Marthinus Christoffel Johannes van Schalkwyk (born 10 November 1959) is a South African politician, academic, and lawyer, who serves as High Commissioner to Australia. He previously served as MP and Minister of Tourism in the Cabinet of South Africa.^[1] FormerlyPremier of the Western Cape andLeader of the Opposition in theParliament of South Africa, he was the leader of theNew National Party from its inception on 8 September 1997 until its dissolution on 9 April 2005. He was appointedMinister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in the Thabo Mbeki administration after merging his party with the rulingAfrican National Congress (ANC), despite the poor performance of the former in the2004 General Election.

Marthinus van Schalkwyk
Van Schalkwyk in 2009
Minister of Tourism
In office 10 May 2009 – 25 May 2014
President	Jacob Zuma
Preceded by	Portfolio created
Succeeded by	Derek Hanekom
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
In office 29 April 2004 – 10 May 2009
President	Thabo Mbeki Kgalema Motlanthe
Preceded by	Valli Moosa
Succeeded by	Portfolio split
Leader of the Opposition
In office 1997–1999
Preceded by	Frederik Willem de Klerk
Succeeded by	Tony Leon
4thPremier of the Western Cape
In office 21 June 2002 – 28 April 2004
Preceded by	Peter Marais
Succeeded by	Ebrahim Rasool
Personal details
Born	Marthinus Christoffel Johannes van Schalkwyk (1959-11-10)10 November 1959 (age 65) Pietersburg,South Africa
Political party	African National Congress
Other political affiliations	National Party (1980s–1997) New National Party (1997–2005)
Spouse	Suzette Minama Labuschagne
Children	2
Alma mater	Rand Afrikaans University (MA, BProc)
Occupation	Politician ambassador
Military service
Allegiance	South Africa
Branch/service	South African Defence Force
Years of service	1978–1979

Van Schalkwyk matriculated from Pietersburg High School in 1977. He was a national serviceman in theSouth African Defence Force (SADF) from 1978 to 1979 and later attended theRand Afrikaans University, where he earned a Masters of Arts in political science and a B Proc. (a junior legal degree). As a prominent student leader of whites in the 1980s, he was a founding member and chairman ofJeugkrag (Afrikaans for Youth Power), an organisation purportedly opposed to theAfrikaner establishment, but which was secretly funded by military intelligence.^[2][3][4] Later, he lectured Political Science atRand Afrikaans University (RAU) andStellenbosch University.^[5]

His political career began during the lateapartheid years at theRand Afrikaans University as chairman of the Student Representative Council (SRC), the Afrikaanse Studentebond (ASB), and later of the Ruiterwag, the youth wing of theBroederbond.

Van Schalkwyk succeededFrederik Willem de Klerk as leader of theNational Party in 1996, and reorganised it on 8 September 1997 as theNew National Party in a bid to distance the party from its apartheid past. He remained the NNP's leader until its dissolution on 9 April 2005. He also served asPremier of the Western Cape andLeader of the Opposition in theParliament of South Africa.

Informally, he was referred to by detractors askortbroek (lit. "shorts"),^[6] a name he earned because of his boyish appearance and lack of political experience when compared to his predecessor,Frederik Willem de Klerk. He was one of the few National Party politicians who remained active in politics after the party's decline.

In August 2004 it was announced that Van Schalkwyk would become a member of the ANC, and that the NNP would be disbanded in 2005 or 2006 at the latest. This decision was finalized on 9 April 2005, when the party's federal committee overwhelmingly endorsed its regional committees' recommendation to disband the party as soon as municipal election results were finalised.

On 29 April 2004 Van Schalkwyk was appointed by PresidentThabo Mbeki asMinister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism for South Africa. He held the position until May 2009, when a newMinistry of Water and Environmental Affairs was created and he becameMinister of Tourism.

Van Schalkwyk became President of theAfrican Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in June 2008, when South Africa assumed the presidency of AMCEN at the beginning of its 12th Session.^[7]

In March 2010, he was nominated by South African PresidentJacob Zuma to succeedYvo de Boer as the Executive Secretary of theUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.^[8] The vote did not go his way and on 17 May 2010 de Boer was succeeded by Costa Rican diplomatChristiana Figueres who had been involved with the Center for Sustainable Development in the Americas since the early 1990s.^[9]

In its annual review of ministerial performance for 2013 theMail & Guardian gave van Schalkwyk a C grade, concluding that "With inadequate political credentials, Marthinus van Schalkwyk has justified his stay in Cabinet long after the demise of his New National Party by actually doing his work. Tourism figures have improved year by year and his department has consistently tried to innovate to attract more visitors ... Van Schalkwyk may not return after elections, but under him tourism has grown into a long-pants department."^[10]

Van Schalkwyk served as South Africa's ambassador to Greece (2015–2019). In April 2019, Marthinus van Schalkwyk transferred from Athens to Australia for the next four years as High Commissioner (Ambassador).^[11]

Van Schalkwyk is married to Suzette Minama Labuschagne and has a son, Christiaan, and a daughter, Maryke.^[12][13]

• Announcement of Van Schalkwyk's cross-over to the ANC