Cheryl Carolus (born 27 May 1958) is a South African

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. She was born in Silvertown, on the

Cape Flats The Cape Flats ( af, Die Kaapse Vlakte) is an expansive, low-lying, flat area situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town. The Cape Flats is also the name of an administrative region of the City of Cape Town, which lie ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

. Carolus became involved in

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

while still at school and became an activist after joining the United Democratic Front in 1983. In May 1990, Carolus was elected to be part of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

' delegation which held talks with the

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

government and in July 1991, she was elected to the ANC's National Executive Committee. She was married to Graeme Bloch, who died in 2021. In 1998, she became South Africa's High Commissioner in London. Between 2001 and 2004, she was the chief executive officer of SA Tourism (SATOUR). She was the Board Chairperson for South African National Parks (SANPARKS), in 2009 she assumed this position at South African Airways. She is also chairperson of Peotona Holdings, an investment company that deals with business development. Carolus is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Crisis Group. In 2015 she was a Trustee of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. On 5 May 2018 the bodies of her husband's (Graeme Bloch) parents were discovered in Cape Town. They had been tied up and murdered.

References

External links

* http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/Pages/profilefull.aspx?IndID=4603 1958 births Living people Politicians from Cape Town Cape Coloureds Members of the African National Congress High Commissioners of South Africa to the United Kingdom Trustees of the British Museum {{SouthAfrica-diplomat-stub