Zakhele Mbhele (born 9 November 1984) is a South African politician. A Member of Parliament of the Democratic Alliance in the National Assembly, Mbhele served as Media Liaison Officer for Western Cape Premier Helen Zille from November 2011 to May 2014. In the 2014 general election, Mbhele was elected to parliament. He is currently (as of July 2016) DA shadow minister of police.

Personal life and education

Mbhele is openly gay, making him the first openly gay Black member of parliament. He is one of a number of openly LGBT members of parliament, alongside fellow DA MPs Mike Waters and Ian Ollis. While attending University of Witwatersrand, he led ACTIVATE, the university’s LGBT campus group, and later served on the board of

Joburg Pride There have been pride parades in South Africa celebrating LGBT pride since 1990. South African pride parades were historically used for political advocacy protesting against legal discrimination against LGBT people, and for the celebration of equ ...

. He was cited by the '' Mail & Guardian'' as one of "Top 200 Young South Africans" for his Civil Society work in 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mbhele, Zakhele South African LGBT politicians Living people Democratic Alliance (South Africa) politicians Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 1984 births Gay politicians University of Johannesburg alumni University of the Witwatersrand alumni Place of birth missing (living people) LGBT legislators