Short CV of Patricia de Lille, MP and Leader of the Independent Democrats

Patricia de Lille has been involved in politics for the last quarter of a century. Her election as National Vice-President to The National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU) in 1988 saw her occupy the highest position for a woman in the trade union movement. She was elected onto the National Executive of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in 1990. She led its delegation in the constitutional negotiations that preceded South Africa's first democratic election in 1994. In Parliament she was appointed Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Transport from 1994 - 1999, and was also made the Chief Whip of the PAC. She left the PAC in March 2003 and formed the Independent Democrats. Patricia serves on the boards of the following organizations: Age-in-Action-of which she is a Patron Nazareth House HIV/Aids Children, where she sponsors one child St Josephs Home for chronically sick children Helen Suzman Foundation Nelson Mandela Children's Fund African Monitor Arab-African Council

Patricia is a former Chancellor of the Durban Institute of Technology (DUT) and is member of both the Global Organisation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption and the African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption.  She was recently awarded the HIV/AIDS Activist Award from a Canadian based organization. She was awarded the Freedom of the City of Birmingham, Alabama, US. She was recently awarded the honour of being one of the Top 5 Women in Government and Government Agencies. Last month, August, her leadership skills and qualities were recognized and Ms de Lille was awarded the 2004 Old Mutual South African Leadership Award in the Category of Woman Leadership, as the first South African woman to form a political party of her own, campaign and win seats in the local provincial and national government. In 2006 Patricia was award the Rapport City Press Women of the year award. She was also nominated as an Honorary Colonel for the 84 Signal Unit in the SANDF. Patricia, at the invitation of the UN, is the only South African Member of Parliament that has been invited to attend the United Nations Millennium Project and Earth Institute at Columbia University.