Gwede Mantashe

Gwede Mantashe ( born June 21, 1955 in Lower Cala, Eastern Cape) is a South African politician and trade unionist.

Mantashe worked for a coal company and joined the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), whose chairman he was in the area of ​​Witbank 1982-1984. In 1985 he was in 1988 elected regional secretary of the union to the national organization leader. Between 1994 and 1998 he served first as Deputy Secretary-General of the NUM, then as general secretary until 2006. At the same time he studied at the University of South Africa, where he in 1997 with a Bachelor of Commerce and in 2002 a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours ) made ​​. In 2007 he became chairman of the South African Communist Party ( SACP ) and Secretary General of the African National Congress. In this role, he is also a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Congress of South African Trade Unions ( COSATU ). Apart from his party posts Mantashe is a Director of Samancor, a mining company.

1995 Mantashe was elected as the first trade unionist to the Supervisory Board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange; He held this position until today.