South Africa’s first significant female-led political party was launched in South Africa by Patricia de Lille, a former trade unionist and leader of the Pan Africanist Congress.

De Lille, one of the country’s top ten most popular politicians, is taking the ruling African National Congress head-on with her Independent Democrats. Several surveys show that De Lille is a nationally recognizable politician with strong support across the racial and physical geographies of the country.

A feisty 52-year-old leader, with the mien of a street-fighter, De Lille is aiming for five percent of the national vote in next year’s general election. “I always equate our democracy with a young tree and nine years into our young democracy this tree is growing skew. Now we can all sit back and watch this tree grow off course or we can take positive and decisive actions to rectify the situation,” she said to the rousing applause of 500 delegates who attended the party’s first congress on the East Rand of Johannesburg.

A native of the port city of Cape Town, De Lille began her working life as a laboratory technician in the paint industry, from where she was drawn into South African Chemical Workers Union. At the time, she notched up another first for a female leader. The union was affiliated to the National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU), which at the time was one of the country’s largest trade union federations. In 1988 she was elected national vice-president, at the time the most senior woman labour leader in the country.

From her base in NACTU, De Lille became active in the Pan Africanist Congress, a liberation movement that enjoyed more clout than it does today. At the negotiations to end apartheid, she took pole position in her party’s team. “[She] won respect for her firmness and clarity,” says the “A to Z of South African politics”, which chronicled the talks. In 1994, she was elected to parliament and has since earned a reputation as an anti-corruption crusader.

A R60-billion (about eight billion U.S. dollars) arms deal to re-equip the defence force has attracted numerous allegations of corruption and De Lille took centre-stage in opposing it. This has propelled her into the centre of national politics and imbued her with a reputation as a graft-buster.

“The ANC? They’re too corrupt. Look at the Yengeni business. Look at the Terror Lekota business,” complained Elana Fourie at the party launch.

The ANC’s former chief whip in parliament, Tony Yengeni, took a bribe of a discounted Mercedes Benz by one of the arms companies in the deal, while Defence Minister Terror Lekota was found in May to have failed to declare his private business interests to parliament as he is compelled to do. The two high profile corruption cases are alienating the ANC’s support base, some of whom are joining De Lille’s flock.

Dressed in a fusion-Xhosa-contemporary outfit with ukuchokoza marks dotted elegantly around her eyes, 20-year-old Dudu Shabangu from Port Elizabeth was also at the launch. She said, “I was not an ANC member, but I grew up in the Sasco [South African Students Congress] tradition. We looked to people like Tony Yengeni as role-models. Now you lose hope and faith.” She adds, “What I like is that she’s a woman. There’s lots that us as women can do. Women power,” she reflects, “for youth like me it’s the most important thing”.

The second issue De Lille will campaign on is HIV/AIDS to win the political support of a powerful lobby. “Thousands of our people die of HIV/AIDS each year; scores more will die in the next fifteen years. At least three HIV-positive people will sit in the leadership of this party,” she said to claps from the 500-odd launch supporters.

In South Africa, HIV and Aids have massive gender implications: most people infected and affected by the pandemic are women. Other strong gender policies include plans to beef up the resources and systems to fight women and child abuse.

With the disgracing of Winnie Mandela (she was found guilty of fraud earlier this year and resigned from parliament), De Lille stands to eclipse her as the country’s most popular female politician. “There’s this aura around Pat. I don’t know? It’s like Nelson Mandela, like Breyton Paulse (a national rugby player). I can say there’s something in her that draws you to her,” says Rodney Lentit who helps run the party’s Western Cape office.