Melanie Verwoerd

Melanie Verwoerd (pronounced [fɛrvurt];née Fourie; born 18 April 1967) is a South Africa-born politician, ambassador and former director of UNICEF Ireland.

Verwoerd was elected as a Member of Parliament for the African National Congress (ANC) during the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994. She was the youngest woman ever to be elected. She was re-elected in 1999. In 2001 she was appointed as South African Ambassador to Ireland a position she held until 2005. Between 2007 and 2011 she was the Executive Director of UNICEF Ireland. In 2007 Melanie was awarded with the Irish Tatler, International Woman of the Year award.

Melanie Verwoerd was born Melanie van Niekerk in Pretoria, South Africa on 18 April 1967 into an Afrikaner family. After the family’s move to Stellenbosch in the Western Cape she attended Bloemhof Girls High School. After school she considered a career as a dancer, but eventually enrolled in a degree in theology, philosophy and psychology at the University of Stellenbosch. She was the only woman in her class. Thereafter she received a Honours degree in philosophy and a master's degree on the topic of feminist theology.

During this time she met her future husband Wilhelm Verwoerd, grandson of Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa between 1958 and 1966 who is generally regarded as the architect of apartheid. After their marriage the couple moved to Oxford, England in 1989 where Wilhelm was studying on a Rhodes scholarship. During this time, Melanie met and interacted with South Africans in exile, in particular ANC members who were promoting the struggle from abroad.

Following the unbanning of the African National Congress in 1990, she returned to South Africa, where she met with the newly released Nelson Mandela. Shortly after she joined ANC and spoke publicly about the brutality of apartheid and the suffering of black people under this regime. Being married to the grandson of Hendrik Verwoerd (who was assassinated in 1966) made her the subject of enormous public interest, but also caused security threats to her and her husband. Amongst others they were on the death list of far-right conservative white organisations.

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