Dan Maluleke

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Dan Maluleke
Member of the National Assembly
In office
June 1999 – May 2009
ConstituencyGauteng
Personal details
Born
Daniel Kapeni Maluleke

(1943-04-21) 21 April 1943 (age 81)
CitizenshipSouth Africa
Political partyAfrican National Congress (since 2005)
Other political
affiliations		Democratic Alliance
Democratic Party
African Christian Democratic Party

Daniel Kapeni Maluleke (born 21 April 1943) is a retired South African politician who served in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2009, representing the Gauteng constituency. He was a member of the Democratic Party (DP), later the Democratic Alliance (DA), until September 2005, when he crossed the floor to the African National Congress (ANC). He is a former deputy chairperson of the DA.

Early life

Maluleke was born on 21 April 1943.[1] He entered politics in 1994 as a founding member of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP). After he left the ACDP, he was recruited to the DP, which he represented as a local councillor in Orlando East, Soweto.[2]

Legislative career: 1999–2009

In the 1999 general election, he was elected to a DP seat in the Gauteng caucus of the National Assembly.[1] He was re-elected to a second term in the seat in 2004,[3] as the highest-ranked black candidate, and eighth-highest overall, on the DA's Gauteng party list.[4]

Maluleke's race was of political import in the DA of the period, which was seeking to diversify its membership and constituency. In November 2001, Maluleke led a party press conference on race relations inside the DA. He denied that the DA served only white interests but admitted that there were "cultural" difference between the party's black and white members; he said that he was planning a workshop to provide a "chance for [DA leader] Tony Leon and others to acclimatise" themselves to the culture of black members.[5]

The following month, Maluleke and three other black DA members – Donald Lee, Richard Ntuli, and Wilson Ngcobo – were co-opted onto the DA's national management committee in a move explicitly presented as designed "to promote representivity".[6] At the next DA elective conference in April 2002, Maluleke was elected to deputise Leon as one of the party's three deputy chairpersons; the other deputies were Gerald Morkel and Helen Zille.[7]

Defection to the ANC: 2005

Hours before the end of the floor-crossing window of September 2005, Maluleke announced that he had resigned from the DA in order to join the governing ANC. He was accompanied by three other black DA MPs: Richard Ntuli, Enyinna Nkem-Abonta, and Bheki Mnyandu.[8] The quartet accused the DA of racism.[9] In a speech to the house, Maluleke claimed that the DA's governance structures and staff were "overwhelmingly white" and that "no black person has any meaningful degree of authority" within the party.[10] He said, "Our leaving that God-forsaken outfit, the DA, had nothing to do with chequebook politics but a lot with the visionary leadership of President Thabo Mbeki that arises from the progressive policies of the ANC."[10]

The DA, which reacted to the defections with surprise,[8] attempted to challenge the defections in court on technical grounds. Among other things, the DA objected to the fact that Maluleke had voted with the DA in Parliament even after signing his floor-crossing forms, thereby pretending that he was still a DA member.[11] The DA lost the court challenge,[12] and Maluleke served the rest of the parliamentary term under the ANC banner. He left Parliament after the 2009 general election.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b "General Notice: Notice 1319 of 1999 – Electoral Commission: Representatives Elected to the Various Legislatures" (PDF). Government Gazette of South Africa. Vol. 408, no. 20203. Pretoria, South Africa: Government of South Africa. 11 June 1999. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  2. ^ "Local elections: The brown Nat, the tree planter, the premier's mother-in-law, and a madam called Eve". The Mail & Guardian. 20 October 1995. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  3. ^ "General Notice: Notice 717 of 2004 - Electoral Commission – List of Names of Representatives in the National Assembly and the Nine Provincial Legislatures in Respect of the Elections Held on 14 April 2004" (PDF). Government Gazette of South Africa. Vol. 466, no. 2677. Pretoria, South Africa: Government of South Africa. 20 April 2004. pp. 4–95. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  4. ^ "Top DA brass low on Gauteng list". The Mail & Guardian. 26 January 2004. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  5. ^ "Black DA leaders admit race discord". The Mail & Guardian. 16 November 2001. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  6. ^ "DA woos the black vote". The Mail & Guardian. 7 December 2001. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  7. ^ "Why Joe stayed number 2". The Mail & Guardian. 19 April 2002. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  8. ^ a b "DA 'surprised' as five MPs jump ship". The Mail & Guardian. 15 September 2005. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  9. ^ a b "Being black in the DA". The Mail & Guardian. 26 September 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  10. ^ a b Maluleke, Dan (6 February 2006). "Exposing DA Racism". Sephadi. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  11. ^ "Ex-DA MPs lost their seats, court hears". The Mail & Guardian. 26 September 2005. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  12. ^ "DA loses floor-crossing appeal". The Mail & Guardian. 3 October 2005. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
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