Anthony James Leon (born 15 December 1956) is a South African politician who served as leader of the opposition from 1999 to 2007 as leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA). He led the DA from its inception in 2000, until his retirement from leadership in 2007. Before that, he led the Democratic Party from 1994. He is the longest-serving leader of the official opposition in parliament since the advent of democracy in 1994. Although still a member of the DA, he served as the South African Ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay under the African National Congress government from 2009 to 2012.
His career post-politics has included multiple contracts as an opinions columnist, he is the author of six books, and he also founded Resolve Communications, a public relations company.
Leon was born and raised in Durban during the apartheid era. He was educated at Clifton School (Durban) and Kearsney College near Durban. His father, Ramon Leon, was a High Court Judge. Both his parents were active in the liberal, anti-apartheid Progressive Party (which later became the Democratic Party). He is Jewish and had his Bar Mitzvah at the Great Synagogue in Durban, where he also attended High Holiday services with his family.
In 1974 at the age of 18, he became an organiser for the Progressive Party, one of the two opposition parties represented in parliament at the time. After this, he qualified as an attorney at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was President of the Law Students' Council and vice-president of the Students' Representative Council, and became a lecturer in the Law Department in 1986. He has credited Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman as his biggest inspirations. In the same year he was elected to the Johannesburg City Council for Yeoville. When the results for the election were released, it was announced that the National Party candidate Sam Bloomberg had won. However, Harry Schwarz, his political mentor, uncovered that this was untrue, and Leon was declared the winner. He became the leader of the opposition in the city council.
In 1989 he was elected to Parliament for the Houghton constituency, representing the Progressive Party's successor, the Democratic Party.
From 1990 to 1994 he chaired the DP's Bill of Rights Commission, and as such was an advisor to the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) and a delegate to the multi-party negotiations that led to the end of apartheid and the establishment of a non-racial democracy in 1994.
At the 1994 general elections, Leon was again elected to Parliament in the first democratic National Assembly, as well as leader of the Democratic Party. At the time, the Democratic Party was perceived as merely a minor party of white liberals, an oddity in the first non-racial democratic government of South Africa. Yet between 1994 and 1999 its seven members managed to become the most vocal, active and involved legislators.
In 1998, Leon published his first book on the eve of the second democratic election, entitled Hope & Fear: Reflections of a Democrat (Jonathan Ball, 1998). With the second democratic elections in 1999 and the New National Party only retaining 28 seats (down from 82 in 1994), he became Leader of the Opposition as the DP took 38 seats, showing a growth of over five-fold.
After the 2004 general elections, the DA under Leon had a vote increase of 2.8%, as did the African National Congress (ANC) with an increase of 3.3%. These gains came at a cost to three of the five minor opposition parties, with only the Independent Democrats – a newcomer in the elections – also attracting support.
Leon built a high media profile as an opposition leader by criticising the ANC government under Nelson Mandela but more so under his successor, President Thabo Mbeki.
During the administration of Cyril Ramaphosa, Tony Leon criticized South Africa’s foreign policy, particularly its relations with Iran and its alignment with Hamas, describing this position as indicative of “moral blindness. He also contended that “South Africa’s alignment with Hamas and regimes like Iran undermines the very human rights and democratic principles we claim to uphold.”
On 26 November 2006, Leon announced that he would step down from the leadership of the DA in 2007, and would not accept nomination for the leadership of the party. He officially stepped down at the May 2007 conference, and Helen Zille was elected to be the new party leader. Leon, nevertheless, kept his seat in Parliament until 2009, when its term expired.
Leon was voted 16th in the TV channel SABC3's Top 100 Great South Africans.
From September to December 2007, Leon was a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
In 2008, Leon released his autobiography On the Contrary. The book was favourably received, The Economist describing it as "eloquent, funny and rich... an important record of South Africa's young democracy, witnessed from the other side of the fence". The book was also serialized by the Johannesburg Sunday Times. The book won the Recht Malan Prize in the Via Afrika Book Awards for the best work of non-fiction in 2009.
In 2008, Leon was a visiting fellow at the Cato Institute Center for Liberty and Global Prosperity in Washington DC. His research paper: "The State of Liberal Democracy in Africa - Resurgence or Recession" was published in May 2010.
Leon published a series of articles in Business Day from the campaign trail of the 2009 South African general election.
Between 2012 and 2024, Leon has been a contracted columnist to Arena Holdings Ltd with his columns appearing weekly or monthly in Business Day, Sunday Times, and the Business Live, respectively.