Gail Denise Parker is a South African politician and public servant who represented the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

(ANC) in the

Northern Cape Provincial Legislature The Northern Cape Provincial Legislature is the legislature of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is a unicameral body of 30 members elected every five years. The current legislature was elected on 8 May 2019 and has an African Natio ...

from 2014 to 2019. During that time, she served briefly as the Northern Cape's

Member of the Executive Council In South Africa, the Executive Council of a province is the cabinet of the provincial government. The Executive Council consists of the Premier and five to ten other members,'' Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996'', Chapter 6: "P ...

(MEC) for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism from May to June 2017: she was appointed in a controversial cabinet reshuffle which the ANC later obliged Premier Sylvia Lucas to reverse. Parker trained as a teacher and entered politics through the South African Democratic Teachers Union.

Early life and education

Parker was the second of three siblings – she has two brothers – and as an infant was raised in Greenpoint,

Khayelitsha Khayelitsha () is a township in Western Cape, South Africa, on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. The name is Xhosa for ''New Home''. It is reputed to be the largest

by her grandparents. At the age of four, she moved to

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, where her parents lived and worked. She grew up on the

Cape Flats The Cape Flats ( af, Die Kaapse Vlakte) is an expansive, low-lying, flat area situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town. The Cape Flats is also the name of an administrative region of the City of Cape Town, which lie ...

and completed a bachelor's degree from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

. Much later in life, she also completed a doctorate in business leadership and management. After graduating from the University of Cape Town, aged 21, she moved to present-day Northern Cape, where her parents were from, to begin a teaching job in

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals * Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking *Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...

. She was active in the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) and served as a Sadtu branch secretary. In 1991, she moved to Kimberley to work in the education portfolio at Sadtu's provincial headquarters.

Provincial legislature

In the 2014 general election, Parker was elected to represent the ANC in the

; she was ranked eighth on the ANC's provincial party list. She served a single five-year term in the seat. In the middle of the term, on 10 May 2017, Sylvia Lucas, then the Premier of the Northern Cape, announced a controversial cabinet reshuffle which saw Parker join the Northern Cape Executive Council as MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, replacing

Mac Jack McCollen Ntsikelelo Jack (8 March 196512 August 2020), known as Mac Jack, was a South African educator and politician. A member of the African National Congress, Jack was appointed to the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature in June 2013. He se ...

. Transport MEC Pauline Williams was replaced by Alexandra Beukes in the same reshuffle. The Northern Cape branch of the ANC said that it had not been consulted about the reshuffle and responded with "absolute disgust", calling the reshuffle "grossly irresponsible, reckless and self-serving" and alleging that it constituted an attempt by Lucas to influence the outcomes of a party elective conference scheduled for the next weekend. The provincial party called for Lucas to reverse the reshuffle and the ANC

National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties: * National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa * Australian Labor Party National Executive * Nationa ...

ultimately intervened to instruct her to do so, agreeing that there had been insufficient consultation with the party. On 1 June, Lucas announced that she would comply, meaning that Parker lost her new position. Parker did not seek re-election to the provincial legislature in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, but instead became the technical adviser to the Northern Cape MEC for Transport, Safety and Liaison. She remained in that position as of early 2021.

Personal life

Parker has two sons.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Gail African National Congress politicians Living people Members of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature Year of birth missing (living people) University of Cape Town alumni 21st-century South African politicians 21st-century South African women politicians Politicians from Cape Town