Jacobus Johannes "Cobus" Dowry (7 December 1946 – 5 May 2014) was a South African politician who served in the Western Cape Executive Council from 2002 to 2009. He served in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

from 1994 to 2002 and in the

Western Cape Provincial Parliament The Western Cape Provincial Parliament (WCPP) is the legislature of the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is located at 7 Wale Street in Cape Town. The Provincial Parliament, along with the other provincial legislatures of South Africa, e ...

from 2002 to 2009. He represented the National Party (NP) and New National Party (NNP) until September 2005, when he crossed the floor to 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 ...

(ANC). He was an

SABC The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's state ...

newsreader before entering politics and he was involved in commercial farming after he retired from politics in 2009.

Early life and career

Dowry was born on 7 December 1946 and was classified as

Coloured Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...

under

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 ...

. He had a master's degree and was formerly a newsreader for the SABC.

Legislative career: 1994–2009

In the 1994 general election, he was elected to an NP seat in the National Assembly. In the next general election in 1999, he was re-elected his seat under the banner of the relaunched NNP. However, he left during the legislative term to join the Western Cape Provincial Parliament in June 2002, swopping seats with provincial legislator

Willem Doman Willem Doman (born 1950) is a former South African politician, having served as the Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, and a Member of Parliament for the opposition Democratic Alliance. Doman was also one of the ...

. Newly elected Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk appointed him to succeed Doman in the Western Cape Executive Council as Provincial Minister for Local Government. In the 2004 general election, Dowry was re-elected to the provincial parliament and was retained in the Executive Council by van Schalkwyk's successor,

Ebrahim Rasool Ebrahim Rasool (born 15 July 1962) is a South African politician and diplomat who served as the South African Ambassador to the United States from 2010 to 2015, as a Member of the National Assembly from 2009 to 2010, and as the 5th Premier of the ...

, who named him as Provincial Minister for Agriculture. In August of the following year, he announced that he would cross the floor to the ANC during September's floor-crossing window. He remained in the agriculture portfolio when Rasool was succeeded by

Lynne Brown Lynne Brown (born 26 September 1961) is a South African politician who is a former Minister of Public Enterprises and former Premier of the Western Cape Province. She was born in Cape Town and grew up in Mitchells Plain. She was appointed Premie ...

in 2008.

Farming career

He left the legislature after the next general election in 2009 and subsequently farmed olives on a smallholding in

Tulbagh Tulbagh, named after Dutch Cape Colony Governor Ryk Tulbagh, is a town located in the "Land van Waveren" mountain basin (also known as the Tulbagh basin), in the Winelands of the Western Cape, South Africa. The basin is fringed on three sides ...

. He also served as the inaugural chairperson of the South African Agricultural Association and was a director of the Agri Mega Group until November 2012.

Personal life and death

He was married to Judith Dowry, with whom he had eight children. He died on 5 May 2014, aged 67, after being diagnosed with

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...

References

External links

"Cobus Dowry dies after battle with cancer"

"Farming community mourns passionate small farmer, Cobus Dowry"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowry, Cobus 2014 deaths Coloured South African people 20th-century South African politicians 21st-century South African politicians National Party (South Africa) politicians African National Congress politicians Members of the National Assembly of South Africa Members of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament Deaths from pancreatic cancer 1946 births