Derek Hanekom

Derek Andre Hanekom

Derek Andre Hanekom (born January 13, 1953 in Cape Town ) is a South African politician of the African National Congress (ANC), who was Minister of Land Affairs from 1994 to 1996, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs between 1996 and 1999, and Minister from 2012 to 2014 for Science and Technology and Minister of Tourism between 2014 and 2017. From 2018 to 2019 he was again appointed Minister of Tourism.

Life

Hanekom was born in Cape Town with two other siblings in the family of Sheila Mary and Alfonso Hanekom. His father worked as an employee at the Groote Schuur Hospital . The family was interested in politics. The father initially supported the National Party . After the Group Area Act came into force in 1950, its stance changed. The father took a critical stance towards apartheid politics. Derek Hanekom grew up bilingual. His mother spoke English and his father spoke Afrikaans .

Hanekom attends the German Primary School and the Hoërskool Jan van Riebeeck in Cape Town , which he graduated with his Matric in 1970 . He then began his military service with the SADF ( South African Defense Force ) in the 3rd South African Infantry Battalion in Potchefstroom . During this time he was stationed in Katima Mulilo ( South West Africa ) for two months . After completing his military service and until his enrollment at Stellenbosch University in 1972, Hanekom did odd jobs. He began studying law in Stellenbosch, which he finished after 6 months.

Subsequently, Hanekom worked as a worker in construction companies, factories and farms abroad. To reorient his life, he left South Africa in order to gain other professional experience in Great Britain . There he worked as a worker in Hastings and then in Battle as a gas station attendant. He then traveled to the United States at the invitation of a relative . Here he gained professional experience in coal mining as a truck driver and as a worker in other areas of this sector.

In 1973 he went back to the UK and made a living in agriculture growing apples and harvesting hops . Later he stayed in Austria and helped with the seasonal preparations in skiing areas in the Salzburg area . That same year, in December, he gained experience working in the docks of the port of Eilat and then found a job in a kibbutz for several months . Eventually he traveled to Greece, where Hanekom was employed as an assistant sailor on a private yacht.

The agricultural activities in Great Britain and Israel had aroused a lasting interest in him. When he returned to his native country, Hanekom was employed in several odd jobs in the agricultural sector until the end of 1977. After many years abroad, however, he felt a strong estrangement from the conditions in South Africa . His experience in military service also contributed to this. The years abroad showed him the absurdity of the apartheid society and let him gain experience through intensive union work in numerous companies. His attitudes resulted in a solidarity relationship with black colleagues in his work environment. A brief employment with ASEA in South Africa ended with a resignation because of his contacts with blacks in his spare time. His brother, who worked full-time for the Progressive Party and was an activist in the Young Christian Students movement , also contributed to his ongoing politicization . After the uprising in Soweto in 1976, Derek Hanekom's political engagement against the conditions in the country increased. As a result of participating in a peaceful demonstration by Christians in front of the police station in John Vorster Square in Johannesburg , he was arrested under the provisions of the Riotous Assemblies Act (for example, the law against seditious assemblies). During the years of this political activity, Hanekom met his future wife Patricia Elizabeth Murray, who worked as an organizer of numerous actions and both joined the ANC.

In 1978 they both rented a farm near Kuils River in the Western Cape for a year . Hanekom was taken back into police custody and accused of participating in opposition events against the eviction of Squatters from the Cape Town district of Crossroads , but was released during the investigation. At the end of 1978 the couple moved to a farm near Magaliesburg in the Transvaal . Here they married in 1981. From 1978 until their imprisonment in 1983, they ran this farm for the keeping of Jersey cattle and poultry and the cultivation of vegetables, which achieved economic stability after 5 years. After a visit to Botswana in 1980, both began to set up a communication network between left-wing students and Christian groups that worked on both sides of the border . In doing so, they tried to attract participants who were interested in activities against conscription in what was then South Africa.

Since 1983 he belonged to a network of agents of the liberation movements together with his wife Patricia "Trish" Hanekom and the military service member Roland Mark Hunter, an employee in the office of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. Hunter was subordinate to Colonel Cornelius van Niekerk from military intelligence; who directed the ( Operation Mila ) financial support of South Africa to training camps of the Renamo groups in Mozambique and Zimbabwe for the purpose of destabilizing the Machel government . Hunter was the driver and personal assistant to C. van Niekerk and provided secret information for many months that was passed on to liberation movements in Botswana via the Hanekoms. These included documents on further South African destabilization actions in the neighboring states of Angola , Lesotho and Zimbabwe . All three were arrested. Derek Hanekom was due to be charged with high treason under the Internal Security Act but was sentenced to two years in prison for possession of prohibited documents; his wife to three years and two months. Hunter received five years in prison under section 118 of the Defense Act of 1957. Subsequently, Hanekom worked as an assistant in the miniature park Santarama Miniland south of Johannesburg and between 1986 and 1987 as coordinator of a training project for trade unions . After his release from prison in November 1987 and deportation of his wife to Zimbabwe, who is a citizen of that country, he followed her there. His passport was stolen from a vehicle. The South African authorities refused to reissue this document. In Zimbabwe, he was coordinator for the Popular History Trust in Harare from 1988 to 1990 .

After returning to South Africa in the course of the re-approval of the ANC in 1990, Hanekom acted as the ANC's coordinator for land and agriculture between 1990 and 1994 and also became a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC) in 1994. For the 1994 general election , he was on the ANC list. On May 11, 1994, he was appointed Minister of Land Affairs by President Nelson Mandela in his cabinet . After the National Party NP ( National Party ) withdrew from the government, he also took over the post of Minister of Agriculture from Kraai van Niekerk in July 1996 and from then on served as Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs until June 18, 1999. .

In 1999, Hanekom became a member of the National Assembly for the ANC , where he initially represented the constituency of Kirkwood until May 21, 2014 and, since then, the constituency of Mitchell's Plain . In the second cabinet of President Thabo Mbeki , he took over the post of Vice Minister for Science and Technology on April 27, 2004 and held this post until October 3, 2012 in the Motlanthe cabinet and in the first Zuma cabinet . On October 3, 2012, President Jacob Zuma appointed him to succeed Naledi Pandor as Minister of Science and Technology ; he remained so until April 24, 2014. At the same time, he has been a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC for many years as well as temporarily chairing the National Disciplinary Committee of the ANC.

In the second Zuma cabinet , Hanekom then took over the office of Minister of Tourism on May 26, 2014 and held this position until his dismissal on March 30, 2017 by President Zuma, whom he had previously criticized at a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the ANC . His successor in office was Tokozile Xasa . After leaving the government, he was a member of the Committee on Funds and a deputy member of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly from May 23, 2017. In February 2018 he was reinstated as Minister of Tourism. It was no longer taken into account when the Ramaphosa II cabinet was formed in May 2019.

Web links

• Mr Derek Hanekom on People's Assembly , www.pa.org.za (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Shelag Gastrow: Who's who in South Africans Politics, Number 5 . Ravan Press, Johannesburg 1995 ISBN 0-86975-458-0 pp. 87-90
2. ↑ ^{a b} Craig Wilson: Derek Hanekom, iMinister . Interview on www.techcentral.co.za (English)
3. ^ TRC : Police and Military Counter-Insurgency Operations in Mozambique and Angola: Operations Alter / Mila and Silwer / Disa . at www.sabctrc.saha.org.za (English)
4. ^ SAIRR : Race Relations Survey 1984 . Johannesburg 1985, p. 809
5. ↑ Weekly Mail: Released spy tells of stolen SA secrets. Weekly Mail, November 27, 1987, accessed November 19, 2017
6. ^ Republic of South Africa: Minister Derek Hanekom . on www.tourism.gov.za (English)
7. ↑ Sabinet Online: Mr Derek Andre Hanekom ( memento of the original from April 22, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . on www.sabinetlaw.co.za (English) 
8. ↑ 24.com: Only NEC can replace me as ANC disciplinary chair - Hanekom . News from August 18, 2017 on www.news24.com (English)
9. ^ ANC: National Executive Committee. 49th National Conference 1994 ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . at www.anc.org.za (English) 
10. ^ ANC: The National Executive Committee. 54th National Conference 2017 ( Memento from April 23, 2018 in the Internet Archive ). at www.anc.org.za (English)
11. ↑ Clement Manyathela, Stephen Groote: Zuma flexes his executive muscle in Cabinet reshuffle . In: Eyewitness News from March 31, 2017
12. ↑ The New Age: Who's who of the new ministers ( Memento of the original from April 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . News from March 31, 2017 on www.thenewage.co.za (English)