Veliswa Mvenya

Veliswa Mvenya

Veliswa Mvenya (born 8 March 1969) is a South African politician who is the founding leader of the Batho Pele Movement, a party she founded in June 2021 after leaving the African Transformation Movement.

A former mathematics teacher, Mvenya had joined the Democratic Alliance in 2000 and served as a DA councillor in the Amathole District Municipality until 2004 when she was elected to the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature as a DA representative. She was re-elected in 2009 and 2014. In 2014, she was elected as the provincial chairwoman of the DA in the Eastern Cape. Mvenya held the position until her 'shock' resignation in May 2016. She resigned from the DA in May 2018 and joined the ATM in September 2018. Mvenya was the party's premier candidate for the May 2019 election. At the election, she was elected as the ATM's sole representative in the legislature. In June 2021, she resigned from the ATM and established the Batho Pele Movement.

Quotes

• I still have wounds, they are not scars yet but I’m soldiering on.
  • [1]
• We share a lot in common with Mbali, even though her politics were at national level and mine were more about the DA in the Eastern Cape.We both can speak our minds and stand by our convictions even when no one stands by us.
  • [2]
• I refused to be handpicked because that would have meant I’m not independent but controlled by him about how I’m leading. It’s a trap that both Lindiwe Mazibuko and Mmusi Maimane fell for and there were consequences when they did not take instructions from the person who hand picked them
  • [3]