| Enyinna Nkem-Abonta | |
| Office: | Member of the National Assembly of South Africa |
| Term Start: | 2004 |
| Term End: | 2009 |
| Birth Place: | Nigeria |
| Party: | Libertarian Party (2013) |
| Otherparty: | African National Congress (2005–Unknown) Democratic Alliance (until 2005) |
| Education: | Paris Dauphine University (PhD) |
Enyinna Nkem-Abonta is a Nigerian-born South African retired politician who was elected to the National Assembly of South Africa in the 2004 general election as a member of the Democratic Alliance. He resigned from the DA in 2005 and joined the African National Congress. Nkem-Abonta left parliament at the 2009 general election.
Nkem-Abonta was born in Nigeria.[1] He moved to South Africa in 1994 after receiving a doctorate in applied economics from the Paris Dauphine University in France. He worked as the policy and research head for Ntsika, the Financial and Fiscal Commission and the KwaZulu-Natal treasury department. Before he was elected to parliament, he taught economics at the University of Pretoria.
In the 2004 general election he was elected as a Democratic Alliance Member of Parliament to the National Assembly in Cape Town.[2] He was appointed the DA's shadow minister for trade and industry.[3] During a debate on Black Economic Empowerment in September 2004, Deputy Minister Lulu Xingwana told Nkem-Abonta to go home where "millions of black people" needed him and that he "should not have run away" from his own country.[4] Nkem-Abonta dismissed his xenophobic run-in with Xingwana as "just politics".[5]
After Raenette Taljaard resigned as a DA MP in late 2004, he took over as shadow finance minister. Nkem-Abonta crossed the floor during the 2005 floor-crossing window period and joined the African National Congress. Nkem-Abonta then served as an ANC MP until the 2009 general election when he left parliament.[6]
In 2013, Nkem-Abonta assisted with the creation of the Libertarian Party of South Africa.[7]