Pieter van Dalen (born 22 March 1966) is a South African politician who was 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 ...

for the Democratic Alliance (DA) from 2009 to 2014, and again from 2015 to 2019. He was the DA Deputy Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Spokesperson on Fisheries during his time parliament.DA public reps on Twitter

Personal life

Van Dalen was born in the town of

Kuils River Kuils River (Afrikaans: Kuilsrivier) is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa, 25 km (15 miles) east of Cape Town CBD at the gateway of the Cape Winelands. It is also the name of the main tributary of the Eerste River, and forms part of th ...

in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

and attended De Kuilen High School. Van Dalen studied at

Wits University The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

, and attained a NQF level 7 graduate diploma in Advanced Governance and Leadership in 2013. Before he joined the Democratic Alliance, van Dalen was the managing director of his own company, and was also a reservist for the

Fire Brigade A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...

and

South African Police Service The South African Police Service (SAPS) is the national police force of the Republic of South Africa. Its 1,154 police stations in South Africa are divided according to the provincial borders, and a Provincial Commissioner is appointed in eac ...

Politics

Van Dalen was elected as a City Of Cape Town Councillor in 2006. His priority was to fight

copper theft Metal theft is "the theft of items for the value of their constituent metals". It usually increases when worldwide prices for scrap metal rise, as has happened dramatically due to rapid industrialization in India and China. Apart from precious m ...

, and to that end he established and chaired the specialized Copper Theft Unit in 2007, which unit was colloquially known as "the copperheads". The endeavour was successful, reducing the City's annual financial losses due to copper theft from R22 million to under R500,000. Van Dalen also chaired the Investment Committee of the Cape Municipal Pension Fund.

Parliament

Van Dalen exposed the Eskom/BHP Billiton secret electricity pricing deal when he revealed the

Eskom Eskom Hld SOC Ltd or Eskom is a South African electricity public utility. It was established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission (ESCOM) and was also known by its Afrikaans name Elektrisiteitsvoorsieningskommissie (EVKOM). Eskom repre ...

dossier in 2008. He also revealed the attempted corrupt awarding of the R800 million Department of Fisheries vessel management tender to Sekunjalo which had close relations with President

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan name Msholozi, and was a former anti-aparth ...

. This tender was awarded to Sekunjalo by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries by Minister

Tina Joemat-Pettersson Tina Monica Joemat-Pettersson (née Joemat; 18 December 1963 in Kimberley, Northern Cape) is a South African politician and the former Minister of Energy from 25 May 2014 to 31 March 2017. She was previously the Minister of agriculture, fores ...

. After reporting it to the authorities for investigation, and after the secret

PriceWaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

report was released by him, the contract was withdrawn and it is still the subject of a

Public Protector The Public Protector in South Africa is one of six independent state institutions set up by the country's Constitution to support and defend democracy. According to Section 181 of the Constitution: * These institutions are independent, and subje ...

report. On 5 December 2014, the Public Protector found her and the DAFF's conduct "improper" and constituting maladministration, and that it had led to "fruitless and wasteful expenditure". The Public Protector's recommendation to the President was to consider disciplinary action against Joemat-Pettersson. After a 5 year term in Parliament serving on Public Enterprises and Fisheries portfolio committees as the DA Deputy Shadow Minister, in March 2015 he was returned to Parliament. He served as the Deputy Shadow Minister of Energy until December 2016. He was also the Deputy Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries. Prior to the 2019 general election, Van Dalen was placed 67th on the DA's national list and 17th on the party's Western Cape regional list. He was not elected to return to parliament.

References

External links

Extended Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Dalen, Pieter 1966 births Living people People from Kuils River Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent Democratic Alliance (South Africa) politicians Members of the National Assembly of South Africa