Elias Khabisi Mosunkutu was a South African politician who served in the Gauteng Executive Council from 1999 to 2010 and in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature from 1995 to 2011.
16 Facts About Khabisi Mosunkutu
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Khabisi Mosunkutu was a member of the African National Congress.
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Khabisi Mosunkutu was Member of the Executive Council for Transport and Public Works under Premier Mbhazima Shilowa from 1999 to 2004; MEC for Agriculture, Conservation and the Environment from under Shilowa and his successor, Paul Mashatile, from 2004 to 2009; and MEC for Community Safety under Nomvula Mokonyane from 2009 to 2010.
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Khabisi Mosunkutu was fired by Mokonyane in November 2010 and resigned from the provincial legislature in July 2011.
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Khabisi Mosunkutu was born on 11 October 1950 and grew up in Pimville, Soweto in the former Transvaal, now part of Gauteng province.
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Khabisi Mosunkutu matriculated at Musi High School and qualified as a telecommunications technician through the state technical college at the Department of Post and Telecommunications, where he went on to work.
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Khabisi Mosunkutu was a founding member and inaugural secretary-general of the Post and Telecommunication Workers' Association, the first trade union established to represent the department's employees.
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Khabisi Mosunkutu subsequently served several terms, until 1994, as president of POTWA, which affiliated to the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
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Khabisi Mosunkutu was active in other anti-apartheid organisations, including the Soweto Civic Association, the United Democratic Front, and the internal underground of the African National Congress and its military wing, Umkhonto weSizwe.
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From 1994 to 1995, Khabisi Mosunkutu represented the ANC in the first post-apartheid Parliament of South Africa.
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Khabisi Mosunkutu left his seat in 1995 to join the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.
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Khabisi Mosunkutu was first appointed to the Gauteng Executive Council in June 1999, after his re-election to the provincial legislature in the 1999 general election; Mbhazima Shilowa, then the Premier of Gauteng, appointed him Member of the Executive Council for Transport and Public Works.
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In that portfolio, which he retained until the 2004 general election, Khabisi Mosunkutu was known for his role in mediating the ongoing violence in the taxi industry; Mosunkuntu's hard-nosed strategy was to shut down any taxi rank affected by violence.
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From April 2004 to May 2009, during Shilowa's second term and then during Paul Mashatile's brief tenure as Premier, Khabisi Mosunkutu served as MEC for Agriculture, Conservation and the Environment.
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However, on 2 November 2010, Mokonyane announced a major cabinet reshuffle in which Khabisi Mosunkutu was fired and replaced by Faith Mazibuko.
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Khabisi Mosunkutu retained his seat as an ordinary Member of the Provincial Legislature until July 2011, when he announced that he had resigned to attend to personal issues and "other matters".