72 Facts About Gwede Mantashe

Samson Gwede Mantashe was born on 21 June 1955 and is a South African politician and former trade unionist who is currently serving as the Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources.

Gwede Mantashe has been responsible for the mineral resources portfolio since February 2018, formerly as Minister of Mineral Resources from February 2018 to May 2019 and then as Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy from May 2019 to June 2024.

Gwede Mantashe is serving his second term as the national chairperson of the African National Congress.

Gwede Mantashe rose through the union's ranks, becoming a full-time organiser in 1988 and then deputising Kgalema Motlanthe as the NUM's assistant general secretary from 1994 to 1998.

Gwede Mantashe succeeded Motlanthe as general secretary from 1998 to 2006.

Gwede Mantashe served concurrently as national chairperson of the SACP from 2007 to 2012.

Gwede Mantashe's public-facing work as minister has been dominated by the ongoing energy crisis in South Africa and by proposals for a so-called just energy transition.

In that context, Gwede Mantashe has been criticised for his overt interest in coal, natural gas, and powerships, arguably at the expense of investment in renewable energy sources.

Gwede Mantashe was elected to a second term as ANC national chairperson in December 2022, by then an important political ally of President Ramaphosa, and he remains a member of the SACP Central Committee.

Gwede Mantashe was born on 21 June 1955 in Lower Cala, a village in the Transkei region of the former Cape Province.

Gwede Mantashe attended Matanzima High School in Cala, where his classmate Enoch Godongwana said he was "a noisemaker, even then".

Gwede Mantashe became politically active in his youth as an activist in the Student Christian Movement.

Gwede Mantashe attended university after the end of apartheid, completing a Bachelor of Commerce in 1997 and an Honours in 2002, both at the University of South Africa.

For 13 years, Gwede Mantashe worked above-ground in mining in the Cape Province and Transvaal, beginning in 1975 with a brief stint as a recreation officer at Western Deep Levels, an Anglo American gold mine in Carletonville, Transvaal.

Gwede Mantashe was chairperson of the Witbank branch from 1982 to 1984, and in 1985 he was elected as regional secretary.

In Botiveau's assessment, Gwede Mantashe made the NUM "more organised and disciplined than it had ever been" and "turned it into a powerful machine".

Gwede Mantashe had been a member of the SACP Central Committee and Politburo since 1995.

Gwede Mantashe was a member of the ANC, Cosatu's other Tripartite Alliance partner.

Gwede Mantashe stepped down from the NUM leadership at the union's 12th national conference in May 2006.

Gwede Mantashe was succeeded by Frans Baleni, who was viewed as his protege.

Gwede Mantashe served under general secretary Blade Nzimande, with Ncumisa Kondlo as his deputy.

At the ANC's 52nd National Conference, held in December 2007 in Polokwane, Gwede Mantashe was elected as ANC secretary-general.

Gwede Mantashe succeeded Kgalema Motlanthe, who was his predecessor at the NUM.

Gwede Mantashe had stood on a slate of candidates aligned to successful presidential candidate Jacob Zuma; their slate had been endorsed by Cosatu and by the ANC Youth League.

The opposing candidate, Mosiuoa Lekota, stood on a slate aligned to outgoing president Thabo Mbeki; Gwede Mantashe received 2,378 votes to Lekota's 1,432.

In September 2008, it was Gwede Mantashe who announced that the ANC National Executive Committee had decided to "recall" Mbeki from his office as President of South Africa.

Gwede Mantashe was re-elected to a second term at the 53rd National Conference in Mangaung in December 2012.

In tandem with his ANC responsibilities, Gwede Mantashe served the remainder of his five-year term as SACP national chairperson, although his dual roles sometimes caused tensions in the Tripartite Alliance.

In December 2009, supporters of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema called for Gwede Mantashe to choose between the two positions after Malema and Tony Yengeni were booed at an SACP gathering in Polokwane.

The ANC Youth League accused Gwede Mantashe of failing to defend Malema, as they argued the ANC secretary-general should, because his dual roles gave rise to a conflict of interest.

Irvin Jim of the National Union of Metalworkers defended Gwede Mantashe, saying that Malema had taken an "anti-Cosatu and anti-SACP posture, a stance that is unprovoked" and that "Gwede Mantashe is being singled out and targeted because he is a communist".

At the next SACP congress, held at the University of Zululand in July 2012, Gwede Mantashe declined a nomination to stand for re-election as chairperson.

Gwede Mantashe was re-elected to the Central Committee at the next congress in 2017, though from 2017 onwards he dropped off the party's politburo.

Gwede Mantashe's tenure lasted throughout Zuma's two terms in the national presidency, which were marred by allegations that his administration had been captured by business interests.

Gwede Mantashe's critics alleged that he was a key figure in the ANC's efforts to shield Zuma from accountability.

In 2013, for example, after the notorious Waterkloof Air Base landing, Gwede Mantashe maintained that the nature of Zuma's relationship with the Gupta family was not ANC business.

Former ANC MP Makhosi Khoza later said that Gwede Mantashe had told the party's representatives to ignore the Constitutional Court's advice and that, in Khoza's summation, "anyone who sought to uphold the rule of law will be severely punished".

Indeed, Gwede Mantashe openly warned in 2017 that ANC MPs who voted in favour of motions of no confidence risked disciplinary action, including dismissal; he said that the ANC did not subscribe to the notion of conscience votes in such matters.

Gwede Mantashe continued to defend this view years later, telling the Zondo Commission, a public inquiry into state capture, that party discipline on such matters was essential to ensuring the stability of the ANC and therefore the stability of the government and country.

Gwede Mantashe argued that allowing the party's own representatives to vote against their leader would lead to serious division and political crisis, and would therefore be tantamount to cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Gwede Mantashe said that the ANC allowed conscience votes on other issues, but:.

Gwede Mantashe defended the ANC's practice of cadre deployment, which some critics blamed for facilitating state capture; among other things, Mantashe argued that cadre deployment was a necessary means to transforming the apartheid-era civil service that the ANC had inherited.

Gwede Mantashe was open in admitting that Zuma faced internal dissent and in speculating that he could be removed from the national presidency after he was succeeded as ANC president.

Gwede Mantashe told international press that revelations of state capture, involving ANC politicians, were damaging the party's reputation, and he called for the establishment of a judicial inquiry into the allegations at a time when Zuma was resisting such calls.

Gwede Mantashe later said that he and other ANC leaders had first become concerned about the Gupta family's influence after the Waterkloof landing in 2013.

Gordhan was sacked in another controversial reshuffle in October 2017, and News24's sources said that Gwede Mantashe had been among the party leaders who had attempted to persuade Zuma to retain Gordhan.

Gwede Mantashe confirmed that he had disagreed with Zuma, saying that "for the first time", Zuma had had to invoke his constitutional prerogative as national president to overrule the ANC on the composition of the cabinet.

Yet when Zuma sacked Blade Nzimande of the SACP from the cabinet in October 2017, Gwede Mantashe was again publicly critical: he said that the party had not been consulted, called the decision a "pity", and warned that frequent reshuffles could destabilise the government.

At the ANC's 54th National Conference in December 2017, Gwede Mantashe did not stand for re-election as secretary-general but instead was elected as the ANC's national chairperson.

Gwede Mantashe beat Nathi Mthethwa in a vote, receiving 2,418 votes against Mthethwa's 2,269.

For some time before the election, Gwede Mantashe was viewed as broadly aligned to the winning presidential candidate, NUM founder and deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, who had publicly announced that Gwede Mantashe was his preferred candidate for the chairmanship.

In turn, Gwede Mantashe had endorsed Ramaphosa's presidential run, to the consternation of Ramaphosa's opponents in the ANC leadership; he argued that the ANC had a tradition of leadership succession by the deputy president, which he said should be maintained in the interest of stability.

Gwede Mantashe Tweeted lightheartedly that, having vacated the full-time ANC secretariat, he was "unemployed" and looking for a job.

Gwede Mantashe said at a political rally in Butterworth, "When you resist the call to resign you leave us no choice but to let you fry in the vote of no-confidence motion because it means you do not respect the organisation [the ANC]".

Gwede Mantashe was named to replace Mosebenzi Zwane as Minister of Mineral Resources.

Gwede Mantashe was one of two ministers appointed from outside Parliament, until he was elected to a seat in the National Assembly in the May 2019 general election.

Gwede Mantashe took office as Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy amid a decades-long energy crisis in South Africa, caused by a shortfall in electricity generation capacity.

Gwede Mantashe linked his support for the coal sector to the notion of the so-called just energy transition, the outcome of which would be socially equitable as well as environmentally sustainable, as envisaged in the National Development Plan.

Gwede Mantashe argued that South Africa had abundant coal resources, that the coal sector contributed to the South African economy and black entrepreneurship, and that decommissioning coal power plants too hastily would harm the livelihoods of coal-mining communities and exacerbate the shortage of energy generation capacity.

Gwede Mantashe's critics alleged that he obstructed the approval of new energy generation projects, thus delaying the energy transition and the resolution of the electricity crisis.

Gwede Mantashe was unpopular with environmental activists for his defence of Shell's right to conduct gas exploration off the Wild Coast, as well as for his proposal to procure powerships at the country's major ports.

On 1 March 2022, the Zondo Commission published the installment of its report on Bosasa, which included the recommendation that Gwede Mantashe should be investigated for criminal corruption.

In testimony to the inquiry, Gwede Mantashe had confirmed that the security installations were made for free, but denied that there was anything untoward in the arrangement, saying, among other things, that he was "not amenable to bribes".

The day after the report was published, Gwede Mantashe said that he would not step aside unless and until "there has been an investigation and a case to answer".

Gwede Mantashe continued to deny wrongdoing and said that he would take the report on judicial review.

Gwede Mantashe was re-elected to the SACP Central Committee in July 2022, though, the following month, he lamented the weakness of the Tripartite Alliance after he was heckled while trying to address Cosatu's national congress.

Gwede Mantashe's re-election was hotly contested by Stan Mathabatha and David Masondo, but he won narrowly, receiving 2,062 votes against Mathabatha's 2,018 and Masondo's 282.

However, by mid-2023, observers including Max du Preez suspected that Gwede Mantashe might have his own presidential ambitions.

Gwede Mantashe warned that the US would "cut off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed".

Gwede Mantashe replied that he could bar the export of minerals to the US in a speech at the 31st Investing in African Mining conference.

Gwede Mantashe's call to other African nations would sink the US critical materials strategy.

Gwede Mantashe is married to Nolwandle Mantashe, who is a nurse.