Craig Morkel

Morkel was born on 10 November 1967{{cite magazine |date=11 June 1999 |title=General Notice: Notice 1319 of 1999 – Electoral Commission: Representatives Elected to the Various Legislatures |url=https://gazettes.africa/archive/za/1999/za-government-gazette-dated-1999-06-11-no-20203.pdf |magazine=Government Gazette of South Africa |location=Pretoria, South Africa |publisher=Government of South Africa |volume=408 |issue=20203 |pages= |access-date=26 March 2021}} and was designated as Coloured under apartheid.{{Cite web |date=2004-08-24 |title=Travelgate: It all started in 2002 |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2004-08-24-travelgate-it-all-started-in-2002/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} His father, Gerald Morkel, represented the Labour Party in the apartheid-era House of Representatives but joined the National Party, later restyled as the New National Party (NNP), during the democratic transition. One of his brothers, Kent, is also a politician, and another, Garth, is a government official.{{Cite web |date=2007-09-12 |title=ANC gets majority rule — in Morkel family |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2007-09-12-anc-gets-majority-rule-in-morkel-family/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}

Morkel joined the National Assembly in the 1999 general election as a representative of the NNP in the Western Cape constituency. Midway through the term, in 2001, Morkel's father fell out with the NNP over the NNP's withdrawal from the multi-party Democratic Alliance (DA) that it had formed the previous year with the Democratic Party (DP). In November of that year, his father resigned from the NNP and as Premier of the Western Cape in order to defect to the DA. Though Morkel said that he did not yet have plans to follow his father to the DA,{{Cite web |date=2001-11-11 |title=Morkel jumps, says he wasn’t pushed |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2001-11-11-morkel-jumps-says-he-wasnt-pushed/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} observers expected him to do so.{{Cite web |date=2002-06-20 |title=NNP vulnerable to musical chairs in Parliament |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2002-06-21-nnp-vulnerable-to-musical-chairs-in-parliament/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}

In March 2003, during the first floor-crossing window, Morkel indeed resigned from NNP and joined a contingent of his colleagues, led by Sheila Camerer, in registering as a DA member.{{Cite web |date=2003-03-25 |title=ANC snatches control of Western Cape |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2003-03-25-anc-snatches-control-of-western-cape/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} He served the rest of the legislative term under the DA's banner. The defection greatly increased the public profile of Morkel, who had been "barely visible" as an NNP member.{{Cite web |date=2004-08-20 |title=Have vouchers, will travel |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2004-08-20-have-vouchers-will-travel/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} In the 2004 general election, he was highly ranked on the DA's provincial party list for the Western Cape,{{Cite web |date=2004-02-13 |title=DA juggles lists |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2004-02-13-da-juggles-lists/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} and he secured re-election to his seat.{{cite magazine |date=20 April 2004 |title=General Notice: Notice 717 of 2004 - Electoral Commission – List of Names of Representatives in the National Assembly and the Nine Provincial Legislatures in Respect of the Elections Held on 14 April 2004 |url=https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/262770.pdf |magazine=Government Gazette of South Africa |location=Pretoria, South Africa |publisher=Government of South Africa |volume=466 |issue=2677 |pages=4–95 |access-date=26 March 2021}} During this period, he was viewed as a member of the DA's "old NNP camp", largely comprising former NNP and Labour Party members and de facto led by Morkel's father, in opposition to another camp largely comprising former DP members.{{Cite web |date=2003-12-04 |title=Battle for soul of the DA begins |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2003-12-04-battle-for-soul-of-the-da-begins/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}

In August 2004, shortly after Morkel's election to a second term, the Scorpions announced that he was among the many MPs under investigation for possible abuse of parliamentary air-travel vouchers, in what became known as the Travelgate scandal. Later the same month, Morkel became the only MP to publicly acknowledge that he had signed an acknowledgement of debt with one of the travel agencies involved in the scandal; he said that he would repay about R33,000 to ITC Travel.{{Cite web |date=2004-08-27 |title=Jet-set politicians to cough up |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2004-08-27-jetset-politicians-to-cough-up/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}

Similarly, in January 2005, when the Scorpions announced that 40 MPs would face criminal charges for their role in Travelgate, Morkel stepped forward to identify himself as one of them.{{Cite web |date=2005-01-26 |title=Travelgate: Eight MPs summonsed |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2005-01-26-travelgate-eight-mps-summonsed/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} Media reports suggested that Morkel, while an NNP representative, had allowed friends to use his parliamentary travel vouchers – which were supposed to be used only to cover work expenses – and had used other vouchers to hire an Audi TT.{{Cite web |date=2005-01-26 |title=Travelgate: DA MP named |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2005-01-26-travelgate-da-mp-named/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} The DA announced that Morkel had offered to accept a suspension from all parliamentary and party business, pending the outcome of the trial, although the Mail & Guardian noted that the party continued to list Morkel as its spokesman on youth affairs.{{Cite web |date=2005-03-10 |title=Revive and open on Apartheid! |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2005-03-10-revive-and-open-on-apartheid/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}

In December 2006, Morkel accepted a plea bargain with the Scorpions; he was sentenced to pay a fine of R25,000 or serve three years' imprisonment.{{Cite web |date=2006-12-16 |title=Two more MPs fined in Travelgate scam |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2006-12-16-two-more-mps-fined-in-travelgate-scam/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} He and other convicted MPs received a formal reprimand from the Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, the following year.{{Cite web |date=29 March 2007 |title=Parly reprimands Travelgate MPs |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/parly-reprimands-travelgate-mps-20070329 |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}

While Morkel's criminal charges were still pending, the second floor-crossing window was held in September 2005, and Morkel resigned from the DA to form his own party, the Progressive Independent Movement (PIM).{{Cite web |date=2005-09-15 |title=DA ‘surprised’ as five MPs jump ship |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2005-09-15-da-surprised-as-five-mps-jump-ship/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} He was the party's sole representative. He said that he would not return to the DA until its leadership changed, though he hoped that the party would become a platform to lobby for change in his former party DA:

It is my way of registering a conscientious objection to the leadership style and organisational culture that presently dominates the DA. I hope after leadership of the DA has changed to go back to my political home.{{Cite web |date=16 September 2005 |title=DA defectors 'beached whales' |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/da-defectors-beached-whales-20050916 |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}

During the September 2007 floor-crossing window, Morkel announced that he had resigned from the PIM – which thus became effectively defunct – in order to join the governing African National Congress (ANC). His brother, Kent, had recently announced his own defection from the DA to the ANC, and their brother Garth was apparently a longstanding ANC member, leading the Mail & Guardian to quip that the ANC "has at last secured a clear two-thirds majority in the Morkel family". The newspaper suspected that Morkel had decided to leave the PIM because, in the minor party, "he stood no chance at all of being re-elected at the next general election in 2009". However, even as an ANC member, Morkel left the National Assembly after the 2009 election.

After 2009, Morkel worked as a business consultant, advising multinational companies on energy deals. In 2014, he founded iKapa Energy with his father, who died in 2018.{{Cite web |title=Profiles |url=https://ikapa-energy.co.za/profiles/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=iKapa Energy |language=en-US}}

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Category:Living people

Category:1967 births

Category:21st-century South African businesspeople

Category:Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 1999–2004

Category:Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 2004–2009

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Category:Democratic Alliance (South Africa) politicians

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Category:South African politicians convicted of fraud