Babalo Ndenze
PARLIAMENTARY farewells continued at the weekend, with former DA leader Tony Leon bidding an emotional farewell to former journalist and one of the country’s longest-serving MPs, Dene Smuts.
Leon described Smuts as a “rare bird” in the “political aviary”.
Speaking at a function at Bishops school, he recalled how on September 6, 1989 the voters of the Groote Schuur constituency – a mostly white part of Cape Town – elected Smuts, a well-known journalist and “pioneering magazine editor” to Parliament.
“Her name was Dene Smuts,” Leon said.
“She was then 40 years old and was, in addition to a stellar and principled career in the media, also immersed in raising her two then-young but always special and talented children, Markus and Julia.”
Smuts is one of a number of MPs from across the political spectrum who are retiring this year.
Among the more notable retirees are DA chief whip Watty Watson and ANC veterans Ben Turok and Andrew Mlangeni.
Smuts became Parliament’s first woman whip in 1992.
She was the Democratic Party’s chairwoman from 1994 to 1997.
In her media career, Smuts held the positions of editor of Fair Lady magazine, and managing editor of Leadership before entering politics.
Smuts has been the DA’s spokeswoman on justice.