Natasha Mazzone

Natasha Wendy Anita Mazzone (born 9 May 1979) is a South African politician who served as the Chief Whip of the Official Opposition in the National Assembly of South Africa from October 2019 until August 2022. She has been a member of the National Assembly, representing the Democratic Alliance (DA), since 2009. She was the second Deputy Federal Council Chairperson of the DA and the party's spokesperson on state capture. Mazzone has previously served as Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises and of Communications.

Early life and education Mazzone is the child of immigrant parents and was born in Pretoria, South Africa. Her father Giovanni was born in Pietrastornina in the Province of Avellino in Italy and was a chef. He died in April 2021. Her mother Valerie was born in London, England. Mazzone is the youngest of three children. She attended Sunnyside Primary School and matriculated from The Glen High School, Pretoria in 1996. She passed matric with a university exemption.

Political career

Youth leader She started her political career in 1997 at the University of Pretoria (UP), where she was the chairperson of the Democratic Party (DP) Youth branch. In 1998, she was elected as the National Federal Youth Leader of the DP. In the same year, she was elected to the Student Representative Council at UP and was the Executive member for Student Safety. In 1999, Mazzone was elected as the Speaker of the UP SRC. In 2000, the Democratic Alliance (DA) was formed, and the DP formed part of this merger. She was then elected as the National Federal Youth Leader of the DA, a position she held until 2004.

Parliamentary career

Mazzone was sworn in as a Member of Parliament on 6 May 2009. She was first made the Shadow Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development by Parliamentary Leader Athol Trollip. She held this position until newly elected Parliamentary Leader Lindiwe Mazibuko appointed her to the position of Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises.

Mazzone represents the Democratic Alliance on the Joint Standing Committee on the Financial Management of Parliament, the Disciplinary Committee, and the Rules Committee. Formerly a member of both the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises and the Portfolio Committee on Communications, she was also the party whip in charge of legislation before her appointment as chief whip.

Mazzone has also been involved in the provincial politics of Gauteng. She was elected as one of three deputy provincial chairpersons of the Democratic Alliance in October 2009. In April 2010, she ran for Provincial Leader of the DA. She faced former DA MP Janet Semple and incumbent John Moodey. Mazzone was eliminated in the first round and Semple went on to narrowly win the election.

At the DA's 2018 Federal Congress, Mazzone was elected as the second Deputy Federal Council Chairperson of the party. She served alongside Thomas Walters. Her election was initially disputed by Khume Ramulifho, who also contested the position, and other senior DA politicians. Ramulifho argued that her taking up the position was illegal since the position was not yet created when the election was held. The party's Federal Legal Commission had taken the decision to appoint her since she received the second most votes. The party later resolved the matter.

On 31 October 2019, Mazzone was appointed Chief Whip of the Official Opposition, succeeding John Steenhuisen, who was elected DA parliamentary leader and became Leader of the Opposition. She is the party's first female chief whip. In 2020, she stood down as a deputy federal council chairperson.

On 18 August 2022, Steenhuisen appointed deputy chief whip Siviwe Gwarube as the new chief whip of the DA parliamentary caucus and as the Chief Whip of the Official Opposition, succeeding Mazzone. Mazzone was appointed as the National Security Advisor to the Leader of the Opposition and will now serve on the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence.

In March 2023, Mazzone announced that she was a candidate for one of the three deputy federal chairperson positions at the party's Federal Congress in April. She endorsed Steenhuisen for a second term as party leader. She lost at the party's congress on 2 April 2023.

Mazzone was appointed as Shadow Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies on 21 April 2023.

Mazzone was re-elected for a fourth term in Parliament in the 2024 general election.

2021 Wikipedia article qualifications controversy In April 2021, the DA Western Cape leader, Bonginkosi Madikizela, was suspended for having lied on his CV about having a BCom degree. Mazzone's Wikipedia article was then edited by an anonymous user, who changed her occupation in the infobox from 'Advocate' to 'None'. 'Advocate' was added to the infobox in October 2020 by an anonymous editor. Mazzone was then accused by Good party Secretary-General Brett Herron of editing the Wikipedia article about her to remove the word 'Advocate' from the infobox and lying about having a law degree and being an advocate. Party insiders also claimed that she had misrepresented her qualifications to get a seat on the Federal Legal Commission of the DA.

Mazzone has accused detractors of "fiddling" with the Wikipedia article and said she didn't complete the degree, but did do legal articles. She has also said that she only has matric. and Herron wrote an open letter to DA leader John Steenhuisen on 20 April 2021 requesting that the DA provide clarity on the matter and address questions surrounding the controversy, such as when did she do her articles, did she complete them and why some websites list her as having legal qualifications. The DA's Ashor Sarupen responded to Herron on 21 April, saying that Mazzone completed her articles in terms of Section 5(3) of the Attorneys Act and she has done her LEAD [Legal Education and Development] Training. Sarupen also said that her biography on the DA website did not make reference to any legal qualifications. Herron responded by saying that there is a lot of ambiguity about Mazzone's qualifications.

On 27 April 2021, Daily Maverick published an article 'Fact-checking Natasha Mazzone's qualifications claims' in which journalist Rebecca Davis addressed claims that Mazzone had been dishonest about her educational background and that she claimed to have a law degree that she never completed.