Luyolo Mphithi

Luyolo Mphithi (born 1 September 1992) is a South African politician who has been Shadow Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities in the Presidency and a Member of Parliament since 2019. A member of the Democratic Alliance, he currently serves as the federal leader of its youth structure.

Luyolo Mphithi
Mphithi in 2018
Shadow Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities in the Presidency
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 June 2019
Deputy	Nazley Sharif
Leader	Mmusi Maimane John Steenhuisen
Preceded by	Denise Robinson
Federal Leader of the Democratic Alliance Youth
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 April 2018
Preceded by	Yusuf Cassim
Member of the National Assembly of South Africa
Incumbent
Assumed office 22 May 2019
Personal details
Born	1 September 1992
Nationality	South African
Political party	Democratic Alliance
Alma mater	University of Witwatersrand
Occupation	Member of Parliament
Profession	Politician

Early life and education

From the University of the Witwatersrand, Mphithi has a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, international relations and law as well as a joint honour's degree in international relations and political science. He is currently pursuing his master's degree in Public Administration at the same university.[1]

Additionally, Mphithi has a certificate in political formations and structures from the International Academy of Leadership (IAF) in Gummersbach, Germany. He also holds a certificate in research Methodology from Bowdoin College and a certificate in public management from Syracuse University in the United States.[1]

Career

Mphithi was employed by the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature as a research and communication officer, responsible for researching the fields of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, human settlements, public works, roads and transport, as well as public safety, security and liaison.[1]

He was also employed as a consultant at various institutions, such the Executive Research Associates, the Hanns Seidel Foundation, the University of the Witwatersrand, and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation.[1]

Political career

Mphithi served as a Democratic Alliance councillor in the City of Johannesburg for the community of Meadowlands in Soweto. During his time on the city council, he was a member of the committees on public safety and environment, infrastructure and services.[1] He also served as the director and head of department of political administration for the municipality.[1]

Mphithi is a DA's Young Leaders Programme graduate and has held multiple roles in the DA. While a student at the University of Witwatersrand, he was head of the university's Democratic Alliance Student Organisation branch and was also the Gauteng DA Youth deputy chair in 2012.[1] He serves as a member of the party's Federal Council for the Johannesburg region. Additionally, he serves as treasurer for the African Liberal Youth (ALY). He represented the organisation at the African Liberal Network's 2017 conference in Nairobi, Kenya.[1]

At the DA's conference in April 2018, Mphithi was elected federal leader of the DA Youth, succeeding Yusuf Cassim.[2]

Mphithi stood as a DA parliamentary candidate on the national list in the 2019 national elections, and was subsequently elected to the National Assembly and sworn in on 22 May 2019.[3][4] On 5 June, Mphithi was appointed Shadow Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities in the Presidency by DA leader, Mmusi Maimane, in his second shadow cabinet.[5]

Maimane resigned as DA leader in October 2019 and John Steenhuisen was voted in as his interim successor in November.[6] In May 2020, the DA announced that it would hold its Federal Congress to elect new leadership on 31 October to 1 November. Mphithi was against the proposal and later supported KwaZulu-Natal MPL Mbali Ntuli's bid for DA leader.[7] Steenhuisen was elected leader for a full term in a landslide.[8] He announced his shadow cabinet in December and kept Mphithi as Shadow Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities in the Presidency.[9]

Awards and accolades

Mphithi was awarded the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Scholarship, the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship, Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, as well as the Mandela Washington Fellowship of the Young African Leaders Initiative.[1]

In 2017, he was cited by the Mail & Guardian as one of "Top 200 Young South Africans" for his work in politics.[1] In the same year, Avance Media ranked him as one of the 100 most influential young South Africans in politics.[1]

Schweizer-Reneke incident

In January 2019, months before the May 2019 general election, Mphithi tweeted a single photo of the Grade R classroom of the Schweizer-Reneke primary school, saying that the school had segregated children of different races.[10] The picture went viral and the school later clarified that the children were not separated due to race.[11] However, the North West MEC for Education, Sello Lehari, suspended the teacher, Elana Barkhuizen.[11] Barkhuizen then approached the trade union Solidarity, and they approached the labour court, which overturned her suspension in February.[12]

Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann wrote a letter to Maimane, in which he said that Mphithi "sowed racial division" and that he should apologise to Barkhuizen and the children, whose identities he exposed.[10] Mphithi did not apologise and Maimane did not sanction him. This response from the DA resulted in the party losing large amounts of Afrikaner votes at the May election.[13] In November, DA Federal Chairperson, Refiloe Nt'sekhe, announced that the party would be investigating the incident.[14] In March 2020, Nt'sekhe said that the report had been presented to the party's Federal Executive (FedEx) and that the FedEx had resolved to refer the report to the party's Federal Legal Commission to determine if disciplinary charges should be laid.[15]

References

1. "Luyolo Mphithi". Democratic Alliance. Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
2. "Women and youth leaders elected on eve of #DACongress2018". IOL. Pretoria. 7 April 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
3. Lekabe, Thapelo (16 March 2019). "DA releases list of candidates to represent party for elections". Eyewitness News. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
4. "SEE: These are the people who will represent you in Parliament, provincial legislatures". News24. 15 May 2019. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
5. Gerber, Jan (5 June 2019). "Here's the DA's 'shadow cabinet'". News24. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
6. Mailovich, Claudi (17 November 2019). "John Steenhuisen elected as the DA's interim leader". BusinessDay. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
7. Gerber, Jan (30 October 2020). "DA elective conference: Who supports who?". News24. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
8. "John Steenhuisen wins DA leadership race". eNCA. 1 November 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
9. Mazzone, Natasha. "DA announces new Shadow Cabinet that will bring Real Hope and Real Change". Democratic Alliance. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
10. Peterson, Tammy (16 January 2019). "DA youth leader sowed racial division in Schweizer-Reneke furore, Solidarity charges". News24. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
11. Tshehle, Boitumelo (11 January 2019). "It's language, not race, says North West school - but MEC doesn't buy it". TimesLIVE. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
12. "IN FULL l 'I am a good teacher': read Elana Barkhuizen's statement on THAT 'racist' photo". TimesLIVE. 15 January 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
13. "Maimane's costly knee-jerk response to Schweizer-Reneke – IRR". Biznews. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
14. "DA to investigate handling of Schweizer-Reneke racism allegations - report". News24. 23 November 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
15. Seleka, Ntwaagae (8 March 2020). "'Racist' Schweizer-Reneke school picture could have contributed to voter loss - DA". News24. Retrieved 24 January 2021.

External links

• Luyolo Mphithi at People's Assembly
• Mr Luyolo Mphithi at Parliament of South Africa