Zou Kota-Fredericks

Ms Zou Kota-Fredericks is Deputy Minister of Human Settlements from 2009. She has been a Member of Parliament since 1994.Ms Kota-Fredericks studied Social Work at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) where she also obtained the Baccalaurelis Economicae (Honours), and an Advanced Diploma in Economic Policy. Her qualifications also include certificates in Economics and Public Finance from UNISA; Project Management from the University of Stellenbosch and the Senior Executive Programme for Southern Africa from Wits and Harvard Business Schools. She Matriculated from Langa High School.

She became involved in politics during the 1976 student riots at Langa High School in Cape Town becoming an active member of numerous organisations including the Ikhwezi Community Centre in Gugulethu; Young Christian Workers; AZASO; COSAS and the Cape Youth Congress. She also served as the first secretary of the United Women’s Organisation and a Student Representative in the Island of Youth in Cuba.

Deputy Minister Kota-Fredericks was also a Publicity Secretary for the United Democratic Front in the Western Cape, leading to her detention under the apartheid government’s notorious Section 29. She left the country to join the ANC’s Umkhonto we Sizwe in Lesotho and also received military training in Angola and the Soviet Union. During the transitional negotiations at CODESA, she was one of the delegates of the Gender Advisory Committee (GAC). She later became a Provincial Chairperson of the ANC Women?s League in the Western Cape and represented the Women’s League at the Progressive Women’s Movement.

Deputy Minister Kota-Fredericks has been a member of the ANC Provincial Executive Committee since 1992. She was deployed to Parliament after the 1994 general elections where she served on the Defence Portfolio Committee, Joint Standing Committee on Defence, and Sport and Recreation Portfolio Committee. She was a Whip of the Defence Portfolio Committee, served on an Ad-hoc Committee to select Gender Commissioners, Ad-hoc Committee that formulated the legislation on the National Youth Commission and the selection of Youth Commissioners.