Edward William Trent (1940 – 31 December 2020) was a South African politician. A member of the Progressive Federal Party, he served in the Cape Provincial Council until 1989 when he was elected to the House of Assembly as a member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. From 1994 to 2004, Trent served in the

Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature The Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature is the primary legislative body of the South African province of Eastern Cape. It is unicameral in its composition, and elects the premier and the provincial cabinet from among the members of the leading par ...

. He was the first provincial leader of the Democratic Alliance between 2000 and 2002. Trent served in the National Assembly from 2004 until his retirement in 2009.

Political career

A member of the Progressive Federal Party, Trent represented the Port Elizabeth Central Constituency in the previous Cape Provincial Council alongside

Molly Blackburn Molly Bellhouse Blackburn (12 November 1930 – 28 December 1985) was a South African anti-apartheid activist, political activist, civil rights campaigner and politician, widely respected by both blacks and whites. Biography Molly Bellhouse was ...

. Trent later joined the

and was elected as Member of Parliament for Port Elizabeth Central in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

, succeeding retiring party chief whip John Malcomess. After serving one term in Parliament, Trent was elected as the sole DP representative in the newly established

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

. He was re-elected to a second term in the provincial legislature in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

. When the Democratic Alliance was formed in 2000, Trent was elected as the party's first provincial leader in the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

. After serving one term as provincial leader,

Athol Trollip Roland Athol Price Trollip (born 12 March 1964) is a South African politician and provincial chairman of ActionSA in the Eastern Cape. He was previously a member of the Democratic Alliance (DA), serving as the Federal Chairperson of the DA from ...

succeeded him. Trent was elected to the National Assembly in the 2004 general election. He represented the DA on the

Standing Committee on Public Accounts The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA; Afrikaans: ''Staande Komitee oor Openbare Rekeninge'') is a standing committee of the National Assembly of South Africa, the lower house of the Parliament of South Africa. It oversees the financial ...

. Trent wrote to National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete in 2005 requesting that Auditor General Shauket Fakie appear before the parliamentary committee on the auditor-general over new revelations on his arms deal report. In March 2008, Trent submitted questions to South African President Thabo Mbeki on his alleged involvement in the arms deal. He alleged in August 2008 that the government had something to hide on the arms deal after Justice Director-General, Adv. Menzi Simelane refused to give the DA access to the German and British Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) agreements with South Africa. Trent did not seek re-election to the National Assembly in 2009 and retired from politics. In 2018, he was presented with the Congress award for recognition of lifetime achievement in politics.

Personal life and death

Trent was married to Elizabeth and they had three children together. Elizabeth served as a city councillor of Port Elizabeth (later Nelson Mandela Bay) from 1995 to 2011. She died from cancer in January 2019. They would have celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary in April 2019. Trent died from natural causes at his home in Port Elizabeth on 31 December 2020. He was 80 years old.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trent, Eddie 1940 births 2020 deaths Politicians from Gqeberha South African people of English descent Progressive Federal Party politicians Democratic Party (South Africa) politicians Democratic Alliance (South Africa) politicians Members of the House of Assembly (South Africa) Members of the National Assembly of South Africa Members of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature