Belinda Bozzoli (17 December 19455 December 2020) was a South African author, academic, sociologist, and politician. She was deputy vice-chancellor of the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...

for a period from 2002, having headed its school of social sciences. In 2014 Bozzoli was elected a member of the South African parliament for the Democratic Alliance. From 2019 she served as

Shadow A shadow is a dark area where light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object. It occupies all of the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette, o ...

Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology The Minister of Higher Education, Science, Technology is a Minister in the Cabinet of South Africa, with the responsibility of overseeing the higher education and training components of the Department of Education. Before 10 May 2009 the portfo ...

Early life and education

Bozzoli was born on 17 December 1945 in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

to Guerino Renzo and Cora Bertha Bozzoli, both

Italian South Africans Italian South Africans ( it, Italo-sudafricani) are South Africans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. They are primarily descended from Italians who emigrated to South Africa during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Language a ...

. She earned her Bachelor of Arts and Honours degrees from the

and then obtained her Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy at the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

. Bozzoli was an Associate Fellow at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

between 1978 and 1979.

Academic career

Bozzoli authored three single-authored, internationally published books and was the editor or co-editor of a further four. She had, in total, published 26 articles. Bozzoli became head of sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand in the late 1990s and was head of the School of Social Sciences from 2001 to 2003. She became Deputy Vice-Chancellor in 2002 and chaired the Board of the National Research Foundation for a time. She was awarded an A-rating from the National Research Foundation in 2006. Bozzoli was the first sociologist to be honoured in this way. Bozzoli also served as the acting director of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research.

Political career

In 2014, Bozzoli stood for election to the

South African National Assembly The National Assembly is the directly elected house of the Parliament of South Africa, located in Cape Town, Western Cape. It consists of four hundred members who are elected every five years using a party-list proportional representation syste ...

as 77th on the Democratic Alliance's (DA) national list. At the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

, Bozzoli won a seat in the National Assembly. Upon election, she became the Shadow Minister of Higher Education and Training. She was a member of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training and the DA's contact for Boksburg West constituency during the 2014–19 parliament. In October 2016 she criticised the African National Congress Party's universities policy which she said had seen government funding fall from 50% to 40% of university income since 1994 and led to budget shortfalls, larger class sizes and increased fees. Bozzoli was re-elected to Parliament in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. Bozzoli was then made Shadow Minister for the newly created Higher Education, Science and Technology portfolio. In June 2020 she raised concerns over the South African government's move to write off 1.96 billion rand of student debt. Bozzoli stated that the DA had no objection to the debts of low-income students being forgiven, but queried whether the move would benefit high-earning students who were simply unwilling to pay back loans. She was also concerned about the impact on funding for universities.

Death

Bozzoli died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

on 5 December 2020, twelve days before her 75th birthday. She was survived by her husband, Charles van Onselen, and their three children. She had continued to work in politics during her final illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bozzoli, Belinda 1945 births 2020 deaths Deaths from cancer in South Africa University of the Witwatersrand alumni Alumni of the University of Sussex Yale University faculty Democratic Alliance (South Africa) politicians Women members of the National Assembly of South Africa Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 21st-century South African politicians 21st-century South African writers Place of death missing Academic staff of the University of the Witwatersrand 21st-century South African women politicians 21st-century South African women writers South African people of Italian descent