From coffee-maker to powerhouse
DEDICATED: FIRST COUNCILLOR, THEN COALITION CAUCUS CHAIR AND NOW FINANCE MMC
Don’t be fooled by her blonde hair and high heels, because mother of two Jacqui Uys, City of Tshwane’s newly appointed MMC of finance with the Democratic Alliance, is determined to help save the city she loves.
“Nothing gets in my way when I believe in a goal.
“I am relentlessly loyal and will give anything to those I love. But I will never put a person above a principle. You can look pretty and be fierce at the same time,” she said.
Uys also trades her high heels and power suits for tackies and a DA shirt to campaign on the streets on weekends to promote the party, or when she’s out and about doing site visits and updating residents.
Uys said politics doesn’t scare her because she grew up on a farm in the Free State with four brothers, which made her quite tough.
After school, Uys studied corporate communication and marketing and obtained an honours degree in strategic communication after which she enrolled for the Standard Bank’s graduate recruitment programme.
“But the corporate life wasn’t for me, so I moved to the advertising industry.”
Uys has always loved South Africa and its people but was never really interested in politics until she met her husband, Reyaan Uys, a DA councillor.
“I voted for the first time during the 2009 elections at the age of 26.
“When I met my husband, I started tagging along to meetings. I was the one who made the coffee,” she said.
She started getting involved by making phone calls, knocking on doors and helping with the campaigns.
“In 2016, the DA asked whether I would consider running for ward councillor, seeing that I was already so involved.”
Uys also became a mother of two during her first term as councillor.
“A week in politics is long. And you do what you can do while you are in the chair before you get booted.
“Few things scare me or freak me out. I’ve never let anything or being a woman hold me back,” she added.
Uys said that changed when she became a mother and people judged her for working too hard – sometimes with her children on her lap.
“They look at you like you can’t be a professional and a good mother at the same time, and that’s not true,” she said.
She has taken her children with her to council meetings and they’ve been in the background when she’s done online Zoom meetings. “I am a mother first, but it doesn’t take away from what I have to offer in the workspace.”
Uys is happiest at home playing with her children, reading a good book or watching a movie.
“I love a good romantic drama or a kitsch Christmas movie.”
Christmas is her favourite time of year because she gets to decorate her house and host Christmas parties.
“It takes me about three days to decorate the house,” she said.
As with her work ethic, she goes the whole nine yards from Christmas lights to playing elf on the shelf with her children and even hosting Christmas parties for homeless people in her community.
Uys’ power drink is a cup of decaffeinated coffee. “Don’t need the caffeine, I already have enough energy. I just really like the taste and the ritual around it.”
Uys said she hates fish and unfairness equally and admitted that she cries when she’s mad.
Something that brings Uys to tears without fail every time is the national anthem, Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika.
“Every time, and it’s a big joke within the DA now, but I can’t help it,” she added.
“I try to be as authentic as possible and as me as possible, otherwise I feel uncomfortable and sometimes I come across as harder than I am, because I am really a softy.”
Uys said she doesn’t hold grudges and can be too trusting at times.
“I try not to take anything personally in politics and, instead, deal with the principle of the matter,” she added.
Uys said, despite her successful run in politics so far, working her way up to being the Tshwane coalition caucus chair and now newly appointed MMC of finance, she remained determined to create a better future for her children, the community and the country.
She said she saw her appointment as an opportunity to help create a better South Africa on a local level.
“I love Pretoria the most because it is the capital that best represents all our cultures.”
She doesn’t have plans to go to parliament because she believes she can achieve more on a local level.
“I’m focusing on the here and now and to fix what I can now because, by next week, I could be out,” she said.
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Nothing gets in my way when I believe in a goal