Patricia De Lille is the leader of the Independent Democrats, a South African political party which she formed in 2003 when she broke away from the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC).
She worked as a laboratory technician in Cape Town and became involved in the South African Chemical Workers Union, 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 1999 she was elected onto the National Executive of the PAC, and led its delegation in the constitutional negotiations that preceded South Africa's first democratic election in 1994. She was appointed Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Transport from 1994 - 1999, and was also made the Chief Whip of the PAC.
