Deputy Minister Fikile Majola

Mr Fikile Majola currently serves as the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry (the dti), the Republic of South Africa following his appointment on 29 May 2019.

He is a member of the 6th Parliament as a representative of the African National Congress (ANC). He also served as a member of the 5th Parliament and during this period he served as the Chairperson of the portfolio committee on Energy until 2019.

He actively participated in many structures of the liberation movement during apartheid, such as the Vaal Youth Congress (VAYCO), South African Youth Congress (SAYCO), Southern Transvaal Youth Congress (STYCO), and the United Democratic Front in the Vaal after the formation of the UDF in 1983.

Deputy Minister Majola joined the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU), as its organiser in the Vaal Branch in September 1989 and was elected Regional Secretary of NEHAWU Western Transvaal in 1992. He was seconded to NEHAWU Head Office in 1993 to work in its Secretariat Office then later became the Acting Assistant General Secretary in 1994 and was eventually elected permanently to the position in 1995. Majola became the General Secretary of NEHAWU in 1998 and was re-elected to this position in 2001, 2004, 2007 and again in 2010. He served in this capacity until 2014 and remains the longest-serving General Secretary in the history of the union.

Majola has also served as a Central Executive Committee (CEC) member of COSATU from 1995 until 2014 as well as being a titular for Africa of Public Services International, International Federation of Public Services Union. In March 2011 he chaired the Ministerial Task Team on SETA Performance. Its mandate was to assess and make recommendations on SETAs’ performance, governance structures and operational processes.

Majola continues to be an active member of the ANC and South African Communist Party (SACP) and he currently serves as a member of the Central Committee and Politburo of the SACP. At the beginning of 2019, he was appointed as the Convener of the ANC’s Sedibeng Regional Task Team in Gauteng.

Deputy Minister Majola obtained his Honours in Public Administration from the University of Western Cape.