Brandon Topham | |
---|---|
Deputy Shadow Minister of the Auditor General | |
Assumed office October 2015 | |
Leader | Mmusi Maimane |
Deputy Shadow Minister of Appropriations | |
Member of Parliament for Midrand,Gauteng | |
Personal details | |
Born | Pretoria,South Africa | June 7,1971
Political party | Democratic Alliance |
Residence(s) | Pretoria,South Africa |
Alma mater | University of South Africa |
Occupation | Member of Parliament |
Profession | Politician,Community Leader,Businessman |
Brandon Rodney Topham (born Pretoria,7 June 1971) is a South African politician,community leader and businessman. [1] He is also a South African Freemason [2]
Brandon Topham has served on the boards of a wide variety of businesses,often as Secretary,CFO,Financial Director or Non Executive Director. These companies include 1time Airline,Ecsponent Limited,Seesa (Pty) Ltd,Telemasters Holdings Limited and the Professional Provident Society (PPS). [3] [4]
He is a Qualified Lawyer,Chartered Accountant,Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE),and Chartered Management Accountant (CIMA). [5] [6]
Topham became interested in politics at the age of 16 when he witnessed the unfairness of apartheid. He avoided compulsory military service when he went to university. [7]
As a long-standing member of the Democratic Alliance,South Africa's main opposition party,he was chosen to be the DA's candidate for mayor of the City of Tshwane in 2011. [8] The governing ANC retained the metro,however. Topham thereafter led the DA opposition in the Tshwane council.
After standing unsuccessfully to be the party's mayoral candidate again in 2016,Topham instead became a Member of the South African Parliament for the DA and served as Deputy Shadow Minister of The Auditor General,and The Deputy Shadow Minister of Appropriations.
In October 2016 Topham criticised Minister of Finance Malusi Gigaba and suggested that there is more to the South African Revenue Service's collection shortfall of R50.8 Billion and that "There may be a rolling of payment and collection. I suggest you do a performance appraisal for senior SARS officials and see if they’ve reported truthfully." [9]
In 2018,Topham resigned from parliament.
Topham has been named grand treasurer of the Grand Lodge of South Africa in 2015. [10] He is currently listed as Secretary of Lodge Koh-I-Noor no 79 in Pretoria. [11]
In March 2016 the Freemasons were accused of influencing the Democratic Alliance's candidate list. Topham dismissed these claims and stated "The Freemasons are not a secret society and do not take oaths. Some people who do not believe all men are created equal,use it as a bogeyman,as the Broederbond did in the previous dispensation" He further mentioned that only about 30 public representatives nationwide are Freemasons. [12]
The forensic report detailing how R1,4 Billion disappeared during the Fidentia Scandal,a Ponzi Scheme,was co-compiled by Topham. [13]
Pretoria is South Africa's administrative capital,serving as the seat of the executive branch of government,and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality,also known as the City of Tshwane,is the metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of northern Gauteng in South Africa. The metropolitan area is centred on the city of Pretoria with surrounding towns and localities included in the local government area.
Knowledge Malusi Nkanyezi Gigaba is a South African politician who served as Minister of Home Affairs of the Republic of South Africa appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa from 27 February 2018 until his resignation on 13 November 2018. He also held the post from 25 May 2014 to 31 March 2017 as appointed by former President Jacob Zuma. He previously served as Deputy Minister of Home Affairs,Minister of Public Enterprises and Minister of Finance in the government of South Africa. He is currently a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is the revenue service of the South African government. It administers the country's tax system and customs service,and enforces compliance with related legislation. It is governed by the SARS Act 34 of 1997,which established it as "an organ of state within the public administration,but as an institution outside the public service." It thus has a significant degree of administrative autonomy,although it is under the policy control of the Minister of Finance. Effectively,SARS manages,administers,and implements the tax regime as designed by the Minister and National Treasury.
Stevens Mokgalapa is a South African politician who served as the Mayor of Tshwane from 2019 to 2020. A former member of the Democratic Alliance (DA),he served as a Member of the National Assembly from 2009 to 2019. Within the DA's Shadow Cabinet,he served as Shadow Deputy Minister of International Relations and Co-operation from 2009 to 2012,as Shadow Minister of Human Settlements from 2012 to 2014 and as Shadow Minister of International Relations and Co-operation from 2014 to 2019.
The following is a timeline of the history of Pretoria,in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality,Gauteng province,South Africa.
The 2016 South African municipal elections were held on 3 August 2016,to elect councils for all district,metropolitan and local municipalities in each of the country's nine provinces. It was the fifth municipal election held in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994;municipal elections are held every five years.
The Tshwane riots occurred in the South African city of Pretoria and the surrounding City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality for several days from 20 June 2016,leading to the deaths of at least five people.
Solly Tshepiso Msimanga is a South African politician serving as the Leader of the Opposition in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature since May 2019. He has been a Member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature since February 2019,having previously served from 2014 to 2016. Msimanga was the Executive Mayor of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality from 2016 to 2019 and the DA Provincial Chairperson from 2014 to 2017. He is currently the Democratic Alliance's Gauteng Premier candidate for the 2024 elections. Msimanga was the party's unsuccessful candidate for the 2019 elections.
The Mayor of Tshwane is the head of the local government of Pretoria,South Africa;currently that government takes the form of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality. In the past,the position of Mayor has varied between that of an executive mayor actively governing the city and that of a figurehead mayor with a mostly ceremonial role.
Freemasonry was brought to South Africa by members of the Grand Orient of the Netherlands in 1772. Today there are lodges chartered under the United Grand Lodge of England,the Grand Lodge of Scotland,the Grand Lodge of Ireland,the Grand Lodge of South Africa,as well as Le Droit Humain
An Indirect mayoral election occurred on 12 February 2019 in the Tshwane City Council to determine the successor of Solly Msimanga as Mayor of Tshwane. Msimanga announced in January 2019 that he would resign as mayor,therefore creating a vacancy in the position.
The 2021 South African municipal elections were held on 1 November 2021,to elect councils for all district,metropolitan and local municipalities in each of the country's nine provinces. It is the sixth municipal election held in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994,held every five years. The previous municipal elections were held in 2016. On 21 April 2021,President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the elections will be held on Wednesday,27 October 2021. It had been recommend by Dikgang Moseneke to delay the municipal elections until 2022. The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) requested the Constitutional Court to support the date postponement. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) supported the date postponement while the Democratic Alliance (DA) was against the postponement of the date. The Constitutional Court dismissed the application to postpone the date until 2022,ruling that they had to take place between 27 October and 1 November. On 9 September 2021,the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs,Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced that the elections would be held on 1 November.
Philippus Adriaan van Staden,known as Philip van Staden,is a South African politician from Gauteng. He has been serving as a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa for the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) since 2019. He previously represented the FF+ in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature from 2014 to 2019. Van Staden was a municipal councillor of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality from 2011 to 2014.
Cilliers Brink is a South African politician who is the Mayor of Tshwane,in office since 28 March 2023. A member of the Democratic Alliance,he was the party's Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs from 2020 until 2023 and a Member of Parliament (MP) from 2019 to 2023. He was the party's Shadow Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs between 2019 and 2020.
Randall Williams is a South African politician and attorney who served as the Executive Mayor of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality from October 2020 until February 2023. Previously,he served as the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Economic Development and Spatial Planning and as the Chairperson of Municipal Appeals Tribunal between 2016 and 2019. Williams is a member of the Democratic Alliance.
Michael Stephen Shackleton is a South African politician who served as a Member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature from May 2019 to April 2022. Prior to serving in the provincial legislature,he was a Tshwane councillor and a Member of the National Assembly. Formerly a member of the Democratic Alliance,he resigned from the party on 28 April 2022 and joined ActionSA.
Bronwynn Anne Engelbrecht is a South African politician and pharmacist. A member of the Democratic Alliance,Engelbrecht served as the DA City of Tshwane ward 42 councillor until 2015 when she was appointed as a Permanent Delegate to the National Council of Provinces from Gauteng. After leaving parliament in 2019,Engelbrecht returned to the Tshwane city council as a DA PR councillor. In February 2021 she was sworn in as a member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.
Kgosientsho David "Sputla" Ramokgopa is a South African politician who is the Minister in the Presidency responsible for Electricity. He was the Mayor of Tshwane from 2010 to 2016. He was also a Member of the Executive Council in the Gauteng provincial government in 2019 and worked in the Presidency of South Africa as head of infrastructure from 2019 to 2023.
Murunwa Makwarela is a South African politician,genetic engineer,academic and businessman who served as the Mayor of Tshwane,from 28 February 2023 until he was fired by the city manager on 7 March 2023 for being declared insolvent in 2016. Makwarela was reinstated on 9 March 2023 before resigning on 10 March 2023 after it was found that the rehabilitation certificate he produced to be reinstated,was fraudulent. A former member of the Congress of the People,he served as the party's lone councillor in the municipality. Prior to his election as mayor,he was the council speaker,serving as part of a multi-party coalition led by the Democratic Alliance and other parties.