Patricia de Lille is the National Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure of South Africa. She has been active in politics in the country for over 45 years and was part of the team which drafted South Africa’s Constitution. She was subsequently elected as a Member of Parliament and later served as Mayor of Cape Town from 2011 to 2018. As Mayor, she pioneered and championed a range of redress and spatial planning projects and systems to speed up and enhance service delivery. Cape Town received close to 90 international awards during her tenure, including being named as the winner of the 2015 C40 Cities Award for the city’s Water Conservation and Demand Management Programme (WCWDM). Cape Town was also awarded the World Design Capital for 2014.

De Lille was appointed as Minister in May 2019 and plans to use her position to drive spatial and environmental justice and equality, to clamp down on corruption, and to ensure that public land and public buildings are used for public good.