DA’s Gavin Davis resigns as an MP

Senior DA MP Gavin Davis has announced that he will be stepping down as a representative of the party in parliament in October to take up a position in the private sector.

Davis will be taking up the CEO position at Resolve Communications, a Cape Town-based public relations firm headed by former DA leader, Tony Leon. Davis, who is also the party’s former policy chief and director of communications‚ has served in various portfolio committees in parliament since 2014 including communications, basic education, and energy.

“I have decided to accept a position as the CEO at Resolve Communications in Cape Town. This is a very exciting opportunity to lead a unique strategic communications business into its next phase of growth,” Davis told Business Day on Thursday.

“I am proud to have been involved in the DA as a communications professional and as an MP. The project of building a prosperous and nonracial SA will remain close to my heart,” he said.

Davis has been a vocal proponent of liberal views inside and outside the DA. In the lead-up to the DA’s federal congress in April, he co-authored with DA MP Michael Cardo a letter to congress delegates warning of “anti-liberal tendencies contained in the proposed diversity clause” to be inserted into the party constitution.

They particularly opposed the introduction of quotas, arguing that the DA should guard against individuals being dominated by others in the name of culture, race, gender and religion and urged the party to “go beyond demography and celebrate a plurality of thought and ideas”. After much debate at its congress, the DA eventually rejected race-based quotas.

- BusinessLIVE