LOCAL ELECTIONS 2026: ANC hero Marius Schoon’s son, Fritz, is a DA candidate for Joburg

Fritz Schoon’s family fought for the ANC. He chose the DA. He tells us why.

The ANC hero Marius Schoon’s son, Fritz, is a DA candidate competing to win election in Johannesburg’s eastern Ward 64, which includes Yeoville, Berea, all of Bertrams and Judiths Paarl.

Fritz Schoon was born in Botswana and lived in many countries across Africa as his father helped build the ANC in exile. His mom Jeanette and sister Katryn died when a parcel bomb sent by apartheid intelligence operative Craig Williamson exploded in their kitchen in 1984. Marius and Fritz survived. Marius was travelling while young Fritz was three years old.

“In my childhood, I had an awareness from my infancy that my family was strongly affiliated with the ANC. For my adult life, I have never been an ANC member. It’s not the same ANC that fought against apartheid,” Schoon said in an interview.

He is now 45 and chose a DA political career before the 2024 election.

Asked when he turned away from the party his mother died for and his father lived for until he died of lung cancer in 1999, Schoon said the arms deal had been his turning point.

“So now I am in SA [after the family returned post-freedom] – and the Arms Deal happens – it’s the post-1994 era. I thought I would see the same practice [of politicians stepping away when facing scandal, which he witnessed as a child growing up in Ireland]. What I saw instead was a culture of [hanging on to the legal argument of] innocent until proven guilty. It was a different way of handling public office.”

“Since then, there have been so many scandals. There is a pattern of insolence and culture of contempt for accountability.”

“I joined the DA about eight months before the 2024 election. I approached [former DA MP] Ghaleb Cachalia at the time. I said to him, we have similar upbringings coming from ANC roots.”

The Cachalia family are also rooted in the ANC. Police Minister Feroz Cachalia is from the family.

“One of the reasons that Joburg is facing the challenges it is, is that so much gets siphoned off to unplanned expenditure, to corruption. Joburg is the richest city in the country, backbone of SA, and resource issues should not be the issue – must be allocated well,” Schoon said.

He stood for election as a Gauteng MPL in 2024, but wasn’t elected. He is giving it another shot as candidate for Ward 64.

Like many inner-city wards, this one has the full range of issues from house hijacking and unauthorised construction to water, dumping and infrastructure issues. It is also one of the epicentres of the populist anti-migrant movement March and March’s activities. The organisation (or network) has now extended its pogrom-like campaign to the end of September.

“When New York was being turned around, they used the ‘broken windows’ concept [of fixing small things and showing attention to detail]. You fix one street at a time and you keep doing that. The best-case scenario is that the DA gets 50+1% [a simple overall majority at the 4 November poll] so it can govern without relying on coalitions. That way it can make systemic changes,” said Schoon. DM