ANC Youth League claimed Zille was racist, and that her all-male cabinet consisted of "boyfriends and concubines so that she can continue to sleep around with them".

[73] The Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association restated the Youth League's sex claims, and warned it would launch "a political programme aimed at rendering the Western Cape ungovernable".

[84] In September 2018, the Democratic Alliance announced that it had selected Alan Winde to be the party's Western Cape Premier candidate for the 2019 South African general election.

The other candidates nominated for the position were Fazloodien Abrahams, Bonginkosi Madikizela, David Maynier, Kelly Baloyi, Jacobus MacFarlane and Micheal Mack.

[88][89] Following her leaving public office in May 2019, it was revealed in July 2019, that she had joined the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) as a senior policy analyst.

"[90][91] The institute soon published a controversial opinion column in September 2019, calling for Maimane to be sacked as DA leader and replaced with Alan Winde.

[93][94] Zille formed her own podcast, Tea with Helen, in August 2019 intending to engage in conversation with people who disagree with her political views.

[103][104] In particular, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel accused Zille of "fanning the flames", by speaking out against foreign drug dealers while on a visit to Mitchell's Plain.

"[107] Among those who criticized Zille's position were the Constitutional Law scholar Pierre de Vos[108] and prominent AIDS activist and director of Section 27, Mark Heywood.

He agreed with her that colonialism was not solely negative, and noted that many prominent intellectuals, including Chinua Achebe, Ali Mazrui, Godfrey Mwakikagile and Manmohan Singh, have expressed similar sentiments.

[127][128] Her continued defence of her comments exacerbated internal friction in the Democratic Alliance between her and her detractors, and was seen to undermine the party leader, Maimane.

[129] Maimane stated that the disciplinary charges against Zille were not limited to Twitter, and included "a series of comments [...] that have exacerbated and amplified the original tweet".

Also according to the spokesperson, the trip, which included a visit to Japan, was intended to strengthen Asian investment in halaal food, and to encourage tourism to the Western Cape from that region.

de Klerk "decided to dismantle apartheid", the ANC "would still be bogged down in the mess of its so-called liberation camps and infighting" because the ANC "had no viable armed struggle to speak of.”[134] John Steenhuisen, the interim leader of the DA at the time, distanced himself from Zille's views,[135] and the Federal Legal Commission of the party launched an investigation into her comments.