Inside Luthuli House
An introduction to the ANC leadership
President Jacob Zuma
Jacob Zuma was born in 1942 in Inkandla, KwaZulu-Natal. Influenced by a trade unionist family member, he became
involved in politics at an early age, joining the ANC in 1959. He became an active member of Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1962,
following the banning of the ANC in 1960. While on his way out of the country in 1963, he was arrested with a group of 45
recruits near Zeerust and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment on Robben Island. After his release, Zuma helped mobilise
internal resistance and was instrumental in the re-establishment of ANC underground structures in the then Natal between
1973 and 1975. He left South Africa in 1975 and became a member of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) in
1977. By the end of the 1980s he was Head of the ANC Intelligence Department. Following the unbanning of the ANC in
February 1990, he was one of the first ANC leaders to return to South Africa to begin the process of negotiations. In 1991,
at the first ANC conference held in South Africa since 1959, he was elected the Deputy Secretary General. After the 1994 elections, Zuma
was appointed MEC of Economic Affairs and Tourism in KwaZulu-Natal. In December 1994, he was elected ANC National Chairperson. He was
elected ANC Deputy President in December 1997. He served as Deputy President of South Africa from 1999 to 2005. He was elected ANC
President in December 2007. He was sworn in as the fourth President of a democratic South Africa on 9 May 2009.
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe
Kgalema Motlanthe was born in 1949. At school he was influenced by the ideologies of the Black Consciousness Movement
and Steve Biko. In 1976 he was detained for 11 months for furthering the aims of the ANC. He was again arrested in 1977 and
sentenced to 10 years on Robben Island. After his release in 1987 he served as an organiser and later as General Secretary of
the National Union of Mineworkers. He was elected ANC Secretary General at its Mafikeng conference in 1997, and ANC Deputy
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President at its Polokwane conference in 2007. In July 2008 he was appointed Minister in the Presidency. From September 2008 to N
May 2009 he served as President of South Africa. He is currently the Deputy President of South Africa.
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National Chairperson Baleka Mbete
Baleka Mbete was born in Durban in 1949. In 1974 she joined the KwaMashu Youth Organisation, a NAYO affiliate.
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She taught English and Afrikaans at Isibonelo High in 1974 and 1975 and was picked up by the police a number of times in
1975 and 1976. She joined the ANC in May 1976 and went into exile. She worked in the ANC’s Department of Information and
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Publicity and the ANC Women’s Section. After the unbanning of the ANC, from 1991 to 1993, she was Secretary General of the
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ANC Women’s League. She was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee in 1994. She served as Deputy Speaker of
the National Assembly in the first democratic parliament in 1996 and became Speaker in 2004. She was elected ANC National
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Chairperson in December 2007. She served as Deputy President of South Africa from September 2008 to May 2009.
Secretary General Gwede Mantashe
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Gwede Mantashe was born in the rural Transkei. He joined the National Union of Mineworkers while working at Matla Coal
in 1982. From 1985 to 1988 he was NUM Regional Secretary in Witbank, and then served as the union’s National Organiser
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until 1993. From 1994 to 1998 he was Assistant General Secretary, becoming General Secretary in 1998. He stepped down
from this position in May 2006, and was appointed an Executive Director at the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
In 2007 he was elected Chairperson of the South African Communist Party, and was elected ANC Secretary General in
December 2007.
Deputy Secretary General Thandi Modise
Thandi Modise was born on Christmas Day in 1959 in Huhudi township near Vryburg. In 1976 she slipped over the border into
Botswana and was later transferred to Angola where she received training at Nova-Katenga and Funda camps. In 1978 she returned
to South Africa and was arrested in 1979. She was released in 1988. Modise served on the ANC Women’s League National Executive
Committee from 1991 until 1993, when she was elected the league’s Deputy President. She was chair of the Portfolio Committee on
Defence and the Joint Standing Committee on Defence in Parliament from 1998 to 2004. She then served as Speaker in the North West
Provincial Legislature. She was elected ANC Deputy Secretary General in December 2007.
Treasurer General Mathews Phosa
Mathews Phosa was born in 1952 in Mbombela township, Nelspruit. Having matriculated with a distinction in agricultural science,
Phosa studied law at the then University of the North. He graduated, completed his articles and started a legal firm. He was a
leader in the campaigns to resist the incorporation of KaNgwane into Swaziland. He also led the rent boycotts in the Eastern
Transvaal. It was during this time, in the early 1980s, that he joined Umkhonto we Sizwe and the ANC underground. Phosa
underwent political and military training in the former East Germany, from where he became the Regional Commander for MK in
Mozambique. Phosa returned from exile in 1990, one of the first ANC members to return to begin the pre-negotiations talks with
the government. He headed the legal section of the ANC’s Department of Constitutional and Legal Affairs. Following the 1994
elections, Phosa became the first Premier of Mpumalanga. In business since 1999, he has served in the Chambers of Commerce and Industry
South Africa, the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut and Business Unity South Africa. He is chair of the council of UNISA. He was elected ANC Treasurer
General in December 2007.
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