Past NUM GSs’ Rise High in Leadership of African National Congress

Two former General Secretaries of ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa won major leadership posts in the country’s ruling political party, the ANC. At the Polokwane conference of the ANC in December, Gwede Mantashe won a landslide vote as Secretary-General of ANC, the key day-to-day leadership position at ANC’s Luthuli House, while Kgalema Motlanthe won the position of Deputy President, second only to newly-elected ANC President Jacob Zuma.

Mantashe served as General Secretary of the NUM from 1998 to 2006, while Motlanthe preceded Mantashe at NUM in the 1990s before become Secretary-General himself of the 670,000-member ANC, late in 1997.

The ANC elected Zuma, Motlanthe, Mantashe, three other elected officers, and a 60-member National Executive Committee at its meetings in Polokwane. The ICEM applauds the NUM for producing social leaders that will now leave positive marks on the lives of all South Africans. The ICEM also believes the trade union backgrounds of the new leaders will serve the ANC well in the imminent healing that will occur within South Africa’s leading party.