The DA’s former federal council chairperson, James Selfe, has passed away at the age of 68.
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According to the party, Selfe died on Tuesday afternoon.
He dedicated almost two decades to the party before stepping down in 2019 due to health issues.
Throughout his career, Selfe worked with various party leaders, including Tony Leon, Helen Zille, and Mmusi Maimane.
John Steenhuisen, the party’s current leader, stated that Selfe’s life was quietly influential in the context of contemporary South African politics, making a significant impact on South African democracy.
‘Selfe helped fine-tune the party’s systems and processes, tightening its Federal Constitution and turning the fast-growing DA into a modern, internationally renowned African liberal party of rules and fairness,’ he remarked.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, Selfe served as a researcher for the Progressive Federal Party, the DA’s predecessor, working to oppose the National Party’s divisive and regressive apartheid laws in Parliament.
He later became the party’s communications director and eventually an executive director.
Upon being elected to the National Council of Provinces in 1994 during South Africa’s first democratic parliament, Selfe participated in the Constitutional Assembly, contributing to the drafting of South Africa’s democratic Constitution.
‘Over his nearly 30-year parliamentary career, James served on various portfolio committees, most notably the Committee on Justice and Correctional Services, where his oversight of South Africa’s judicial system was crucial to ensuring that fairness and accountability were always upheld in South African society,’ Steenhuisen said.
‘Through his service to three federal leaders as the party’s first chairperson of the Federal Council, James operationalised the establishment and fortification of the DA as South Africa’s formidable official opposition.
‘More crucially, James pioneered the DA’s lawfare programme responsible for some of the most groundbreaking legal judgments in post-democratic history, setting a variety of legal precedents which strengthened public accountability in our young democracy,’ the party leader continued.
From the Zuma spy tapes to Nkandla and exposing state contracts awarded to Bosasa, Selfe was at the forefront of fighting corruption and maladministration.
Steenhuisen noted that Selfe was always dedicated to building and maintaining a democracy where transparency and accountability ensured that the party’s government served the people rather than the politicians.
‘James set the example for many of us in the DA, and we will continue this work for our country in his memory. The DA is a vast, diverse, and expansive political home for millions of South Africans today because of the decades of work and sacrifice made by the right honourable James Selfe.
‘Even the party’s youngest and newest members today admire James for his immense contribution not only to the DA but to South African democracy as a whole. It is this profound impact that will be James’ proud democratic legacy,’ he added.
Selfe is survived by his wife, Sheila, and their three daughters, Chloe, Stephanie, and Emma.
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