Michael Bagraim

Michael Bagraim (born 9 October 1956) is a South African politician and labour lawyer. A member of the Democratic Alliance, he was elected to the National Assembly in 2014. He was then appointed Shadow Deputy Minister of Labour. In 2017, Bagraim was promoted to Shadow Minister of Labour. After the 2019 election, he was made Shadow Deputy Minister of Labour and Employment. Quotes I did not come into politics until two years ago. I was the president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry and no one was allowed to be politically affiliated as a member of the Chamber. At university I studied political science and two years ago I was approached in my capacity as a lawyer to help with the Democratic Alliance's approach to labour law. I got interested in how the approach worked as I was mostly involved in job creation. I was never involved in politics before and I was 58 years old when I was approached by the DA to become a Member of Parliament. I ahve only been an MP for two years, but I am actually pretty excited by how the Fifth Parliament operates. Obviously the most exciting part for me is going to the Portfolio Committee on Labour, because this is what I really love. I wish my Committee could meet more often as I like interacting with the Department of Labour including the Director-General (DG) and commissioners. Obviously, a lot of things are alien to me, because I am not an expert in the rules of Parliament and I consider myself a "backbencher". I came here to specifically focus on issues related to labour, labour laws and job creation in the Portfolio Committee on Labour. The DA deployed me to specifically focus on job creation and ways and means of trying to encourage the business community to employ more people and that is what I am doing here most of the time. I spend every single morning right here in my office looking at ways to create more employment. I also have to assist my Constituency with employment opportunities and I conduct oversight over the Executive. am assigned here in Cape Town under Woodstock, Observatory, Salt River and a little bit of Pinelands and Langa. I spend most of my time in Langa because that is where I do the hardest amount of work and I am pretty excited about that. There are a lot of small businesses in Langa and I am busy helping them seeing how they can overcome some of the labour laws and bad regulations which are holding them back from becoming big businesses in the future. We just had a very successful will outreach where we got people to sign their wills as most people often die without wills and the money could end up not going to their families. External links Category:Living people Category:Politicians from South Africa