Parliament - Senior Democratic Alliance (DA) member of Parliament (MP) Gavin Davis on Thursday said that he had resigned from Parliament with effect from mid-October.
Davis, who has most recently served as the party's spokesman on energy, said he would take up the position of chief executive officer of Cape Town-based firm Resolve Communications.
Asked for his reasons for the leaving the party, Davis said: "I have been involved in the DA since 2004 and the time is right to start a new chapter in my career."
His departure follows intense policy wrangles within the official position party, notably on black economic empowerment, an issue that has repeatedly caused divisions in the DA as it wrestled to reconcile the notion of race-based redress with its liberal traditions.
In April, in the run-up to the party's federal executive congress, he co-authored a letter warning that the proposed diversity clause drafted to be added to the party's constitution as "anti-liberal' with implications for the rights of the individual. In the end, the congress rejected race-based quotas and instead inserted a pledge to promote plurality.
Davis said he had valued the debates and viewed these as healthy for the party.
"There have been some important policy discussions over the past year and I have enjoyed playing a part in them. We are certainly stronger when we engage freely in robust debate," he told ANA.
"I believe it is one of the qualities that sets the DA apart from other parties and is one of the reasons I am proud to have been involved in the party for so many years."
Davis has served as the DA's communications director and, briefly, as its policy chief.
Resolve Communications is headed by former DA leader Tony Leon.