Marius Swart

Marius Swart (194117 January 2021) was a South African politician and businessman. A member of the Democratic Alliance, he served as the inaugural Executive Mayor of the George Local Municipality from 2000 to 2004, when he was elected to the National Assembly. After serving two terms in parliament, Swart retired from politics in 2014.

Early life and education Swart was born in Swellendam in the Cape Province in 1941. He completed most of his school career in Kimberley before he matriculated at Voortrekker High School in Bethlehem in the Orange Free State in 1958. In 1965, Swart graduated from the University of Stellenbosch with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics and Psychology. After university, he worked in the corporate sector before he became the company director of Bolton Footwear. Swart later started his own business. In the DA, he was elected chairperson of the DA's East Region in the Western Cape and became a member of the provincial executive committee of the party. After his re-election in 2009, the newly elected DA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip appointed him as the DA's spokesperson on the Appropriations Committee and the Shadow Deputy Minister of Finance. In a shadow cabinet reshuffle in September 2010, Kobus Marais was appointed to succeed him as Shadow Deputy Minister of Finance. He was reappointed by the newly appointed DA parliamentary leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko, as the DA's spokesperson on appropriations in February 2012.

Ahead of the 2014 general election, Swart announced that he would be standing down as an MP and retiring from politics at the election. Swart was also the father-in-law of one of former African National Congress MP Jannie Momberg's sons.

On 8 January 2021, Swart was admitted to hospital in George after he had contracted COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. He was reported as being in a critical condition. He died from the virus on 17 January.