Gerald Norman Morkel (2 February 1941 – 9 January 2018) was the

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

and Premier of the Western Cape province in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. He later served as a member of the

Cape Town City Council The City of Cape Town (; ) is a metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of Cape Town and surrounding areas. As of 2022 it has a population of 4,772,846. History Cape Town first received local self-government in 1839, wit ...

for the Democratic Alliance until his retirement from politics in 2011.

Political career

He was elected on a Labour Party ticket to the coloureds-only House of Representatives in the

Tricameral Parliament 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 ...

in 1984. He defected to the

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by 1994, and was appointed the Western Cape leader of the renamed New National Party by 1998, when he became premier of the province after Hernus Kriel stepped down. In the 1999 election, no party obtained a majority in the Western Cape. The NNP formed a coalition with the smaller Democratic Party, with Morkel remaining as premier. In 2000, plans began to prepare an amalgamation of the two parties under the name Democratic Alliance. However, in 2001, the NNP leadership pulled out of its co-operation with the DA and instead sought to form a partnership with the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

. Morkel was deeply critical of this decision and attempted to turn the majority of the NNP against it. When this failed, he was forced to resign as premier. Joining the DA, Morkel was then elected as mayor of Cape Town. He remained in office for less than a year, when the DA was ousted from power by an ANC-NNP coalition following the floor-crossing period in October 2002. Morkel continued for a while as Western Cape provincial leader of the DA but eventually stepped down due to his links to fraudster Jurgen Harksen. He continued serving as a member of the City Council for Steenberg until 2011.

Death

Morkel died on Tuesday afternoon, 9 January 2018, at his home in

Tokai, Cape Town Tokai, a large residential suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, is situated on the foothills of the Constantiaberg, (a large whaleback shaped mountain in the Table Mountain range) and is bordered by Steenberg and Kirstenhof to the south, Bergvli ...

. His wife and sister were by his side. He was diagnosed with cancer in the abdomen, in 2014.Former Cape Town mayor Gerald Morkel dies
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Family

Morkel had three sons: Garth,

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(also a politician) and Craig, and a daughter, Gail.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morkel, Gerald 1941 births 2018 deaths Mayors of Cape Town Premiers of the Western Cape Cape Coloureds Members of the National Assembly of South Africa National Party (South Africa) politicians Democratic Alliance (South Africa) politicians Labour Party (South Africa, 1969) politicians Members of the House of Representatives of South Africa