Tandeka Gqada

Tandeka Gqada is a South African businesswoman, politician and a councillor for the Democratic Alliance in the City of Cape Town since November 2021. Gqada had previously served as a DA councillor in the City of Cape Town where she was an Executive Member of the Mayoral Committee. She is a former Member of Parliament for the DA (2014–2019). She served as the Shadow Deputy Minister of Human Settlements from 2014 to 2017 and as the Shadow Deputy Minister of Energy from 2017 to 2019. Quotes My political interest started in 2010 when I watched the debates in Parliament and I was still in the private sector at the time. I then came across Mr Masizole Mnqasela, a Member of the Western Cape Provincial Legislature at an opening of a Nedbank branch where he was a speaker and he spoke very impressively. I approached him after his speech where he elaborated about the DA as an organisation for everyone and I asked him about membership. He then started sending me all relevant documentation which then grew my interest further in the DA as a political party. He also advised that I attend constituency meetings in Khayelitsha on Mondays where the people where quite welcoming. Because the DA has an open opportunity ethos, positions for proportional representative (PR) councillors were advertised. In 2011 I applied through the processes of the Electoral College where one gets interviewed by at least 50 people who have to rate you on your performance in the interview. If you succeed at that stage you go to the selection panel which also interviews you and you also get assessed. After that rankings are made according to seat targets on the list of potential councillors and I had been drawn at position 21 in the 2011 local government elections. We worked very hard on the campaign trail in Khayelitsha and I quit my job when I became a DA PR councillor. When we came to the City of Cape Town Metro during the induction of councillors, I was interviewed again by the Executive Mayor, Patricia De Lille and three others on her panel for her Mayoral Committee (MAYCO). I then succeeded and was a MAYCO member from 2011 until 2014 when I was deployed to Parliament. Mondays are constituency days and on Tuesdays I am at the Human Settlements Portfolio Committee. On Wednesdays I do parliamentary administration and sometimes I attend study groups with the city, the province and national representatives of the sector within the DA. On Thursday mornings we have caucus until lunch time and on Fridays I return to my constituency. External links Category:Living people