Phumzile Van Damme
2019 Fellow
Member of Parliament
Phumzile Van Damme is a Member of Parliament in South Africa. She is also the Shadow Communications Minister and a member of the Democratic Alliance party. She has dedicated her career to fighting corruption and protecting public interests.
Phumzile’s previous positions include being national spokesperson for the Democratic Alliance, the Head of Parliamentary Research and Communications, and a spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development & Tourism. She has been named to Forbes’ Top 20 Young Power Women, Mail and Guardian’s Top 200 South Africans, and has participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program by U.S. Department of State on Political Campaigns.
Phumzile holds a bachelor’s degree from Rhodes University and is currently pursuing a master’s in global diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London.
She was selected as a Fellow for the 2019-2020 VV Engage Cohort.