John Solane Absolom Mavuso was a South African politician who served as Minister for General Services in Nelson Mandela's Government of National Unity between March and June 1996.
15 Facts About John Mavuso
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However, in the 1950s, Mavuso was a Treason Triallist and a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress.
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John Mavuso was born in 1926 in Ermelo in the former Eastern Transvaal, now Mpumalanga Province.
4.
John Mavuso joined the African National Congress in 1948, the year that the National Party came to power with a mandate to implement apartheid, and he was active in the ANC's Alexandra branch while working as a messenger and shopkeeper in Johannesburg.
5.
John Mavuso was a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee from 1955 to 1956.
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John Mavuso was banned several times under the Suppression of Communism Act and in December 1956 he was arrested in Johannesburg and charged with treason as one of 156 accused in the Treason Trial.
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The ANC was banned by the government in 1960 but John Mavuso continued to work for the organisation underground.
8.
John Mavuso joined Inkatha for a period before joining the NP in 1993.
9.
John Mavuso was not initially elected to Parliament in South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994, but he joined during the legislative term: in February 1996, the NP nominated him for appointment as a minister in the Government of National Unity, President Nelson Mandela's transitional power-sharing cabinet.
10.
John Mavuso was named as Minister for General Services, a new ministry without portfolio that would perform special tasks assigned by the cabinet, and he took office at the end of March 1996.
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John Mavuso was the first black NP politician to serve in the cabinet and his appointment was viewed as part of the NP's campaign to broaden its appeal to non-white voters.
12.
In May 1996, weeks after John Mavuso took office, de Klerk announced that the NP and its members would be withdrawing from all posts in the cabinet on 30 June.
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John Mavuso was viewed as solidly in the moderate camp of the NP and he was involved in campaigning for the Democratic Alliance when the NP joined the alliance in 2000.
14.
John Mavuso married his first wife Sonto Sybil John Mavuso.
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John Mavuso was married and had four children and several grandchildren.