Hernus Kriel was a South African lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Law and Order from 1991 to 1994 and became the first Premier of the Western Cape after the 1994 democratic election. A National Party figure during the transition from apartheid, he later joined the Democratic Party in 2000.
Background
Hernus Kriel was born on November 14, 1941, in Kakamas in the Northern Cape, then part of the Cape Province. His father was a Dutch Reformed missionary minister, and Kriel grew up in a religious family during the period when the National Party was consolidating political control over South Africa.
Kakamas was an agricultural settlement on the Orange River whose development was closely associated with irrigation and missionary activity. Kriel later attended school in Wellington and pursued legal studies at the University of Stellenbosch, linking his early life in the Northern Cape with the institutional and political culture of the Western Cape.
Education
Kriel attended Hugenote Moerskool in Wellington. The school, founded in 1868, developed within the Christian educational tradition of the Cape and remains one of Wellington's long-established secondary schools.
He studied at the University of Stellenbosch, receiving Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees. Stellenbosch, founded in 1918 as a university and rooted in the earlier Victoria College tradition, became a major Afrikaans-language institution and an important center of political and intellectual life among Afrikaner professionals. Kriel's legal education prepared him for practice as an advocate and later for a political career in provincial and national government.
Career
Kriel began his professional life as a lawyer and notary and practiced law until 1981. He entered public life through the Cape Provincial Council, serving from 1977 and joining its executive committee in 1981. The provincial council was part of the pre-1994 administrative system in which the Cape Province exercised regional governmental functions under the apartheid constitutional order.
In 1984, Kriel entered the South African Parliament as the National Party member for Parow. He became part of the national political system during a period of increasing opposition to apartheid, constitutional reform, and conflict over the future structure of the state.
After F. W. de Klerk became state president, Kriel joined the cabinet as Minister of Planning and Provincial Affairs in 1989. His responsibilities included matters involving planning, provincial administration, housing, and local government, and he participated in negotiations with civic organizations during a period of rent boycotts and political unrest.
In 1991, Kriel became Minister of Law and Order, succeeding Adriaan Vlok. The portfolio covered the police and internal security during the violent and politically unsettled period preceding the 1994 election. Kriel was criticized for his position on the government's relationship with Inkatha and for his handling of allegations concerning police involvement in political violence. He also opposed elements of the negotiated settlement and later questioned the objectivity of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Following the first democratic election in 1994, Kriel became the first Premier of the Western Cape, serving from May 1994 to May 1998 as the National Party's only provincial premier in the immediate post-apartheid period. His administration operated during the establishment of South Africa's nine new provinces and the transition from the interim constitutional system to a permanent democratic order.
As premier, Kriel challenged aspects of the national government's approach to provincial and local government powers. In 1995, the Western Cape Executive Council became involved in a Constitutional Court dispute concerning the appointment of a provincial committee and the demarcation of local government structures. Kriel also promoted a provincial constitutional framework and defended the province's institutional autonomy. He resigned as premier in 1998 and was succeeded by Gerald Morkel.
Kriel left the National Party in 2000 and joined the Democratic Party. He subsequently sought a political role in the opposition realignment that followed the creation of the Democratic Alliance, but did not secure the position he wanted. He withdrew from active political life and died in Cape Town on July 5, 2015.
Achievements
Kriel became the first Premier of the Western Cape after South Africa's first democratic election in 1994, leading the province during the initial establishment of democratic provincial government.
As premier, Kriel successfully challenged aspects of the national government's interference with Western Cape provincial arrangements in a 1995 Constitutional Court dispute concerning provincial administration and local-government demarcation.
Religion
Kriel was raised in a religious family. His father served as a Dutch Reformed missionary minister, placing his upbringing within the religious and Afrikaner social environment of mid-twentieth-century South Africa.
Politics
Kriel was a leading member of South Africa's National Party and served in provincial and national government during the final years of apartheid and the country's transition to democracy. The National Party had governed South Africa since 1948 through apartheid policies, but under F. W. de Klerk it entered negotiations that led to the 1994 democratic elections.
Kriel held strongly law-and-order-oriented views and criticized aspects of the transition negotiations. As Minister of Law and Order from 1991 to 1994, he occupied a central position during the political violence and constitutional negotiations preceding the democratic election. As premier, he supported a powerful Western Cape province, questioned the objectivity of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and advocated reinstatement of the death penalty.
He left the National Party in 2000 and joined the Democratic Party, which had become the official opposition after the 1999 election. His defection reflected the political realignment of former National Party figures after apartheid and preceded the formation of the Democratic Alliance.
Views
Kriel's public outlook emphasized the importance of public order, strong provincial authority, and a firm response to violent crime. His opposition to aspects of the negotiated transition and his advocacy of restoring the death penalty reflected a punitive approach to criminal justice. As premier, his support for provincial autonomy placed him within the federalist and regionalist debates that accompanied the creation of democratic provincial government in South Africa.
Personality
Contemporaries and later biographical accounts described Kriel as a forceful and politically combative figure. His public style combined a strong law-and-order emphasis with tactical political maneuvering during the negotiations that preceded South Africa's democratic transition.
Quotes from others about the person
Former president F. W. de Klerk expressed sadness at Kriel's death in 2015. Kriel was also remembered by South African political commentators as a prominent and controversial National Party minister during the transition to democracy.
Connections
Kriel was married to Anna-Mari Jooste, who survived him. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1993, and he had three children. He spent the final years of his life in poor health and died in Cape Town at the age of 73.
Kriel, Hernus
Summarizes Kriel's education, legal practice, provincial political career, cabinet service, and role as the first premier of the Western Cape.
