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Bheki Mnyandu

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Bheki Mnyandu
Member of the National Assembly
In office
23 April 2004 – May 2009
ConstituencyKwaZulu-Natal
Personal details
Born
Bhekinhlahla Jeremia Mnyandu

(1955-11-19) 19 November 1955 (age 68)
CitizenshipSouth Africa
Political partyAfrican National Congress (since September 2005)
Other political
affiliations
Democratic Alliance (until September 2005)

Bhekinhlahla Jeremia Mnyandu (born 19 November 1955)[1] is a South African academic and politician who represented KwaZulu-Natal in the National Assembly from 2004 to 2009. He was a member of the Democratic Alliance (DA) until September 2005, when he crossed the floor to the African National Congress (ANC).

Political career

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Mnyandu was formerly an academic in KwaZulu-Natal.[2] He joined the National Assembly as a DA representative after the 2004 general election; he was sworn in to the seat, one of the DA's eight in the KwaZulu-Natal caucus, after it was declined by member-elect Visvin Reddy.[3]

Hours before the end of the floor-crossing window of September 2005, Mnyandu announced that he had resigned from the DA in order to join the governing ANC.[4] He was accompanied by three other black DA MPs – Richard Ntuli, Enyinna Nkem-Abonta, and Dan Maluleke – and DA leader Tony Leon later complaint that they had all been "direct beneficiaries of the DA's attempts to increase the diversity of the party's leadership".[2]

In the 2009 general election, Mnyandu stood for re-election under the ANC's banner,[1] but he was ranked too low on the party list to win a seat.

References

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  1. ^ a b "2009 National and Provincial Election – Final Candidate Lists" (PDF). Electoral Commission of South Africa. 6 April 2009. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  2. ^ a b "DA: Five blacks out, four whites in". The Mail & Guardian. 23 September 2005. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  3. ^ "National Assembly Members". Parliamentary Monitoring Group. 15 January 2009. Archived from the original on 14 May 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  4. ^ "DA 'surprised' as five MPs jump ship". The Mail & Guardian. 15 September 2005. Retrieved 14 May 2023.