Equality is what drives the DA’s Solly Malatsi
"We hold on to being young thinking we have more time to do big things but that is not the case, do it now"
POLOKWANE –Â With a laid back attitude, dressed in sporty attire and a DA snapback Solly Malatsi shares his life story.
Malatsi is currently the DA’s Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation.
Born in Soweto, Malatsi grew up in Moduane in Limpopo, where he still lives.
After matric, he attended the University of Limpopo, where he majored in Economics doing a BCom degree. However, after much contemplation, he changed to a Bachelor of Arts as he wanted to work in the background of politics.
I remember going to my first Public Administration lecture about South Africa’s Constitutional Democracy and I got so excited about it and I felt connected and that is when I decided I wanted to become a politician
Second chances
He says his three years at Turfloop prepared him for his career. He is a firm believer in learning from your failures, and after dropping out in his second year, Malatsi used that as motivation to do something different and to learn more and he says he spent the most part of 2004 pursuing other endeavors.
Malatsi then went back to study and obtained his Bachelor of Administration Degree majoring in Public Administration and Development Studies from the University of Limpopo, where he also became involved in student politics after being encouraged by his friends.
In 2007, he graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with honours in politics, and he was part of the inaugural class of the DA Young Leaders programme in the same year. He joined the party’s parliamentary team as a researcher in 2008 and as a staunch liberal, Malatsi says the DA’s ideologies connected with him.
Malatsi has held the following positions:
• Served as spokesperson for the former Western Cape MEC of Transport and Public Works, Robin Carlisle from June 2009 – May 2011.
• Served as spokesperson for the Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille from June 2011 – March 2014.
• Became a member of Parliament in April 2014 and in 2015 and was elected deputy provincial chairperson for Limpopo. He is also the DA’s Spokesperson.
Malatsi is a big advocate for gender equality and strongly believes in improving the quality of women’s sport in South Africa as well as Limpopo.
“I see myself still fighting for opportunities for the youth in the province and the rest of the country as well as advocating gender equality and fighting for the rights of all.”
