Brandon Rodney Topham (born

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

, 7 June 1971) is a South African politician, community leader and businessman. He is also a South African Freemason

Business life

Brandon Topham has served on the boards of a wide variety of businesses, often as Secretary, CFO, Financial Director or Non Executive Director. These companies include 1time Airline, Ecsponent Limited
SEESA (Pty) Ltd
Telemasters Holdings Limited and the Professional Provident Society (PPS).

Education

He is a Qualified Lawyer, Chartered Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), and Chartered Management Accountant (CIMA).

Political life

Topham became interested in politics at the age of 16 when he witnessed the unfairness of

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

. He avoided compulsory military service when he went to university. As a long-standing member of the Democratic Alliance, South Africa's main opposition party, he was chosen to be the DA's candidate for mayor of the City of Tshwane in 2011. The governing ANC retained the metro, however. Topham thereafter led the DA opposition in the Tshwane council. After standing unsuccessfully to be the party's mayoral candidate again in 2016, Topham instead became a Member of the

South African Parliament The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa is South Africa's legislature. It is located in Cape Town; the country's legislative capital. Under the present Constitution of South Africa, the bicameral Parliament comprises a National Asse ...

for the DA and served as Deputy Shadow Minister of The Auditor General, and The Deputy Shadow Minister of Appropriations. In October 2016 Topham criticised Minister of Finance

Malusi Gigaba Knowledge Malusi Nkanyezi Gigaba (born 30 August 1971) is a South African politician who represents the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly. He served as a cabinet minister between 2010 and 2018, with stints as Minister o ...

and suggested that there is more to the South African Revenue Service's collection shortfall of R50.8 Billion and that "There may be a rolling of payment and collection. I suggest you do a performance appraisal for senior SARS officials and see if they’ve reported truthfully." In 2018, Topham resigned from parliament.

Freemasonry

Topham has been named grand treasurer of the Grand Lodge of South Africa in 2015. He is currently listed as Secretary of Lodge Koh-I-Noor no 79 in

. In March 2016 the

Freemasons Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

were accused of influencing the Democratic Alliance's candidate list. Topham dismissed these claims and stated "The Freemasons are not a secret society and do not take oaths. Some people who do not believe all men are created equal, use it as a bogeyman, as the

Broederbond The Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) or simply the Broederbond was an exclusively Afrikaner Calvinist and male secret society in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of the Afrikaner people. It was founded by H. J. Klopper, H. W. van der Merw ...

did in the previous dispensation" He further mentioned that only about 30 public representatives nationwide are Freemasons.

Forensic Accounting

The forensic report detailing how R1,4 Billion disappeared during th
Fidentia Scandal
a

Ponzi Scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays Profit (accounting), profits to earlier investors with Funding, funds from more recent investors. Named after Italians, Italian confidence artist Charles Ponzi, this type of s ...

, was co-compiled by Topham.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Topham, Brandon 1971 births Living people Chief financial officers University of South Africa alumni South African businesspeople Democratic Alliance (South Africa) politicians Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 2014–2019