Liezl Linda van der Merwe (born 5 October 1980) is a South African politician who serves as a Member of the

National Assembly of South Africa 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 ...

, representing the

Inkatha Freedom Party The Inkatha Freedom Party ( zu, IQembu leNkatha yeNkululeko, IFP) is a right-wing political party in South Africa. The party has been led by Velenkosini Hlabisa since the party's 2019 National General Conference. Mangosuthu Buthelezi founded t ...

(IFP). She became an MP in May 2012.

Life and career

Van der Merwe was born in

Goodwood, Cape Town Goodwood is a suburb of Cape Town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is situated in the Tygerberg region of the City of Cape Town. It is 10 kilometres from Cape Town and accessible from the N1, N7 and N2 highways. The town was established i ...

. She attended Panorama Primary School and graduated from

Paarl Gimnasium Paarl Gimnasium is a public Afrikaans medium co-educational high school situated in the city of Paarl in the Western Cape province of South Africa. History Rev. van der Lingen founded the school in the centre of town in 1858. The school has pr ...

. While at school, she took an interest in politics. She later obtained a Diploma in Journalism. She moved to London and worked for broadcaster

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

. After returning to South Africa, she became a member of the IFP. Within the IFP, she serves as the party's Director of Communications and is a member of IFP National Council. She is also a former member of the party's National Youth Brigade and a present member of the party's Women's Brigade. Van der Merwe became a parliamentarian in May 2012. She was sworn in alongside IFP spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa. She was elected to her first full term in May 2014 and won another term in May 2019.

References

External links

Ms Liezl Linda Van Der Merwe – Parliament of South Africa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van der Merwe, Liezl Living people Inkatha Freedom Party politicians Members of the National Assembly of South Africa Alumni of Paarl Gimnasium Afrikaner people Politicians from Cape Town Women members of the National Assembly of South Africa 1980 births