25 Facts About Barbara Creecy

Barbara Dallas Creecy was born on 17 June 1958 and is a South African politician and former anti-apartheid activist who has been the Minister of Transport since July 2024.

Barbara Creecy was formerly the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries between 2019 and 2024.

Barbara Creecy is a member of the National Executive Committee and National Working Committee of the African National Congress.

Barbara Creecy joined the National Assembly of South Africa in the May 2019 general election and thereafter was appointed to the cabinet by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Barbara Creecy had been a member of the Communist Party and a pacifist conscientious objector during World War II; her mother, the daughter of two trade unionists, was politically progressive.

Barbara Creecy graduated with an Honours degree in political science, and she later completed a Master's degree in public policy and management at the University of London.

Barbara Creecy became involved in the anti-apartheid movement as a student politician, and she joined the banned African National Congress in her final year of university, 1979, after attending a conference at Roma University in Lesotho.

Barbara Creecy became increasingly involved in activism while working with human rights lawyer Priscilla Jana, and she was a founding member of the United Democratic Front in 1983.

Barbara Creecy worked with the ANC underground, reporting to its machinery in Botswana.

Barbara Creecy was briefly exiled in 1988 and spent two months in the Soviet Union.

In South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in April 1994, Barbara Creecy was elected to represent the ANC in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.

Barbara Creecy retained her seat for the next 25 years, gaining re-election to five consecutive terms and becoming one of the longest-serving members of the legislature.

Barbara Creecy served a full five years in the sports portfolio, retained in that post after Paul Mashatile succeeded Shilowa as Premier in 2008.

The SSIP won a United Nations Public Service Award in the Improving the Delivery of Public Service category, and Barbara Creecy credited it for Gauteng's record-breaking matric pass rate in the 2013 school year.

Barbara Creecy was the first woman to hold the office.

In 2018 Ferial Haffajee congratulated Barbara Creecy for having "cleaned up" the department and "run an efficient and innovative provincial treasury".

Barbara Creecy was elected to the party's 20-member National Working Committee.

Barbara Creecy held the environment portfolio for five years and her tenure was generally regarded as a moderate success.

In March 2022, environmental activists succeeded in obtaining a court order instructing Barbara Creecy to implement the Highveld Priority Area Air Quality Management Plan for air pollution in the Transvaal coal belt.

Barbara Creecy's supporters argued that the scope for environmental reforms was limited, given the political clout of the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy under Gwede Mantashe.

Barbara Creecy was embroiled in a long-running dispute with the commercial wildlife breeding industry; she reportedly blocked a proposed 2020 amendment to the Meat Safety Act that would have allowed the commercial sale of lion meat, and she introduced a sweeping new policy on biodiversity.

The ANC's 55th National Conference was held in December 2022, and Barbara Creecy was re-elected to the National Executive Committee; she received 1,242 votes across roughly 4,000 ballots, making her the 48th-most popular member of the committee.

Barbara Creecy was re-elected to the National Working Committee; she received the support of 54 of the National Executive's 80 members, making her the second-most popular candidate behind Mmamoloko Kubayi.

Barbara Creecy was re-elected to the National Assembly in the May 2024 general election.

Barbara Creecy said that her initial priority would be stabilising the Department of Transport and its governance.