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Daryl Swanepoel

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Daryl Swanepoel
Member of the National Assembly
In office
16 October 2013 – May 2014
In office
1997 – June 1999
Personal details
Born (1962-06-16) 16 June 1962 (age 62)
CitizenshipSouth Africa
Political partyAfrican National Congress
Other political
affiliations

Daryl Wade Swanepoel (born 16 June 1962) is a South African politician and political strategist who is currently the chief executive officer of the Inclusive Society Institute. He represented the ANC in the National Assembly from 2013 to 2014.

Before joining the ANC, Swanepoel was a member of the National Party (NP) and New National Party (NNP). He represented the NP in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and National Assembly between 1994 and 1999, and he was the NNP's last secretary-general, holding the office from 2002 until the party's demise in 2005.

Early life and career

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Swanepoel was born on 16 June 1962.[1] He entered politics around the time of the 1987 general election, when he was involved in the NP's successful campaign to win the Progressive Federal Party-controlled Hillbrow constituency in Johannesburg.[2]

Post-apartheid political career

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National Party

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After the end of apartheid, Swanepoel represented the NP in the first session of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.[2] In July 1997, he succeeded Olaus van Zyl as leader of the party's caucus in the legislature.[3] However, in late 1997, Swanepoel left the provincial legislature to fill a casual vacancy in the NP's caucus in the National Assembly, the lower house of the South African Parliament.[4] He also served as chief spokesman for the NP and as a senior aide to Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the national leader of the NP (which in late 1997 was restyled as the NNP).[5][6]

Swanepoel stood for re-election to the National Assembly in the 1999 general election, ranked seventh on the ANC's regional party list for Gauteng.[1] However, due to the NNP's poor electoral performance, he did not secure re-election to his seat.[7] In the next general election in 2004, he again stood for election and was again thwarted by the NNP's electoral performance.[8]

Nonetheless, Swanepoel remained a senior figure in the NNP. In 1999 and 2000, as the party negotiated with the Democratic Party (DP) to form the multi-party Democratic Alliance (DA), Swanepoel continued to serve as an aide to van Schalkwyk and deputised Renier Schoeman as the NNP's deputy executive director.[9][10] The NNP's participation in the DA was short-lived, and DA leader Tony Leon sued Swanepoel and Schoeman for publishing an NNP statement which referred to him as a "political swindler";[11] they retracted and apologised for the statement in April 2003.[12]

In November 2002, Swanepoel was elected to succeed Schoeman as national secretary-general of the NNP after Schoeman was appointed Deputy Minister of Health.[13] He remained in that office until the party's demise,[14] which he announced in March 2005; confirming that the NNP intended officially to disband, Swanepoel told the press that it was "crucial for black, white, coloured and Indian [people] to join forces within the ranks of the ANC", the governing party.[15]

African National Congress

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After the NP was dissolved, Swanepoel joined the ANC,[2] and formed the Progressive Business Forum. His former colleague Renier Schoeman later co-convened the Forum, the ANC's new corporate outreach programme.[16][17][18] In 2012, analyst Susan Booysen described Schoeman and Swanepoel as "die-hard Nats [NP supporters]... that eventually joined the ANC not out of principle but out of desperation for a little place in the ambit of political power".[19]

On 16 October 2013, Swanepoel returned to the National Assembly for another brief stint, on this occasion as a representative of the ANC; he filled the casual vacancy created by Sue van der Merwe's resignation[20] and departed after the 2014 general election. In later years, he continued as co-convenor of the Progressive Business Forum and worked at the ANC's headquarters at Luthuli House.[17] As of 2019, he was the chief executive officer of the Inclusive Society Institute, a think tank based in Cape Town.[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b "General Notice: Electoral Commission Notice 1113 of 1999 – Final List of Candidates" (PDF). Government Gazette of South Africa. Pretoria, South Africa: Government of South Africa. 26 May 1999. p. 242. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  2. ^ a b c Calland, Richard (16 August 2013). The Zuma Years: South Africa's Changing Face of Power. Penguin Random House South Africa. ISBN 978-1-77022-276-2.
  3. ^ "Nine black Nats defect to Meyer". The Mail & Guardian. 31 July 1997. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  4. ^ "Members of the National Assembly". Parliament of South Africa. 3 June 1998. Archived from the original on 28 June 1998. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  5. ^ "NP objects to Phosa's secret graves accusation". SAPA. 12 January 1998. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  6. ^ "Opposition outcry over 'propaganda'". The Mail & Guardian. 5 March 1999. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  7. ^ "DA fuelling racism, says NNP". The Mail & Guardian. 28 January 2004. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  8. ^ "Long knives out for Marthinus". News24. 18 April 2004. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  9. ^ "Fading Party of Apartheid Calls it Quits". New York Times. 26 June 2000. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  10. ^ "How the New National Party was captured". The Mail & Guardian. 30 June 2000. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  11. ^ "Leon sues NNP for 'political swindler' statement". The Mail & Guardian. 31 December 2001. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  12. ^ "DA, NNP settle defamation action". The Mail & Guardian. 14 April 2003. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  13. ^ "NNP: Co-operation is the future". News24. 9 November 2002. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  14. ^ "Is this the end of the NNP?". The Mail & Guardian. 18 May 2004. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  15. ^ "NNP executive decides to disband". The Mail & Guardian. 1 March 2005. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  16. ^ "A tale of two parties". News24. 23 December 2012. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  17. ^ a b Brown, Justin (24 December 2017). "Corporate SA buys into ANC's influence peddling scheme". News24. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  18. ^ "ANC to probe the influence of business in politics". The Mail & Guardian. 8 March 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  19. ^ "Posturing or genuine dialogue?". The Mail & Guardian. 17 May 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  20. ^ "Members of the National Assembly". Parliamentary Monitoring Group. Archived from the original on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  21. ^ "Fostering social cohesion: Getting symbolism, action and rhetoric right". The Mail & Guardian. 22 March 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
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