Nicholas John Clelland (born 25 February 1972) is a South African politician, communications professional and author.
Nicholas John Clelland (born 25 February 1972) is a South African politician, communications professional and author.
Clelland was elected to the Durban Metropolitan Council in 1996. [1] [2] He was then elected as a Democratic Party Member of Parliament [3] in 1999 at the age of 27, making him one of South Africa's youngest Members of Parliament. [4] Clelland served as Parliamentary Counsellor to the Leader of the Opposition [5] and as the Democratic Alliance's first National Spokesperson. [6] On an oversight trip to Zimbabwe, with Tony Leon after the February 2000 referendum on the draft constitution, then ZANU–PF Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa characterised their trip as interference in Zimbabwe's domestic affairs and treacherous. [3]
In 2007, in New Zealand, Clelland was appointed chief of staff to Auckland mayor John Banks. [7] Returning to South Africa in 2009, then Western Cape Minister of Transport, Robin Carlisle, appointed Clelland as his Chief of Staff where he conceptualised and launched the government's Safely Home road safety campaign that, ultimately, achieved a 25.9% reduction in fatalities in two and a half years. [8] [9] [4]
In 2010 Clelland took up the role of Director of Strategic Communication for the Western Cape Government. [4] In this position – together with Dan Ariely - he devised and designed a behavioural economics pilot on HIV testing which saw a 30% increase in monthly HIV testing figures. [10] [11]
Former DA Leader, Tony Leon and Clelland founded Resolve Communications (Pty) Ltd in 2013 where he served as its chief executive officer until October 2018 when he was succeeded by Gavin Davis. [12] Clelland is credited with re-defining the concept of “Day Zero” during the 2017/2018 water crisis in Cape Town which was used, with great effect, to change and to sustain reduction in water consumption. [13] [14]
Clelland and Ryan Coetzee authored Spin – The art of managing the media (2018 Penguin Books). [15] [16] [17] [18]
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served as the second president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC). Before that, he was deputy president under Nelson Mandela from 1994 to 1999.
John Maxwell Coetzee FRSL OMG is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language. He has won the Booker Prize (twice), the CNA Literary Award (thrice), the Jerusalem Prize, the Prix Femina étranger, and The Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and holds a number of other awards and honorary doctorates.
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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 ANC government from 2009 to 2012.
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Ryan Coetzee is a South African politician and political strategist, who served as special adviser to Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Nick Clegg and was the 2015 General Election Director of Strategy at Liberal Democrat HQ. In 2016, he was director of strategy for the campaign for the UK to remain in the EU.
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