Nickname(s) Kraai Name Kraai Niekerk | Role South African Politician | |
President F. W. de Klerk
Nelson Mandela Alma mater University of Stellenbosch | ||
Education Stellenbosch University | ||
Dr Kraai van Niekerk Talks Deregulation
André Isak "Kraai" van Niekerk, born in 1938 in Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal, is a former South African politician.
He obtained a Ph.D. in Agriculture at the University of Stellenbosch, and then went on to work in several research positions before settling down in Rugseer near Kenhardt as a sheep farmer.
Van Niekerk embarked on a political career for the National Party when he was elected MP for Prieska in 1981. He became Deputy Minister of Agriculture in the cabinet of P. W. Botha in 1986. F. W. de Klerk appointed him Minister of Agriculture in 1990.
He was the only minister of the last apartheid government to keep his post in the Government of National Unity under Nelson Mandela (until the end of the GNU in 1996).
For some time, he was also the National Party's Chairman in the Northern Cape. He retired from parliament in 1997 to join Louis Luyt's Federal Alliance before the elections in 1999. After the 1999 elections, he became part of the two-member caucus of the FA, which entered into an alliance with the Democratic Alliance.
After the elections in 2004 he became Spokesperson on Agriculture of the DA caucus in the National Assembly. Van Niekerk, who is a member of AgriSA, has represented not less than three parties in the South African parliament. He is married to Theresa and the couple have three children.