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- James Selfe, the DA's former federal council chairperson, died at age 68.
- He dedicated nearly two decades to the DA.
- Selfe resigned in 2019 due to health issues.
The DA's former federal council chairperson, James Selfe, has died aged 68.
Selfe died on Tuesday afternoon, the party said.
He served in the party for almost two decades before stepping down in 2019 due to ill health.
He worked under various leaders in the party such as Tony Leon, Helen Zille and Mmusi Maimane.
The party's leader John Steenhuisen said in a statement that Selfe led a quietly influential life in contemporary South African political history, having made an immense contribution to 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 said.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, Selfe worked as a researcher for the DA’s forerunner, the Progressive Federal Party, to combat the National Party's divisive and regressive apartheid laws in Parliament.
He then served as the party’s communications director, later becoming an executive director.
Upon his election to the National Council of Provinces in 1994 in South Africa’s first democratic parliament, Selfe served in the Constitutional Assembly, participating in the drawing up 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 said.
From the Zuma spy tapes, to Nkandla, to blowing the whistle on state contracts awarded to Bosasa, Selfe led the charge against corruption and maladministration.
Steenhuisen said Selfe was always committed to building and sustaining a democracy in which transparency and accountability would ensure that the party's government served its people, and not the politicians holding the reins.
"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 three daughters, Chloe, Stephanie and Emma.
