Marthinus van Schalkwyk
Encyclopedia
Marthinus Christoffel Johannes van Schalkwyk (born 10 November 1959) is the Minister of Tourism in the Cabinet of South Africa. Formerly both Premier of the Western Cape
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...

 and Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Opposition (South Africa)
The Leader of the Opposition in South Africa is a title held by the leader of the largest party, not forming part of the government, in the most important house of Parliament. This was the House of Assembly from 1910 to 1994 and the National Assembly from 1994. He or she acts as the public face of...

 in the Parliament of South Africa
Parliament of South Africa
The Parliament of South Africa is South Africa's legislature and under the country's current Constitution is composed of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces....

, he was the leader of the New National Party from its inception on 8 September 1997 until its dissolution on 9 April 2005. He was appointed Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in the South African cabinet as a reward for aligning his party with the ruling African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...

 (ANC), despite his party's poor performance in the 2004 General Election
South African general election, 2004
Legislative elections were held in South Africa on Wednesday, 14 April 2004. The African National Congress of President Thabo Mbeki, which came to power after the end of the apartheid system in 1994, was re-elected with an increased majority....

.

Personal life

Van Schalkwyk matriculated from Pietersburg High School in 1977. Van Schalkwyk served in the SADF from 1978 to 1979. His political career began during the late apartheid years at the Rand Afrikaans University
Rand Afrikaans University
The Rand Afrikaans University ' was a prominent South African institution of higher education and research that served the greater Johannesburg area and surrounds in from 1967 to 2004...

 as chairman of the Student Representative Council (SRC), the Afrikaanse Studentebond (ASB), and later of the Ruiterwag, the youth wing of the Broederbond. In the 1980s, he was a founding member and chairman of "Jeugkrag
Jeugkrag
Jeugkrag was a short-lived South African youth group, surreptitiously funded by the apartheid government's department of Military Intelligence in an operation known as Project Essay...

" - Youth Power - an organisation purportedly opposed to the Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...

 establishment, but which was secretly funded by military intelligence.

He is married to his wife Suzette and has one son and one daughter.

Political career

Van Schalkwyk was the leader of the New National Party from its inception on 8 September 1997 until its dissolution on 9 April 2005. He also served as Premier of the Western Cape
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...

 and Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Opposition (South Africa)
The Leader of the Opposition in South Africa is a title held by the leader of the largest party, not forming part of the government, in the most important house of Parliament. This was the House of Assembly from 1910 to 1994 and the National Assembly from 1994. He or she acts as the public face of...

 in the Parliament of South Africa
Parliament of South Africa
The Parliament of South Africa is South Africa's legislature and under the country's current Constitution is composed of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces....

.

Informally, he is referred to by his detractors as kortbroek (lit. "short pants"), a name he earned because of his boyish appearance and lack of political experience when compared to his predecessor, F.W. de Klerk
Frederik Willem de Klerk
Frederik Willem de Klerk , often known as F. W. de Klerk, is the former seventh and last State President of apartheid-era South Africa, serving from September 1989 to May 1994...

. A significant part of the white Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...

 population views him as a weak politician who destroyed the old National Party
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...

 in order to rescue his own political skin by marrying the NNP with its old opposition, the ruling ANC. He was however one of the few nationalist politicians who remained active in politics after the decline of the National Party
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...

 and took a high profile like FW de Klerk did with the coming into being of the Rainbow Nation
Rainbow Nation
Rainbow Nation is a term coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu to describe post-apartheid South Africa, after South Africa's first fully democratic election in 1994....

 in 1994.

In August 2004 it was announced that Van Schalkwyk would become a member of the ANC, and that the NNP would be disbanded in 2005 or 2006 at the latest. This decision was finalized on 9 April 2005, when the party's federal committee overwhelmingly endorsed its regional committees' recommendation to disband the party as soon as municipal election results were finalised.

Speaking after the decision to dissolve the party, van Schalkwyk said, "What we do today is part of our contribution to finally ending the division of the South African soul." He went on to apologize for the way the National Party
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...

 (the forerunner to the NNP) had "brought suffering through a system grounded in injustice."

"What we do today is liberating," he went on. "It empowers us to throw off the yoke of history and to accept a new and important burden - the shared responsibility for building a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it."

On 29 April 2004, following the overwhelming victory of the African National Congress in the national parliamentary elections, Van Schalkwyk was appointed by President Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki...

 as Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
South African Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
The Department of Environmental Affairs is one of the departments of the South African government. It is responsible for protecting, conserving and improving the South African environment and natural resources.-Branches:...

 for South Africa. He has held this position until May 2009, when a new Ministry of Water and Environmental Affairs
Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs
The Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs is the member of the Cabinet of South Africa with responsibility for the Department of Water Affairs and the Department of Environmental Affairs....

 was created and he became Minister of Tourism.

Environmental work

Initially greeted with dismay and scepticism by many environmental activist groupings, his tenure has been marked by a number of decisions and initiatives that have been increasingly welcomed by environmental
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....

 and tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 sectors alike - amongst these the decision to uphold appeals against the development of the N2 National Toll Road through the unspoilt Wild Coast
Wild Coast Region, Eastern Cape
The Wild Coast is one of the four regions of the Eastern Cape, a province of South Africa. The region stretches from its border with Buffalo City in the south to the Mthamvuna River near Port Edward in the north...

 region of the Eastern Cape Province, the promulgation and initial implementation of a new Air Quality Act, the creation of a new Environmental Protection Fleet to prevent illegal fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

, a complete ban on the use and production of asbestos
Asbestos
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...

, the adoption of a Black Economic Empowerment
Black Economic Empowerment
Black Economic Empowerment is a programme launched by the South African government to redress the inequalities of Apartheid by giving previously disadvantaged groups economic opportunities previously not available to them...

 Scorecard and Charter for Tourism, and a significant focus by the South African government on addressing global climate change.

Van Schalkwyk became President of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in June 2008, when South Africa assumed the presidency of AMCEN at the beginning of its 12th Session.

In March 2010, he was nominated by South African President Jacob Zuma
Jacob Zuma
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is the President of South Africa, elected by parliament following his party's victory in the 2009 general election....

 to succeed Yvo de Boer
Yvo de Boer
Yvo de Boer was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from 4 September 2006 to 1 July 2010...

 as the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to 14, 1992...

.

External links

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