Mbhazima SHILOWA

Personal

• Date of Birth: 30 April 1958
• Marital Status: Married

Current Positions

Premier of Gauteng Province since 15 June 1999.

Academic Qualifications

Khamanyani Lower Primary School, Muhunguti Higher Primary School , Kulani Higher Primary School and Akani High School.

Career/Positions/Memberships/Other Activities

• Moved to Johannesburg to seek employment (1979).
• Worked at John Weinberg Hardware in Germiston, Anglo Alpha Cement in Roodepoort and PSG Services in Johannesburg.
• Joined the trade union movement (1981).
• Became Shop Steward, thereafter Deputy Chairperson of Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU) Gauteng (formerly Wits region).
• Vice-President and later President of the Transport and General Workers Union.
• Deputy Secretary-General of COSATU (1991) and General-Secretary (1993).
• As General-Secretary of Cosatu, Shilowa played a key role in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC), engaging extensively with both government and business in determining strategies and practical options for developing South Africa. Prior to that was extensively engaged with the business community in the Consultative Business Movement and SACOLLA as part of an effort to stabilise industrial relations.
• Played a key role in the Mass Democratic Movement prior to the unbanning of the ANC. After 1990 he was part of the Interim Leadership Group in Gauteng that helped establish the first legal organisational structures of the Alliance.
• Member of Central Committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP) since 1991.
• Member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) since 1997.
• Deputy Chairperson of the federation's Gauteng Region.
• Was involved in the Multiparty negotiations process which led to the writing of South Africa's democratic constitution.
• Was part of the ANC's negotiating team at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA).