The Brah Grill - with Dunes local and Member of Parliament Tim Harris

THE ZAG BRAH GRILL - WHERE WE INTERROGATE THE FAMOUS, THE UNKNOWN, AND THE INFAMOUS.

 Some of you may remember Tim Harris from the African Surfer (www.africansurfer.com) project, when himself and two mates drove a 1981 Toyota Landie all up the West Coast of Africa - all the way to Europe. They spent more than a year on the road, surfing incredible and uncrowded spots, connecting with people and getting to know the continent better. Since then Tim has come back to his motherland and is now a Member of Parliament (the first surfer in SA to do so) for the Democratic Alliance, serving on the finance committee. In between sneaky sessions at Dunes, he finds himself writing legislation and taking care of pretty serious Mzansi business. So naturally, we grilled him.

By Clayton Truscott

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CLAY: You're a politician in charge of economic issues, arguably one of the hardest jobs around. How did you wind up becoming an MP for the DA, and what does it mostly entail?
TIM: I spent a little while working as an investment banker in Joburg. It was a great job but it didn't feel like I was making that much of an impact on the world - only on the bank's bottom-line. I decided to come back to study some more, and while I was at UCT I was asked to help with some policy work at the DA. The politics bug bit and I stayed in the game, running Tony Leon's office for a few years, and then Helen Zille's 2009 Election campaign events, before being elected to Parliament almost two years ago.

Speaking on the economy for the DA is a challenge because the ANC's economic achievements have been such a mixed bag: on the one hand they did manage to pull our government finances out of the mess Apartheid left them in; but on the other hand unemployment in South Africa is worse than in any other developing country and the government has failed to dent it over the past 15 years. My approach is to keep putting forward the DA's alternative approach to job creation in SA - so far it's going well.

Tim scored some cooking waves during his African trip, in 2007.

CLAY: Is it pure luck that your constituency happens to be around a cluster of nicely packed surf spots?
TIM: I'm politically responsible for the five wards that run from Bantry Bay, through the CBD, to Woodstock. So that's really just the couple of spots between Thermos and Queens, haha! I actually don't surf in my constituency that much - I usually had a little up the West Coast or down the Peninsula.

CLAY: You and a group of mates once drove from Cape Town to Europe, in an old land cruiser. So, you must know some gems along the west coast of Africa. Are you ever tempted to tell the boss about some important banks that need your attention in Cote d'Ivoire or Angola?
TIM: Actually, one of my responsibilities is for our relationship with other Liberal parties around the world - but especially in Africa - so I do get to travel back to some cool places on the continent every now and then. The only difference is that now I spend most of my time trying to help strengthen democracy, rather than looking for waves.

This can be just as challenging: the only country where one of our sister parties is in power is Senegal. Most others have a pretty hard time of it. The leader of our sister party in Cote d'Ivoire is currently besieged in a hotel in Abidjan surrounded by the army of the previous President, who refuses to hand over power, despite losing the previous election!

Imagine driving a 1981 Landie all up the West Coast of Africa - all the way to Europe.

CLAY: So how much water time do you manage clock on an average week and where is your local haunt these days?
TIM: I am very much a weekend warrior nowadays - Helen just doesn't buy the line that surfing equals constituency work! Recently I've been surfing the West Coast - Derdesteen, Kamers etc, the banks have been really good this summer. I love a mission out to the Dunes every now and then. The only problem is, recently, so does everybody else! We rocked up there at 7am last weekend and there were 60+ guys in the water. Madness.

CLAY: What sort of boards does an MP ride?
TIM: I'm resisting the longboard-temptation for now, but when you're only surfing every now and then the shoulders appreciate a little more volume, so I'm riding a fun-fish shaped by Dean Geraghty and a 6'6" Spider for the bigger stuff.

Tim, suited up for Parliament.

CLAY: After a few beers around the fire, do people ever try to tell you how to do your job, or what you should do about Julius Malema? Do you ever get phone calls from distant aunties with complaints about their municipal bags not being taken away this week, stuff like that?
TIM: It doesn't even take a few beers! Most people feel nothing to start unloading as soon as they find out what I do. As an MP I'm mainly responsible for writing laws in Parliament and holding the National Government to account – and I'll happily talk about that all night.

The questions I most often get asked are about Malema, and I really don't have a proper answer. Who knows what's up with that guy? I usually just end up contrasting the mad things the ANC Youth League says with the DA's approach to youth. The ANCYL seems to specialise in driving away investment with scandalous, semi-literate statements. We have youth leaders like Mbali Ntuli and Makashule Gana who are interested in taking South Africa forward, not backwards.

CLAY: Do your co-workers ever give you curry about being a 'surfer dude' or anything like that?
TIM: It takes all kinds! Someone has to represent surfers in Parliament...

CLAY: Hypothetically; you are hiking up lion's head on a Tuesday afternoon and encounter a bergie with magical powers. He demands you make one of the following choices, or face a decade in a town called Patensie, working in a second-hand trophy shop speaking to tannies who are looking for rugby and cricket trophies:
A. You can only paddle ski from now, but you will be able to surf cooking, uncrowded Derdes, Elands and Dunes on any given day. B. You can only surf crowded, onshore, Muizemberg for the rest of your surfing life. No matter what happens, you will literally be bound to surfing onshore Musizies with a thousand long boarders clogging up the shore break.
C. For the next ten years you will have to work in a second-hand trophy shop in Patensie. Which would you pick and why?
TIM: The only thing I can imagine worse than being strapped to a goatboat in big surf is being doomed to surf onshore, crowded Muzies for eternity, so I'd take the trophy store in Patensie. I'd spend the time teaching the tannies to code and develop an online store called secondhandtrophies.com which should be bringing in just enough cash in 10 years time to find the rest of my life's surf travel. Hypothetically...