Joe Seremane, Date of Birth, Place of Birth
TweetJoe Seremane
South African politician
Date of Birth: 26-Aug-1938
Place of Birth: Randfontein, Gauteng, South Africa
Profession: politician
Nationality: South Africa
Zodiac Sign: Virgo 
About Joe Seremane
- Wetshotsile Joseph "Joe" Seremane (born 26 August 1938) is a former South African politician and federal chairperson of the country's main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA).
- Seremane started his career as a school teacher in Bekkersdal in the Gauteng province of South Africa, until he was barred from teaching due to his involvement in politics.
- He was a political prisoner on Robben Island from 1963 to 1969, before being deported by the apartheid government to the then black homeland of Bophuthatswana.
- He was further detained without trial from 1976 to 1978, and several times between 1982 and 1984.
- He has served civic organisations in advocacy and later, mediation and conflict resolution.
- He was the Director of Justice and Reconciliation for the South African Council of Churches, and Chief Land Claims Commissioner after the 1994 advent of democracy in the country.
- In 1994 he joined the Democratic Party (DP), the predecessor to the DA and was elected Member of Parliament in 1998.
- In March 2000 he was elected federal chairperson of the DP, and subsequently became the founding chairperson of the DA. Initially a member of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), a radical black consciousness movement, Seremane now rejects the politics of race and was long seen as the most prominent black figure in the multi-racial DA.
- After the announcement of the former DA leader Tony Leon that he intended to retire in May 2007, Seremane was regarded as a possible candidate to succeed Leon. On 26 February 2007 he announced that he would stand for election as leader for the DA.
- He together with Athol Trollip were, however, defeated by Helen Zille on 6 May 2007. Seremane was the DA's candidate for President in the parliamentary 25 September 2008 vote to elect a successor to Thabo Mbeki.He retired in 2010, and was replaced as DA federal chairperson by Wilmot James.
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