Frederik Willem de Klerk was a South African politician who served as state president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as deputy president from 1994 to 1996. As South Africa's last head of state from the era of white-minority rule,he and his government dismantled the apartheid system and introduced universal suffrage. Ideologically a social conservative and an economic liberal,he led the National Party (NP) from 1989 to 1997.
The Republic of South Africa is a unitary parliamentary democratic republic. The President of South Africa serves both as head of state and as head of government. The President is elected by the National Assembly and must retain the confidence of the Assembly in order to remain in office. South Africans also elect provincial legislatures which govern each of the country's nine provinces.
Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa.
The president of South Africa is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of South Africa. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the South African National Defence Force. Between 1961 and 1994,the office of head of state was the state presidency.
Anthony James Leon is a South African politician who served as leader of the opposition from 1999-2007 as leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA). He led the DA from its inception in 2000,until his retirement from leadership in 2007. Before that,he led the Democratic Party from 1994. He is the longest-serving leader of the official opposition in parliament since the advent of democracy in 1994. Although still a member of the DA,he served as the South African Ambassador to Argentina,Uruguay and Paraguay under the African National Congress government from 2009 to 2012.
Arthur Chaskalson SCOB,was President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1994 to 2001 and Chief Justice of South Africa from 2001 to 2005. Chaskalson was a member of the defence team in the Rivonia Trial of 1963.
Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada OMSG,sometimes known by the nickname "Kathy",was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist.
The Constitutional Court of South Africa is the supreme constitutional court established by the Constitution of South Africa,and is the apex court in the South African judicial system,with general jurisdiction.
Valli Moosa is Deputy Chairperson of the Presidential Climate Commission and Chairperson of the Constitution Hill trust. He was born in Johannesburg and is a veteran of the South African freedom struggle. Valli worked closely with Nelson Mandela during the settlement talks,served as negotiator for the ANC,and participated in drafting the South African Constitution. He served in President Mandela's cabinet as Minister of Constitutional Development,and in President Mbeki's government as Environment Minister. Valli joined the corporate sector in 2004 and currently serves on the board of Sappi Ltd. He has previously served on the boards of Anglo Platinum,Eskom and Sanlam. Valli served as a facilitator in the global climate change negotiations for a number of years. He previously served as President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN),as Chairman of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development and as Chairman of WWF(SA).
Lesbian,gay,bisexual,transgender,and queer (LGBTQ) people in South Africa have the same legal rights as non-LGBTQ people. South Africa has a complex and diverse history regarding the human rights of LGBTQ people. The legal and social status of between 400,000 to over 2 million lesbian,gay,bisexual,transgender and intersex South Africans has been influenced by a combination of traditional South African morals,colonialism,and the lingering effects of apartheid and the human rights movement that contributed to its abolition.
Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor is a South African politician,educator and academic who served as the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation until 2024. She also served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the African National Congress (ANC) from 1994 to 2024.
Harry Heinz Schwarz was a South African lawyer,statesman,and long-time political opposition leader against apartheid in South Africa who eventually served as the South African Ambassador to the United States during the country's transition to majority rule.
Derek Andre Hanekom is a South African retired politician,activist and former cabinet minister currently serving as the interim Chairman of South African Airways.
South Africa,officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA),is the southernmost country in Africa. Its nine provinces are bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres of coastline that stretches along the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean;to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia,Botswana,and Zimbabwe;to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini;and it encloses Lesotho. Covering an area of 1,221,037 square kilometres,the country has over 62 million people. Pretoria is the administrative capital,while Cape Town,as the seat of Parliament,is the legislative capital. Bloemfontein has traditionally been regarded as the judicial capital. The largest and most populous city is Johannesburg,followed by Cape Town and the busiest port city in sub-Saharan Africa,Durban.
Catherine "Kate" O'Regan is a former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. From 2013 to 2014 she was a commissioner of the Khayelitsha Commission and is now the inaugural director of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford.
Dion George is a South African politician who is currently serving as the Minister of Environment,Forestry and Fisheries since July 2024. He is a Member of Parliament for the Democratic Alliance (DA) He is the Federal Finance Chair of the DA,and is a member of the Party’s Federal Council,Federal Executive and National Management Committee. He also serves as a member–elected Trustee and Chair of the Investment Sub–Committee of the Political Office Bearers Pension Fund.
Anchen Margaretha Dreyer is a South African politician,a Member of Parliament for the opposition Democratic Alliance,and former Chairperson of the Democratic Alliance Caucus in the National Assembly. Before being elected unopposed to this position on 26 May 2014,she was first the Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises and thereafter the Shadow Minister of Public Works.
Herman Samtseu Philip Mashaba is a South African politician,entrepreneur and the current president of ActionSA,a party he launched on 29 August 2020. He served as the Mayor of Johannesburg from 2016 to 2019. He is the founder of the hair product company Black Like Me. He is famous in South Africa for his background:he grew up struggling against poverty,and claims to have struggled against the apartheid government,to open his own hair business,which became the biggest hair brand in South Africa,making him a millionaire. He publicly backed Mmusi Maimane in the Democratic Alliance leadership race. He wrote the autobiography Black Like You and his campaign manager,Michael Beaumont,recently published a biography called "The Accidental Mayor". A biography of Mashaba later published by Prince Mashele was referred to as "unauthorised" until it controversially emerged that Mashaba himself had paid Mashele R12.5million for the project. Mashaba refers to himself as a libertarian and "capitalist crusader" whose highest value is "individual freedom."
Douglas Harvey Monro Gibson is a South African retired attorney,politician and diplomat who served as South Africa's ambassador to Thailand between 2008 and 2012. Previously,he had served as chief whip of the opposition from 1999 to 2007,as chairperson of the federal council of the Democratic Party between 1997 and 2000,and as a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa between 1994 and 2008.
Bekizwe Simon "Bheki" Nkosi is a South African politician who represented the African National Congress (ANC) as a Member of the National Assembly from 2019 until 2024. An attorney by training,he was formerly a Member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature from 1997 to 2012 and he served on the Gauteng Executive Council from 2009 to 2012. He was the deputy president of the ANC Youth League from 1994 to 1996.
