Publications
Partners
Cape Town - With a city to run and people to see, Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille rarely gets time to herself.
But she recently told News24 she switches off at night by cuddling with her four Siberian huskies. She also loves reading (and has a stack of books at her bedside to prove it). You can often tell a lot by the books people read, or don’t. Here is what the city’s number one has been getting stuck into:
* How South Africa Works (by Jeffrey Herbst and Greg Mills)
Some people like to think of the Western Cape as a country of its own. But this book looks at South Africa as a whole and reviews its major economic achievements in the last 20 years. It also taps into the minds of politicians, business leaders and analysts. Heavy reading? Not so, says the mayor. “It is not serious reading but I think it is a very important book because it is very up to date with stats and so on.”
* If Mayors Ruled The World (by Benjamin R. Barber)
With profiles of the world’s courageous and eccentric mayors, this book argues that cities are doing a better job than nations at grappling the perils of our time. De Lille was not featured in the book. She read it during her recent travels and described it as “very interesting”. Could she be plotting world domination?
* Sheena Duncan (biography by Annemarie Hendrickz)
Duncan was the daughter of Black Sash co-founder Jean Sinclair and volunteered for the non-violent resistance organisation in the fight against the evils of apartheid. De Lille describes Duncan as an “inspiration” and says the book was “just for soft reading”. “It is so sad for me that people like that did not get the necessary recognition for what they had done.” She is also reading a book on the movement as a whole and found it to be a “stark reminder of where we came from”.
* Good Medicine: Safe, Natural Ways to Solve Over 75 Common Health Problems (by Patrick Holford)
Holford lists what he believes are tried and tested solutions to the most common ailments. De Lille has read many of his books and says she is a strong believer in natural supplements. At 64 years of age, she is proud of the fact that she is not on any chronic medication.
