Dianne Kohler Barnard
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Dianne Kohler Barnard MP |
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| Shadow Minister of Police | |
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In office 2006–2015 |
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| Leader | Tony Leon, Helen Zille & Mmusi Maimane |
| Shadow Minister of Health | |
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In office 2005–2006 |
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| Leader | Tony Leon |
| Shadow Minister of Arts and Culture | |
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In office 2004–2005 |
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| Leader | Tony Leon |
| Member of Parliament for Durban South, KwaZulu-Natal in the National Assembly of South Africa |
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Assumed office 21 May 2004 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | Port Elizabeth, Cape Province, Union of South Africa |
| Nationality | South African |
| Political party | Democratic Alliance |
Dianne Kohler Barnard is a South African politician and former journalist, and a Member of Parliament for the Democratic Alliance (DA). In October 2015 she was expelled from the party by the DA Federal Executive. In December 2015 the decision was lifted on appeal to the DA's Federal Legal Commission.
She was born in Port Elizabeth, and currently resides in KwaZulu-Natal, where she represents the Central Durban constituency.
Kohler Barnard spent 23 years working as a radio and print journalist. She ran the KwaZulu-Natal offices of SAfm and also presented/produced the station's afternoon news programme The Editors.
Kohler Barnard is also the former chairperson of the Broadcast, Electronic Media and Allied Workers' Union in KwaZulu-Natal, and was a founder member of the inaugural SABC HIV/Aids Committee.
Kohler-Barnard moved to politics in response to increasing state interference in the management of the SABC. She was elected to parliament with the DA in 2004, and was initially spokesperson on Arts and Culture.
She was subsequently appointed opposition spokesperson on Health, and was a vocal critic of incumbent Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, particularly over her support for controversial German vitamin salesman Matthias Rath. Rath attempted to sue Kohler Barnard for describing him as a "charlatan", and also tried to sue newspapers that carried the remark.
Subsequently, Kohler Barnard was appointed as Shadow Minister of Police. She was also the DA's representative on the SADC observer mission to Zimbabwe for the last two elections in that country.
In October 2015, Kohler Barnard was taken to an internal DA disciplinary panel after controversially sharing on her Facebook page a post from someone else suggesting that life in South Africa was better under former apartheid President PW Botha. She deleted it after it was on her site overnight.
It appeared on Twitter as shared by the ANC some weeks later. Although it had long since been deleted on FB one of the first instructions to Kohler Barnard to delete the post came from former DA leader Helen Zille. Kohler Barnard apologised unreservedly for her action, and was subsequently demoted to the position of shadow Deputy Minister of Public Works.
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Wikipedia