Bhadra Ranchod

Bhadrakumar Ghaloo "Bhadra" Ranchod (born 11 May 1944) is a retired South African politician, diplomat, and lawyer who served as Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly from May 1994 to March 1996. He represented the National Party and previously served as Minister of Tourism for a brief period from 1993 to 1994 under President F. W. de Klerk.

Ranchod was the head of private law at the University of Durban-Westville until 1986, when he accepted appointment as South African Ambassador to the European Common Market and became South Africa's first non-white ambassador. He resigned from the National Assembly in March 1996 in order to take up another diplomatic posting as South African High Commissioner to Australia.

Early life and academic career Ranchod was born in 1944 and was classified as Indian under apartheid. He studied law at the University of Cape Town and completed his postgraduate education abroad at the University of Leiden.

In February 1993, President F. W. de Klerk announced that he had appointed Ranchod to his cabinet in a reshuffle, naming him as Minister of Tourism. He and two others appointed at the same time – Jacobus Rabie and Abe Williams – became the first non-white politicians to serve in the South African cabinet, in a move viewed as an attempt by de Klerk's National Party (NP) to broaden its appeal ahead of the upcoming multiracial elections.

Post-apartheid government In the 1994 general election, South Africa's first under universal suffrage, Ranchod was elected to an NP seat in the new National Assembly. In the aftermath of the election, he was also appointed Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly as a result of an agreement between the NP and the governing African National Congress (ANC); he deputised Speaker Frene Ginwala of the ANC. The Mail & Guardian said that Ranchod was among the "verligte" (Afrikaans for enlightened, meaning progressive) ranks of the NP.

In early 1996, Ranchod announced that he would resign from the National Assembly in March to become South African High Commissioner to Australia. He apparently had not discussed the appointment with his party beforehand.