
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).