Sheila Camerer
| Sheila Margaret Camerer | |
|---|---|
| South Africa Ambassador to Bulgaria | |
|
In office 2009 - 2013 | |
| Member of Parliament | |
|
In office 2004–2009 | |
| Member of Parliament | |
|
In office 1994–2003 | |
| Member of Parliament | |
|
In office 1987–1994 | |
| Constituency | Rosettenville |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
15 December 1941 Cape Town, South Africa |
| Political party |
2003-present Democratic Alliance 1997-2003 New National Party 1982-1997 National Party |
| Spouse(s) | Alexander Camerer |
| Children | 1 son, 2 daughters |
| Residence | Cape Town, South Africa |
Sheila Margaret Camerer is a South African politician and senior Member of Parliament of the main opposition Democratic Alliance(DA).
Although Camerer's father, Robert Badenhorst-Durandt had been a Member of Parliament for the ruling National Party (NP), as a young lawyer in the mid-1970s she worked on the legal defence strategies of anti-apartheid activists, including that of the Soweto Committee of Ten. The latter included Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
She joined the NP herself and in 1982 was elected NP member of the Johannesburg City Council. In 1987 she was elected Member of Parliament for the Johannesburg constituency of Rosettenville and two years later appointed deputy justice minister in the government of reformist NP leader and South African president FW de Klerk.
During the constitutional negotiations on a democratic South Africa, Camerer was employed to lead the NP in drafting a Bill of Rights. Later she became a prominent spokesperson for the party in parliament, and served shortly as deputy justice minister after 1994 until De Klerk decided to suspend the party's participation in the Government of National Unity (GNU). In 1997, she became leader of the NP in the National Assembly, the first-ever woman and English-speaker in the party's history to hold the post.
Camerer was seen as opposing the withdrawal of the now renamed New National Party (NNP) from the Democratic Alliance (DA) in 2001, but remained an NNP member until 2003 when newly promulgated legislation allowed her to defect to the DA without losing her parliamentary seat.
In November 2006 Camerer voted in favour of legislation permitting homosexual civil unions.
After the South African general election, 2009 Camerer was appointed as Ambassador to Bulgaria.[1]
In March 2013 Camerer completed her term as ambassador and is currently retired.
References
- ↑ "PRESENTATION OF CREDENTIALS" (PDF) (Press release). Retrieved 2015-12-30.
- Dube, Pamela (22 May 1999). "Camerer's dilemma over validity of death penalty". Independent Online. Archived from the original on 2008-09-29.