Tony Leon

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Anthony "Tony" James Leon (born December 15, 1956 ) is a South African politician. He was chairman of the Democratic Alliance , the largest opposition party in South Africa.

Life

Tony Leon

Leon was born into a Jewish family and attended Kearsney College near Durban . At the age of 18 he became an organizer for the Progressive Party, one of the opposition parties during the apartheid period . Leon studied law at the Witwatersrand University . During his student days he was chairman of the law students group and vice-chairman of the student council. 1986 Leon became a lecturer at the local law faculty . In the same year he was elected to the Johannesburg city ​​council, where he took over the leadership of the opposition.

In 1989 Leon was elected to the South African parliament for the constituency of Houghton for the Democratic Party (DP), as his party was now called after two previous mergers. From 1990-1994 he was a member of the Bill of Rights Commission, a member of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) and a delegate to the multi-party talks in Kempton Park.

In 1994, Leon moved back into parliament after the first elections following the apartheid period. After the New National Party , the former sponsor of the apartheid system, lost votes dramatically in the 1999 elections, Leon effectively became the opposition leader in the ANC -dominated parliament with a two-thirds majority. In the 2004 elections, the party that has now called itself Democratic Alliance (DA) celebrated its greatest electoral success to date with a result of 12.37%.

During his time as opposition leader, Leon made a name for himself as a sharp critic of the government, who he accused of failing to fight poverty, unemployment and the spread of AIDS .

In November 2006, Leon announced that he would no longer run in the April 2007 election for party chairmanship. He was succeeded by the Mayor of Cape Town , Helen Zille . Leon retained his seat in parliament until the 2009 elections. On August 3, 2009, he was appointed South Africa's ambassador for Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay in Buenos Aires . He returned in September 2012. Since then he has worked as a consultant, speaker and writer. In May 2014 he published Opposite Mandela - Encounters with South Africa's Icon .

Others

In the poll for the “100 greatest South Africans of all time”, organized by the broadcasting company SABC in September 2004, Leon made it to 16th place.

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personal data
SURNAME Leon, Tony
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leon, Anthony James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1956