Fholisani Sydney MUFAMADI

Minister of Provincial and Local Government
Member ANC NEC
Member SACP Central Committee and Politburo
Former minister of Safety and Security

Mufamadi must have been one of the activists in mind when the expression about the problem of "wearing too many hats" became popular in the early '90s, at which point he was equally active in the ANC, COSATU and the SACP.

A terrorism trial in which his distant cousin Samson Ndou was one of the accused in the early '60s made an impact on Sydney Mufamadi. Although he was very young, he was aware that Ndou was being harassed because he opposed oppression. Ndou, himself a trade unionist and Congress activist, subsequently became Mufamadi's political mentor.

Born in Alexandra township on February 28 1959, Mufamadi is the eldest of four children. His parents Masindi and Reuben are both pensioners.

Mufamadi was called "Jomo" as a youngster because he was an avid soccer player.

He grew up in Meadowlands and in Tshisahulu (Venda). In Venda he first looked after his grandfather's cattle and then attended school. His father worked in Johannesburg and to pay the school fees his mother used to sell home-brewed beer. Mufamadi remembers being infuriated once when he returned from school to find she had been arrested for selling liquor.

The happiest day of his childhood was getting his Standard 6 results in 1973 and discovering he had a first class pass.

Mufamadi completed his schooling at Khwevha High School in Shayandima (Venda) in 1977.

He had become politically involved in student organisation a year earlier when the students' revolt spread to his area and the students formed the Zoutpansberg Students' Organisation.

His activism never let up from this point.

In 1977 he joined the ANC and the following year became a founder member of AZAPO. He joined the SACP in 1981.

In 1980, while working as a gondola filler for the OK Bazaars, he joined the General and Allied Workers Union, rising to position of general secretary in 1985.

The year 1983 saw him as Transvaal publicity secretary of the UDF and 1985 as assistant general secretary of COSATU. He considers being a founding member of both organisations to be his most significant contributions to date. He has been involved in every major campaign in which the ANC, COSATU and the Party have participated since 1980.

He has been arrested no fewer than seven times, mostly for interrogation purposes. In 1988 Mufamadi was placed under 14 days' house arrest when he was co-ordinator of the Anti-Apartheid Conference which was intended to mobilise and unify the broadest range of forces against the state of emergency and repression in general. In 1991 he received a two-year suspended sentence for kidnapping and assaulting a police officer who was caught snooping around the COSATU offices.

Mufamadi served as the SACP's delegate on the Codesa working group dealing with the future of the TBVC states.

Mufamadi has been greatly inspired by Dolores Ibarruri's autobiography ("They Shall Not Pass"), which incorporates a people's history of Spain.

Mufamadi was appointed Minister of Safety and Security in the government of national unity in 1994, after having served on the sub-council on law and order of the Transitional Executive Council.

He is currently the minister of Provincial and Local Government (since June 1999).