Patrick McKenzie

Last updated

Patrick McKenzie
Member of the Western Cape Executive Council for Community Safety
In office
July 2008 –May 2009

Patrick Cecil McKenzie (born 8 December 1952) is a South African politician who represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament until his retirement in November 2012, holding several positions in the Western Cape Executive Council during that time. Between 1994 and 1999, before he joined the ANC, he represented the National Party, including for a brief period as Minister of Welfare and Population Development in Nelson Mandela's Government of National Unity in 1996. Before that, he represented the Labour Party in the Tricameral Parliament from 1983 to 1994.

Contents

Early life and political career

McKenzie was born on 8 December 1952. [1] He is Coloured and when he was eight, his family was forcibly removed from Cape Town's District Six under the apartheid-era Group Areas Act. [2] He flirted with the Congress-aligned anti-apartheid movement but disapproved of the use of violence in the movement. [2]

He worked in management in the Cape Town City Council from 1977 [3] and in 1983 he was elected to the Coloured chamber of the newly established Tricameral Parliament, [2] representing the Labour Party in the Bonteheuwel constituency. [4] He remained in his seat until the abolition of apartheid, and therefore of the Tricameral Parliament, in 1994. [5]

Democratic government: 1994–2012

National Party: 1994–1999

In South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994, McKenzie was elected to the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, where he ultimately served in a variety of portfolios in the Western Cape Executive Council. [5] In the legislature, he represented the National Party (NP), which had governed South Africa under apartheid. Explaining his new party affiliation, McKenzie highlighted concerns about future economic misgovernance by the governing African National Congress (ANC):

We're [as Coloureds] sort of caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. It's a bit confusing to be with the party of the old oppressors instead of the party of the liberators, but most of us are going to vote with our heads, not our hearts. [2]

He left the provincial parliament for a brief period between March and June 1996, when he was sworn into the National Assembly to serve as national Minister of Welfare and Population Development in Nelson Mandela's multi-party Government of National Unity; [6] he left the ministry on 30 June 1996, when the NP withdrew from the cabinet entirely, [7] but remained in his legislative seat. [8] By 1999 he had returned to the Western Cape Provincial Parliament. [9]

African National Congress: 1999–2012

In January 1999, ahead of the 1999 general election, the Mail & Guardian reported that McKenzie was in talks about leaving the NP (by then restyled as the New National Party) for the ANC on the grounds that he had "reached a 'glass ceiling'" in his current party. [9] He did indeed defect to the ANC [4] and in the 1999 election, he was returned to the Western Cape Provincial Parliament on the ANC's party list. [1]

He was re-elected in 2004 and took up his final posting in the Executive Council in July 2008, when Premier Lynne Brown named him as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Community Safety. [10] He left the Executive Council after the 2009 general election, when the ANC lost control of the provincial parliament. However, he remained in his seat as an ordinary Member of the Provincial Legislature and he was serving as the ANC's spokesperson on community safety when he announced his retirement, effective at the end of November 2012. [5] [3]

Personal life

He is married to Carol McKenzie, who represented the ANC in local politics and with whom he has several children. [5] [11] His son Angus is also a local politician in Cape Town and is a member of the Democratic Alliance. [12] [13]

Related Research Articles

The Republic of South Africa is a unitary parliamentary democratic republic. The President of South Africa serves both as head of state and as head of government. The President is elected by the National Assembly and must retain the confidence of the Assembly in order to remain in office. South Africans also elect provincial legislatures which govern each of the country's nine provinces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New National Party (South Africa)</span> 1997–2005 political party in South Africa

The New National Party (NNP) was a South African political party formed in 1997 as the successor to the National Party, which ruled the country from 1948 to 1994. The name change was an attempt to distance itself from its apartheid past, and reinvent itself as a moderate, mainstream conservative and non-racist federal party. The attempt was largely unsuccessful, and in 2005 the New National Party voted to disband itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parliament of South Africa</span> Legislative body of South Africa

The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa is South Africa's legislature; under the present Constitution of South Africa, the bicameral Parliament comprises a National Assembly and a National Council of Provinces. The current twenty-seventh Parliament was first convened on 22 May 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P. W. Botha</span> Leader of South Africa from 1978 to 1989

Pieter Willem Botha, was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president of South Africa from 1984 to 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Party (South Africa)</span> 1914–1997 political party known for implementing apartheid

The National Party, also known as the Nationalist Party, was a political party in South Africa founded in 1914 and disbanded in 1997. The party was an Afrikaner ethnic nationalist party that promoted Afrikaner interests in South Africa. However, in 1990 it became a South African civic nationalist party seeking to represent all South Africans. It first became the governing party of the country in 1924. It merged with its rival, the SAP, during the Great Depression, and a splinter faction became the official opposition during World War II and returned to power and governed South Africa from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994.

Helenard Joe Hendrickse, popularly known as Allan Hendrickse, was a South African politician, Congregationalist minister and teacher. He participated in an act of defiance by swimming at a South African beach reserved for Whites only.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tricameral Parliament</span> 1984–1994 legislature of South Africa

The Tricameral Parliament, officially the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, was the legislature of South Africa between 1984 and 1994, established by the South African Constitution of 1983, which gave a limited political voice to the country's Coloured and Indian population groups. The majority Black population group was however still excluded, their interests notionally represented in the governments of the black homelands, or "bantustans", of which they were formally citizens. As these institutions were largely politically impotent, its principal effect was to further entrench the political power of the White section of the South African population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Republic Party (South Africa)</span> 1977–1988 political party in South Africa

The New Republic Party (NRP) was a South African political party. It was formed as the successor to the disbanded United Party (UP) in 1977 and as a merger with the smaller Democratic Party. It drew its support mainly from the then Province of Natal, and tried to strike a moderate course between the apartheid policy of the ruling National Party (NP) and the liberal policies of the Progressive Federal Party (PFP).

Qubudile Richard Dyantyi has represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly since 2019. Before that, he was a Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament and served as the Western Cape's Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Local Government and Housing from 2005 to 2008. In 2021, he was elected chairperson of the national parliament's Committee for the Section 194 Enquiry into Busisiwe Mkhwebane's fitness to hold office.

Although the Democratic Alliance of South Africa in its present form is fairly new, its roots can be traced far back in South African political history, through a complex sequence of splits and mergers.

Jan Christiaan "Chris" Heunis, DMS was a South African Afrikaner lawyer, politician, member of the National Party and cabinet minister in the governments of John Vorster and P. W. Botha.

André Hurtley Gaum is a South African lawyer and politician who is currently serving as a full-time commissioner at the South African Human Rights Commission. He formerly served in the National Assembly, representing the African National Congress (ANC) and before that the New National Party (NNP). He was the Deputy Minister of Education from November 2008 to May 2009.

Johannes Jacobus "Hannes" Combrinck was a South African politician, civil servant and farmer who represented the Northern Cape in the National Assembly from 2004 to 2009. He represented the African National Congress (ANC), which he joined in 1998 after becoming disillusioned with the National Party. He later served as Speaker of Dawid Kruiper Local Municipality from 2009 to 2011 and was still working in municipal administration in the Northern Cape when he died in 2020.

Mario George Masher was a South African politician from the Western Cape. He represented the National Party (NP) in the National Assembly from 1994 to 1999, when he defected to the African National Congress (ANC). A teacher by profession, he formerly represented the Labour Party in the Tricameral Parliament. After joining the ANC, he was appointed South African Consul-General to Hong Kong and Macau.

Jan Hendrik "Jannie" Momberg was a South African politician, businessman, and sports administrator who served in the South African Parliament from 1989 to 2001. A former member of the National Party (NP), Momberg's opposition to apartheid led him to become a founding member of the Democratic Party in 1989, and he joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1992.

Jacobus Johannes "Cobus" Dowry was a South African politician who served in the Western Cape Executive Council from 2002 to 2009. He served in the National Assembly from 1994 to 2002 and in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament from 2002 to 2009. He represented the National Party (NP) and New National Party (NNP) until September 2005, when he crossed the floor to the African National Congress (ANC). He was an SABC newsreader before entering politics and he was involved in commercial farming after he retired from politics in 2009.

Nicolaas Jacobus Janse van Rensburg "Nic" Koornhof is a retired South African politician who served in Parliament from 1987 to 1998 and later from 2009 to 2019, representing various political parties. He is also a former member of the Western Cape Executive Council.

Jacobus Albert Rabie was a South African politician who was Minister for Population Development under President F. W. de Klerk from 1993 to 1994. He served in the apartheid-era House of Representatives throughout its lifespan from 1984 to 1994, representing the Reiger Park constituency, and subsequently served one term in the post-apartheid National Assembly from 1994 to 1999.

Daryl Wade Swanepoel is a South African politician and political strategist who is currently the chief executive officer of the Inclusive Society Institute. He was formerly the co-convenor of the Progressive Business Forum, a fund-raising vehicle of the African National Congress (ANC). He also represented the ANC in the National Assembly from 2013 to 2014.

Rodney Tyrone Rhoda is a retired South African politician from the Western Cape. Formerly a Labour Party representative in the apartheid-era House of Representatives, he represented the National Party (NP) and New National Party (NNP) in the National Assembly from 1994 to 2004. In 2005, he was convicted of defrauding Parliament in the Travelgate scandal.

References

  1. 1 2 "General Notice: Notice 1319 of 1999 – Electoral Commission: Representatives Elected to the Various Legislatures" (PDF). Government Gazette of South Africa . Vol. 408, no. 20203. Pretoria, South Africa: Government of South Africa. 11 June 1999. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Coloreds: oppressed like blacks, but voting like whites". Washington Post. 25 April 1994. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Former MEC calls it quits". EWN. 27 November 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  4. 1 2 "Defectors left New NP for money, claims Morkel". Cape Argus. 22 April 1999. Retrieved 13 April 2023– via allAfrica.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "ANC WCape wishes Patrick McKenzie well". Politicsweb. 26 November 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  6. ↑ "The Indian Ocean newsletter: Patrick McKenzie". Africa Intelligence. 9 March 1996. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  7. ↑ Daley, Suzanne (10 May 1996). "De Klerk's Party Quits Government". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  8. ↑ "Members of the National Assembly". Parliament of South Africa. 3 June 1998. Archived from the original on 28 June 1998. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  9. 1 2 "Two more nails in Nat coffin". The Mail & Guardian. 22 January 1999. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  10. ↑ "New Western Cape cabinet announced". The Mail & Guardian. 2 August 2008. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  11. ↑ "Family hails player who died on the field". IOL. 3 April 2006. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  12. ↑ Allies-Husselman, Hazel (6 July 2016). "Ward 50's Theresa Thompson takes a break after three terms". Athlone News. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  13. ↑ Hlatshaneni, Simnikiwe (5 May 2018). "'I will sue the hell out of them' - De Lille on DA members". The Citizen. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.