27 Facts About Ebrahim Patel

Ebrahim Patel was born on 10 January 1962 and is a South African politician and former trade unionist who served as the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition from May 2019 to July 2024.

Ebrahim Patel previously served as Minister of Economic Development from 2009 to 2019.

Ebrahim Patel was born on 10 January 1962 in District Six in Cape Town.

Ebrahim Patel grew up in Lansdowne and Grassy Park and was raised by a single mother, who was a garment worker.

Ebrahim Patel became involved in political activism while at high school during the height of apartheid in the 1970s.

Ebrahim Patel continued studying for his bachelor's degree part-time and graduated later from UCT.

In 1986, Ebrahim Patel became a full-time organiser for the National Union of Textile Workers, a large Cosatu affiliate which ultimately became the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union.

Ebrahim Patel deputised Johnny Copelyn as SACTWU's assistant secretary-general until 1993, when he was elected to succeed Copelyn as secretary-general.

Ebrahim Patel was involved in negotiating and drafting several ILO policy documents.

Ebrahim Patel was Minister of Economic Development throughout Zuma's two terms as president, and he was retained in the cabinet of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who replaced Zuma in February 2018.

In December 2011, Ebrahim Patel's deputy, former trade unionist Enoch Godongwana, resigned from the ministry amid the scandal surrounding an inquiry into the liquidation of Canyon Springs, a private investment company that was half-owned by Godongwana's family trust and of which Godongwana was a former director.

However, Ebrahim Patel spoke out against the "high levels of corruption in our ranks" as early as May 2016.

Ebrahim Patel's ministry was among the first to take action to review Gupta-associated projects.

In November 2017, Ebrahim Patel told Parliament that his ministry intended to sue Oakbay Resources and Energy, a Gupta-linked firm, to recover an amount of R293 million loaned to Oakbay by the Industrial Development Corporation in earlier years.

In November 2010, in the wake of a global economic crisis, Ebrahim Patel published the New Growth Path, a policy framework which set out an expanded role for the state in job creation.

In line with the New Growth Path, Ebrahim Patel led discussions between government and social partners that led to five different "social accords", including agreements on skills development and the development of a green economy.

Ebrahim Patel told the National Council of Provinces that all government departments regarded 2011 as "a year of job creation".

Ebrahim Patel represented South Africa at BRICS summits and at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and he chaired the preparatory committee for South Africa's inaugural Presidential Investment Conference in October 2018.

Ebrahim Patel oversaw the establishment of the IDC's Small Enterprise Finance Agency in 2012.

In 2017, Ebrahim Patel's ministry published the draft Competition Amendment Bill, which passed in 2018 and effected a range of changes to competition law in South Africa.

Ebrahim Patel said that the overwhelming objective of the legislation was to promote economic inclusion by mitigating market concentration and rectifying racial inequalities of ownership.

The clause was rarely applied until 2011, when Ebrahim Patel used it to intervene in Walmart's multi-billion-rand bid to acquire Massmart.

Ebrahim Patel later denied that he used competition policy to justify state intervention in the economy, saying:.

When President Ramaphosa announced his second cabinet on 29 May 2019, Ebrahim Patel was appointed as Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, with Fikile Majola and Nomalungelo Gina as his deputies.

Ebrahim Patel was initially appointed to the cabinet from outside Parliament, because, ranked 137th on the party list, he lost his parliamentary seat in the May 2019 general election.

Ebrahim Patel has said that he supports state intervention in the economy when it creates a better "social outcome", and that in general he favours Mariana Mazzucato's notion of an entrepreneurial state.

Ebrahim Patel is known as a supporter of worker representation in shareholding and management.