Nomafrench Mbombo

Since 2015, Dr. Mbombo has served as a Member of the Executive Council (MEC), commonly known as the Provincial Minister of Health and Wellness in the Western Cape, South Africa. She is the first female and black African to hold that position in the province’s history. She spearheaded and successfully led the Western Cape response to the COVID-19 pandemic, employing a whole-of-society, multi-department, multi-spheres of government, multi-stakeholder, and multi-disciplinary approach, ensuring principles of equitable access to resources are applied, leaving no one behind.

Nomafrench has delivered numerous keynote talks at national and international conference platforms on topics ranging from the economy to gender equality, human rights, and leadership. For example, she delivered a Civil Society Consultative Forum on the Commission on the Status of Women in Beijing +25. She spoke at the Renew Europe I European Parliament I RENEWPAC conference in April 2021, where she exchanged strategic ideas with other leaders from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Prior to entering politics in 2014, she was an Associate Professor at the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) Faculty of Community and Health Sciences in South Africa. She participated in NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) delegations to African Union blocs to provide support for the establishment of postgraduate studies in maternal and child health for the country’s health professionals, to accelerate the reduction of maternal and child morbidity and mortality in Africa.

Her primary interest has always been on community empowerment, as a means of reclaiming the voices of vulnerable populations such as young women and girls, rural women, LGBTQIA+ people, and other marginalized communities. Dr. Mbombo has a Ph.D. in Gender and Human Rights from UWC, a Master’s Degree in Maternal and Child Health from UKZN, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing Science from UFH, among various other credentials.

She was elected as a National Leader of the Democratic Alliance Women’s Network (DAWN), a position she used to influence legislation such as Gender-Based Violence and to advocate for LGBTQIA+ people.

Our mission and vision

The network’s mission is to support and empower political parties, organisations, networks, think tanks and individuals, to grow their support, to increase their influence on politics and implement policies of good governance when in government.

In partnership with our members and strategic partners, the network advocates for values of freedom and the individual choice of association across the continent by:

• Championing Liberal policy solutions to Africa’s challenges;

• Capacitating Liberal Democratic member parties with innovative skills, necessary to win elections and lead governments;

Providing a platform for like-minded advocates of good governance, to network and share experience, skills and ideas;

All members of the network are bound by statutory obligations affirming allegiance to ensure the freedoms and dignity of all people, through establishing political and civil rights, upholding the rule of law, supporting democratic governance based on free and fair elections with peaceful transition, ensuring religious, gender and minority rights, fighting corruption and supporting economic freedom, regional integration and free trade opportunities, like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).