Tony Leon

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Tony Leon

Anthony James Leon (born December 15, 1956) is a South African politician and the leader of the Democratic Alliance, South Africa's main opposition party and current leader of the opposition.

Leon grew up in South Africa in a Jewish family during the apartheid era, when the African National Congress and other organisations representing the black majority were illegal. He was educated at Kearsney College near Durban. In 1974 at the age of 18 he became an organiser for the Progressive Party, the more liberal of South Africa's only two legal opposition parties of the time. After this, he qualified as an attorney at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was President of the Law Students' Council and Vice-President of the Students' Representative Council, and became a lecturer in the Law Department in 1986. In the same year he was elected to the Johannesburg City Council, where he became leader of the opposition.^[1]

In 1989 he was elected to Parliament for the Houghton constituency, representing the Progressive Party's successor, the Democratic Party.

From 1990 to 1994 he chaired the DP's Bill of Rights Commission, and as such was an advisor to the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) and a delegate to the multi-party negotiations that led to the end of apartheid and the establishment of a multi-party democracy in 1994.

At the 1994 general elections, Leon was again elected to Parliament in the first democratic National Assembly, as well as leader of the Democratic Party. At the time, the Democratic Party was perceived as merely a minor party of white liberals, an oddity in the first multiracial government of South Africa.

With the second democratic elections in 1999 and the New National Party only retaining 28 seats (down from 82 in 1994), he became Leader of the Opposition as the DP took 38 seats.

After the 2004 general elections, the Democratic Alliance under Leon had a vote increased by 2.8%, as did the ANC with an increase of 3.3%. These gains came at a cost to three of the five minor opposition parties, with only the Independent Democrats — a newcomer in the elections — also attracting support.

Leon has built a high media profile as opposition leader, effectively criticising the ANC government under Nelson Mandela but more so under his successor, President Thabo Mbeki, for failing to deal with South Africa's huge problems of poverty, unemployment and the AIDS epidemic. He has, however, alienated some of his party's liberal supporters by supporting the death penalty, genetically modified food and Eskom's pebble-bed reactor.

On November 26, 2006, Leon announced that he would step down from the leadership of the Democratic Alliance in 2007, and would not accept nomination for the leadership of the party at the party's congress in May 2007. Leon would, nevertheless, keep his seat in Parliament until 2009, when its term expires.^[2]

Leon was voted 16th in the TV channel SABC3's Top 100 Great South Africans. He became the first South African politician to record a podcast when his was launched during the 2006 local government election campaign.

Leon is married (since 2000) to Michal (formerly Even-Zahav, Israeli born). His Personal Assistant, who has been working with him since he assumed the leadership of the opposition, is Sandy Slack. His office is run by Paul Boughey, with Martin Slabbert in charge of media relations and Guy Wiloughby as speechwriter.