Sheila Margaret Camerer (born 15 December 1941) is a retired South African politician and was a Member of Parliament of the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance(DA).

Career

Camerer is the daughter of Bob Badenhorst Durrant and his wife, Diana. Durrant himself was a one-time UP MP for

Turffontein Turffontein is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located in Region F of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. History Prior to the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand (, ; ; locally the Rand or ...

. Sunday Times. 23 July 1989 Camerer graduated from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

where she was Rag Queen. Like her father, Camerer had political instincts and she joined the

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

, in 1982 she was elected NP member of the Johannesburg City Council. In 1987 she was elected Member of Parliament for the Johannesburg constituency of

Rosettenville Rosettenville is a working class suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It lies to the south of the city centre. History Rosettenville was founded in 1886 by the Jewish pioneer, Leo (or Levin) Rosettenstein, whom it is named after. Rosettenstein ...

and two years later appointed deputy justice minister in the government of reformist NP leader and South African president

FW de Klerk Frederik Willem de Klerk ( , ; 18 March 1936 – 11 November 2021) was a South African politician who served as the seventh and final state president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as deputy president alongside Thabo Mbeki under Preside ...

. In 1989 when Camerer was a National Party member of Parliament, she said: During the constitutional negotiations on a democratic South Africa, Camerer was employed to lead the NP in drafting a Bill of Rights. Later she became a prominent spokesperson for the party in parliament, and served briefly as deputy justice minister after 1994 until De Klerk decided to suspend the party's participation in the

Government of National Unity A national unity government, government of national unity (GNU), or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties (or all major parties) in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other nati ...

(GNU). In 1997, she became leader of the now rebranded New National Party (NNP) (which was part of the Democratic Alliance (DA)) in the National Assembly, the first-ever woman and English-speaker in the history of the NP or its successor, the NNP, to hold that post. The New National Party withdrew from the DA in 2001, Camera remained an NNP member until 2003 when newly promulgated legislation allowed her to defect to the DA without losing her parliamentary seat. After the

2009 South African general election General elections were held in South Africa on 22 April 2009 to elect members of the National Assembly and provincial legislatures. These were the fourth general elections held since the end of the apartheid era. The North Gauteng High Cour ...

Camerer was appointed as Ambassador to Bulgaria. In March 2013 Camerer completed her term as ambassador and is currently retired.

References

External links

Camerer's Blog

Who's who- Sheila Camerer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Camerer, Sheila Living people 1941 births South African people of German descent Politicians from Cape Town University of Cape Town alumni Democratic Alliance (South Africa) politicians National Party (South Africa) politicians Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 1994–1999 Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 1999–2004 Members of the House of Assembly (South Africa) Ambassadors of South Africa to Bulgaria South African women ambassadors Women members of the National Assembly of South Africa