Harry Schwarz - Rise To Politics

Rise To Politics

Harry Schwarz's political career started with his election to the Johannesburg City Council in 1951 for Booysens, which had been said to be an unwinnable seat against the National Party. Schwarz won the seat by 954 votes. Despite being the youngest person in the city council, he became chairman of the council's. management committee - the most influential committee on the council. While in the council, Schwarz focused on challenging forced evictions of black and coloured people in Johannesburg, and attempted to improve housing and education. Booysens had once been occupied by Labour Party politician Jimmy Green, who was his wife's uncle, who was first elected in 1920 to the City Council.

In 1958 during a by-election Schwarz was elected into the Transvaal provincial council for the Hospital constituency. The constituency eventually war renamed Hillbrow. In 1963 he became leader of the opposition in the Transvaal Provincial Council, a post he would hold until 1974. He continued to practice law in the Provincial Council and throughout his political career. Schwarz's vision for the post-apartheid South Africa was embodied in a document named the "Act of Dedication", of which he presented to the provincial council in 1973. The document, written by him, called for the Transvaal and the rest of South Africa to adopt and subscribe to the principles of a non-discriminatory society. While the UP Transvaal caucus unanimously adopted the initiative, the National Party refused for it to come to debate in the council and parliament. Schwarz pushed for the adoption of the act in the 1973 National UP Congress, which he succeeded in. However, he briefly withdrew from law between 1969 and 1974 to take up the position of Chief Executive of Merchant Bank.