Mogamad Ganief Ebrahim Hendricks (born 14 September 1949) is a South African politician, businessman, lecturer and teacher who is a Member of the

National Assembly of South Africa The National Assembly is the directly elected house of the Parliament of South Africa, located in Cape Town, Western Cape. It consists of four hundred members who are elected every five years using a party-list proportional representation sys ...

. He became an MP on 22 May 2019. He is the founder and current leader of

Al Jama-ah Al Jama-ah (, ) is a South African political party. It was formed in 2007 by present leader Ganief Hendricks and contested the 2009, 2014 and 2019 national elections. The party aims to support Muslim interests and uphold Shari'a law. The fla ...

, a party for upholding Muslim interests in South Africa. Hendricks was previously a

City of Cape Town The City of Cape Town ( af, Stad Kaapstad; xh, IsiXeko saseKapa) is the metropolitan municipality which governs the city of Cape Town, South Africa and its suburbs and exurbs. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 3,740,026. The remo ...

municipal councillor.

Early life and education

Hendricks was born on 14 September 1949 to Imam Shaikh Ebrahim Latiff from

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

and Ghairoennisaa Ally Hendricks from District Six. His mother was a political activist. Both his maternal and paternal grandparents were from

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

and they were involved in the struggle against apartheid. The Latiff family had to change their surname to Hendricks in order to avoid being deported to the

Natal Province The Province of Natal (), commonly called Natal, was a province of South Africa from May 1910 until May 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. During this period rural areas inhabited by the black African population of Natal were organized into ...

during the 1960s. Hendricks attended the Chapel Street Primary School and Trafalgar High School, but matriculated from

Harold Cressy High School Harold Cressy High School is a secondary school in District Six of Cape Town in South Africa. It was founded in January 1951 as the Cape Town Secondary School. The school has played a substantial role in South African history during the apar ...

. Hendricks earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree in History and Sociology and a

honours degree Honours degree has various meanings in the context of different degrees and education systems. Most commonly it refers to a variant of the undergraduate bachelor's degree containing a larger volume of material or a higher standard of study, or ...

in Industrial Psychology from the

University of the Western Cape The University of the Western Cape (UWC) is a public research university in Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by the South African government as a university for Coloured people only. Other ...

. At university, he campaigned for free education and he also founded a student newspaper ''Unibel'' and was its editor.

Early career

Hendricks was involved with the Free Nelson Mandela campaign. He is one of the founding members of the

Muslim Students Association of South Africa {{Unreferenced, date=February 2009 The Muslim Students Association of South Africa is a representative collective of the various Muslim Students Association (MSA) chapters which can be found in the different tertiary institutions throughout South A ...

(MSA) and was an executive member of the Majlis-su-Shura Al Islami. Hendricks was deputy chairperson of the Forum for Black Journalists and served as the General Secretary of the trade union for workers with sensory disorders. He was also a cricket manager and a national chess champion. Hendricks worked with Hassen Howa in sport in District Six. Hendricks was also a lecturer at the University of the Western Cape and the Peninsula Technikon (now the

Cape Peninsula University of Technology Cape Peninsula University of Technology, a university in Cape Town, South Africa, is the only university of technology in the Western Cape province, and is also the largest university in the province, with over 32,000 students. It was formed by ...

). He was a teacher at Mount View High School, Bridgetown High School, Rosedale Primary School and Easter Peak Primary School. Hendricks was also chairperson of the Management and Leadership Development Association in

Langa, Cape Town Langa is a township in Cape Town, South Africa. Its name in Xhosa means " sun". The township was initially built in phases before being formally opened in 1927. It was developed as a result of South Africa's 1923 Urban Areas Act (more commonly ...

. Hendricks worked as a Regional Personnel Manager and later a National Industrial Relations Specialist at

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, sin ...

for 18 years. He was a human resource director at MWEB. Hendricks was the deputy chairperson of an organisation that consisted of 300 affiliates of Muslim groups who all called for South Africa's first multiracial general elections in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

to be boycotted, however, Hendricks later decided to vote in that election. He co-founded Radio 786 in 1995. In 2002, Hendricks was given the 'Pioneer of the Internet in South Africa' award.

Political career

Hendricks founded

in April 2007, a party intended to uphold Muslim rights and interests in South Africa. Hendricks was elected to the Cape Town city council in 2011 as Al Jama-ah's sole councillor. He was re-elected in 2016.

Parliament

In the 2019 general election, Al Jama-ah won one seat in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

, the lower house of parliament. Hendricks took up the seat. He was sworn into office using the first

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing.: ...

written by

Tuan Guru Tuan may refer to: *Brush-tailed phascogale, an Australian marsupial animal also known as tuan *Zaiyi (1856–1923), Prince Duan (or Prince Tuan), a Qing Dynasty prince and statesman *Duan (surname), a Chinese surname spelled as Tuan in the older ...

while he was imprisoned on

Robben Island Robben Island ( af, Robbeneiland) is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the Dutch word for seals (''robben''), hence the Dutch/Afr ...

in the 1700s. He serves on multiple committees, including the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, the Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour, the Portfolio Committee on Health, the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation, the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services, and the Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development. In March 2021, Hendricks voted against establishing an ad-hoc committee to investigate

Public Protector The Public Protector in South Africa is one of six independent state institutions set up by the country's Constitution to support and defend democracy. According to Section 181 of the Constitution: * These institutions are independent, and sub ...

Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office. He became a non-voting member of the

Committee for Section 194 Enquiry The Committee for Section 194 Enquiry is an ad hoc committee of the National Assembly of South Africa that was established on 7 April 2021 to determine if there are grounds for the removal of Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane as Public Protector. Backgr ...

on 7 April 2021. On 21 June 2021, he became a voting member.

Cape Town mayoral candidacy

On 31 May 2021, Hendricks was announced as Al Jama-ah's mayoral candidate for the

in the 2021 local government elections.

Personal life

Hendricks is married to Fatima. They have four children.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hendricks, Ganief Living people 1949 births Members of the National Assembly of South Africa Politicians from Cape Town South African Muslims South African Muslim activists South African people of Malay descent Al Jama-ah politicians