Background
De Lille was born in 1951 in Beaufort West, and attended Bastiaanse Hoërskool. In 1974 she became a laboratory technician at a factory. She remained involved with the same company until 1990. During this time, she became involved in the South African Chemical Workers Union, starting off as a shop steward and then becoming regional secretary, before being elected to National Executive Member in 1983. In 1988 she was elected as National Vice-President of The National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU), the highest position for a woman in the trade union movement at that time.
In 1989 De Lille was elected onto the National Executive Committee of the Pan Africanist Movement (PAM). In 1994 she led a delegation in the constitutional negotiations that preceded South Africa's first democratic election in 1994, and was then appointed to the position of Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Transport from 1994–1999. She also served on various portfolio Committees including Health, Minerals and Energy, Trade and Industry, Communications, the Rules Committee and the Code of Ethics.
Later, she made use of parliamentary privilege to be a whistle-blower on the South African Arms Deal.
Read more about this topic: Patricia De Lille
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