Tim Harris (born c. 1979) is a South African politician, a former Democratic Alliance member of 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 rep ...

, and a Parliamentary Counsellor to

Mmusi Maimane Mmusi Aloysias Maimane (born 6 June 1980) is a South African politician, businessman, and Leader of Build One South Africa, a political party. Maimane is also the former Leader of South Africa, South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance (So ...

, the

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

. He served as Shadow Minister of Finance from 2012 to 2014, and was succeeded by

Dion George Dr. Dion George is a South African politician, the Shadow Minister of Finance, and a Member of Parliament for the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA). He serves as a member–elected Trustee and Chair of the Investment Sub–Committee of the Pol ...

. A former chief of staff to party leader

Tony Leon Anthony James Leon (born 15 December 1956) is a South African politician who served as leader of the opposition from 1999-2007 as leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA). He led the DA from its inception in 2000, until his retirement from lea ...

, Harris was the party's national events manager during the 2009 general election campaign, and was subsequently elected to

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

aged 29, initially to the

National Council of Provinces The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) is the upper house of the Parliament of South Africa under the (post-apartheid) constitution which came into full effect in 1997. It replaced the former Senate, but is very similar to that body, and to ...

where he served as 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 ...

's Provincial Whip before being moved to the National Assembly in a Shadow Cabinet reshuffle. He has been characterised as the "sexiest man in politics".

Background

Harris was born in Cape Town but grew up in

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

, where he attended all-boys Hilton College. He returned to the Western Cape in 1998 to complete an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

, majoring in English Literature and Economics. He then completed an honours degree in economics in 2001 while he was Chair of UCT Rag. After briefly working at an investment bank in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, Harris again returned to Cape Town to complete his Masters in Economics. In late 2007 and early 2008, he travelled with two friends up Africa's west coast on the first

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

trip between Cape Town and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

by the west coast route, garnering international attention in the process. He told

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

of the episode: In November 2009, he told ''The Leader World'' magazine: On 26 March 2011, he married his wife, Cara Louise. They had their first daughter, Neve, in June 2012.

Politics

While completing a master's degree in Economics, his lecturer recommended him to the DA, which had been scouting for people with the necessary skills to join the party's Economic Policy team in preparation for the 2004 general elections. He joined the Democratic Alliance as a parliamentary economics researcher, and has been responsible for developing the party's economic policies. In 2005, he was appointed as Chief of Staff for then-party leader, Tony Leon. Upon returning to politics in 2009, he was appointed campaign events manager for the Democratic Alliance's 2009 election campaign, and was subsequently elected to the

for the

. In the National Council of Provinces, Harris sat on the Select Committee on Finance, and held the positions of Party Whip and Provincial Whip. He served on the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry. From 2011 until 2012, he warned about a technological crisis at the

Companies and Intellectual Property Commission The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) is an agency of the Department of Trade and Industry in South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is boun ...

(CIPC), noting that the commission had "capacity and managed problems" which had resulted in a backlog and slow processing of registrations. He subsequently moved to the Standing Committee on Finance, and became the Parliamentary counsellor to then-parliamentary leader

Lindiwe Mazibuko Lindiwe Mazibuko (born 9 April 1980) is a Swazi-born South African academic, former politician, musician and the former leader of the Official Opposition Democratic Alliance (DA). She was elected DA Parliamentary Leader on 27 October 2011, beat ...

. Harris did not stand for re-election in the 2014 parliamentary elections. He instead became the Director of Trade and Investment in the Office of the Executive Mayor at the

City of Cape Town The City of Cape Town ( af, Stad Kaapstad; xh, IsiXeko saseKapa) is the metropolitan municipality which governs the city of Cape Town, South Africa and its suburbs and exurbs. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 3,740,026. The remo ...

until March 2015, then assuming the role of Chief Executive Officer at Wesgro, the official Investment and Trade promotion agency for the Western Cape. Union federation

COSATU The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is a trade union federation in South Africa. It was founded in 1985 and is the largest of the country's three main trade union federations, with 21 affiliated trade unions.One Union expelled, ...

criticised Harris' move to Wesgro, accusing the DA of "cadre deployment", and claiming that Harris was incompetent for the position because he had demonstrated a "white brain deficit" in Parliament. He is also the vice president for Africa on the bureau of

Liberal International Liberal International (LI) is a worldwide organization of liberal political parties - a political international. It was founded in Oxford in 1947 and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties, aiming to strengthen liberalism around ...

, the global group of liberal parties, and sits on the board of SiliconCape, Cape Town's technology industry promotion body.

Positions

Harris sees economic growth as paramount to solving South Africa's problems. He is in favour of tax breaks for small businesses, and a youth wage subsidy to encourage companies to hire young people."Late Nite News , S6 EP8 , Chester Missing interviews Tim Harris of the DA"
eNCA When

Pravin Gordhan Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan (born 12 April 1949) is a politician and anti-apartheid activist who has held various ministerial posts in the Cabinet of South Africa. He served as Minister of Finance from 2009 until 2014 and again from 2015 until 2017, ...

was

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

, Harris praised him for his conservative budget, but criticised South Africa's poor economic growth, which he believed Gordhan had failed to address. Harris has criticised 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 ...

for benchmarking post-Apartheid South Africa against the low bar of

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 ...

South Africa, instead of striving for even better. Harris has praised Tony Leon for boosting South Africa's trade to Argentina during his tenure as ambassador to that country.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Tim Living people Democratic Alliance (South Africa) politicians University of Cape Town alumni Alumni of Hilton College (South Africa) Politicians from Cape Town White South African people South African people of British descent Year of birth missing (living people)