Derek Hanekom
Derek Andre Hanekom (born 13 January 1953) is a South African retired politician, activist and former cabinet minister currently serving as the interim Chairman of South African Airways.[1]
Derek Hanekom
Dr. Trish Hanekom
Politician
He is currently serving as a presidential envoy for South Africa mandated to promote investment with a focus on tourism. He was previously Minister of Tourism from 27 February 2018 until 29 May 2019. In his capacity as Minister of Tourism he was responsible for South African Tourism, the official national marketing agency of the South African government, with the goal of promoting Tourism in South Africa both locally and globally.[2][3]
He previously served as Minister of Science and Technology from October 2012 until 2014.[4] He was Deputy Minister of Science and Technology having served under the then-Presidents Kgalema Motlanthe and Thabo Mbeki,[5] and former President Jacob Zuma in May 2009.[6] He has a strong African National Congress (ANC) history having served three years in prison for the work he did for the ANC during apartheid, with his wife Dr. Trish Hanekom who served three years for her involvement.
He is also a former Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, having served under the Mandela administration. Hanekom's tenure as Minister of Land Affairs was reflective of his career in the anti-apartheid NGO sector and he was selected by former President Nelson Mandela partly because of his ability as an Afrikaner to negotiate with white landowners. Hanekom's tenure as minister was marked by an affinity for redistribution as opposed to retribution, and rights as opposed to property. Some have cited a strong contrast with his successor in the ministry during the Mbeki administration, Thoko Didiza.
Hanekom was a member of the ANC National Executive Committee from 1994 to 2022 and the NEC deployee to the Western Cape - the only province the ANC does not govern.
Personal life[edit]
Hanekom was born in Cape Town, South Africa on 13 January 1953. He spent his school career in Cape Town, attending the German Primary School and then matriculating from prominent Afrikaans school, Jan van Riebeeck High School in 1970. Hanekom went on to complete his compulsory conscription in the South African Defence Force between 1971 and 1973. Thereafter, Hanekom travelled abroad where he worked for various organisations including working on farms, factories and building sites. He then returned to South Africa in his early twenties where he continued farming. Working the land, Hanekom was a dairy, poultry, and vegetable farmer from 1978 - 1983.[7]
Hanekom is married to academic Dr Patricia (Trish) Hanekom.
Struggle history[edit]
As a 23-year-old in 1976, Hanekom was arrested for participating in a peaceful candlelight demonstration at John Vorster Square, the Police Headquarters in Johannesburg. Four years later, in 1980, Hanekom and Patricia joined the ANC, conducting underground activities while continuing to farm on a smallholding in Magaliesburg. Patricia and Hanekom fed information to the parent body ANC, such as the apartheid Defence Force's attempts to overthrow the Mozambican government through the rebel movement, Renamo.[8] Both were then arrested in 1983. They were initially charged with high treason, the worst offence against the State, but the charge was subsequently reduced due to the international sensitivity of the case.[8]
After spending three years in prison, Hanekom started work with the trade union movement in Johannesburg. Patricia was released a year later, in 1987, but was subsequently deported to Zimbabwe, where the couple went into exile for three years. During this period, Hanekom served as the co-ordinator of the Popular History Trust[9] in the capital Harare.
After three years in exile and as the apartheid government unbanned previously banned political organisations,[10] Hanekom returned to South Africa in 1990 to work at the headquarters of the ANC, where he was responsible for policy formulation on land and agricultural matters, during the period of negotiations prior to the first democratic elections in 1994.