Zola Skweyiya

He was born in Simon's Town, Western Cape in 1942. He is the young brother of Thembile Skweyiya. He completed high school in Alice at the Lovedale College.[1]^:19 His political activity began then when he involved himself in protest against changes to Bantu Education.[1]^:19 After high school he attended Fort Hare University and became active with the ANC.[1]^:19 When the ANC declared the beginnings of the armed struggle in 1961, he became part of its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK).[1]^:19 He left South Africa in 1963, joining the ANC in exile in Tanzania and Zambia.[1]^:19 He furthered his education in East Germany from 1969 where he studied law and obtained a PHD ten years later.[1]^:19

Until 1985, he was the ANC's representative at the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) before being recalled to Lusaka to set up the ANC's Legal and Constitutional Department.[1]^:19 In 1986, he was deputy chair of the ANC's constitutional committee with members such as Jack Simons, Kader Asmal and Albie Sachs.[1]^:19 This committee would develop the ANC constitutional guidelines that would eventually be used after the ANC's unbanning in 1990, during negotiations that would lead to the first elections in which citizens of all races voted in 1994 and a South African Constitution.[1]^:19 During 1986 until 1988 he attempted to investigate the conditions of detention of ANC members by the ANC security wing of the Department of National Intelligence and Security.[1]^:19

Since his return from exile in 1990, he has directed the Department of Legal and Constitutional Affairs. He has helped to set up the Centre for Development Studies and the South African Legal Defence Fund, both at the University of the Western Cape.[1]^:19 Skweyiya also served on the board of trustees of the National Commission for the Rights of Children. He was also elected as president of UNESCO's Management of Social Transformations.

Skweyiya was first elected to Parliament in 1994, and he joined the Cabinet as Minister of Public Service and Administration in the same year. He was moved to the position of Minister of Social Development under President Thabo Mbeki in 1999. After 15 years in the Cabinet and Parliament, his retirement from both was announced on 6 May 2009, following the April 2009 general election. As a result, he was not sworn in for the new parliamentary term. He did not leave politics altogether, however; he remained a member of the ANC National Executive Committee[2] and on 7 May 2009 the party announced that he would have a new post working at the ANC Presidency. According to ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe, Skweyiya voluntarily chose to leave parliamentary politics, "contrary to current speculative and surreptitious commentary". He praised Skweyiya's "immense skill and expertise" and said that the ANC still wanted to make use of his abilities.[3]

He was appointed by President Jacob Zuma as the South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in September 2009.[4]

Skweyiya died at a Pretoria hospital on 11 April 2018 at the age of 75.[5] He leaves behind his second wife, Thuthukile and two stepchildren, and a son from his first marriage.[1]^:19

• Profile at anc.org.za