Michael Stephen Shackleton is a South African politician who served as a

Member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature The Gauteng Provincial Legislature is the legislature of the South African province of Gauteng. It is a unicameral body of 73 members elected every five years. The current legislature, the sixth, was elected on 8 May 2019 and has an African N ...

from May 2019 to April 2022. Prior to serving in the provincial legislature, he was a Tshwane councillor and a Member of the National Assembly. Formerly a member of the Democratic Alliance, he resigned from the party on 28 April 2022 and joined ActionSA.

Background

Shackleton is from

Centurion A centurion (; la, centurio , . la, centuriones, label=none; grc-gre, κεντυρίων, kentyríōn, or ) was a position in the Roman army during classical antiquity, nominally the commander of a century (), a military unit of around 80 ...

in Pretoria. His father died from cancer in 2001 just before he started high school and his mother died of

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

in 2008, while he was at university. He developed a

stutter Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the ...

after the death of his parents. Shackleton has an LLB from the University of Pretoria and is an attorney. He also holds an LLM degree in constitutional and administrative law, a certificate in provincial and local government law, and a postgraduate certificate in corporate law.

Political career

In 2008 Shackleton joined the Democratic Alliance's student organisation at the University of Pretoria. He then became the leader of the party's student organisation at the university and joined the university's student representative council in 2010. He also graduated from the DA's Young Leaders Programme. He became a councillor in the

City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (also known as the City of Tshwane) () is the metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of northern Gauteng Province, South Africa. The Metropolitan area is centred on the city of Pr ...

in 2014, representing the DA. In July 2018, Shackleton was cited by '' News24'' as one of "100 Young Mandelas" in the category "Resilience". Shackleton entered the National Assembly, the lower house of the South African parliament, on 11 September 2018 as a replacement for Ian Ollis. During his time in parliament, he was a member of the Standing Committee on Appropriations. For the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in coun ...

, Shackleton was the 20th candidate on the DA's provincial list for the

Gauteng Provincial Legislature The Gauteng Provincial Legislature is the legislature of the South African province of Gauteng. It is a unicameral body of 73 members elected every five years. The current legislature, the sixth, was elected on 8 May 2019 and has an African N ...

election. He was also 81st on the DA's national list and 24th on the party's regional list for the National Assembly election. At the election, he won a seat in the provincial legislature. He served as the DA's Shadow MEC for Community Safety. He was also a member of the Public Accounts committee and the Community Safety portfolio committee. On 28 April 2022, Shackleton announced in an uploaded video posted on social media that he had resigned as a DA member and therefore as the DA's Gauteng North regional deputy chairperson and as a member of the provincial legislature. He joined ActionSA. Shackleton cited that "the regression of the DA as an inclusive home for all South Africans, and its abandonment of being an electoral alternative to the ANC" and the way the DA treated the community of Ward 96 in Tshwane, of which Shackleton is a resident, as the reasons for his resignation. Shackleton criticised Tshwane mayor Randall Williams and DA leaders Helen Zille and John Steenhuisen for campaigning in ward 96 ahead of the by-election on 4 May 2022 and said that they would "disappear" after the by-election. The DA won the by-election on 4 May.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shackleton, Michael Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Politicians from Pretoria University of Pretoria alumni Members of the National Assembly of South Africa Members of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature Democratic Alliance (South Africa) politicians ActionSA politicians