Alina Rantsolase

Alina Machejane Rantsolase (15 March 1954 – November 2010) was a South African politician and trade unionist who served as the treasurer of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) from 1999 to 2009. She left her union office in 2009 to represent the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly, where she chaired the ANC's caucus until her death in November 2010.

Rantsolase rose through the ranks of the union movement after joining the Commercial Catering and Allied Workers' Union (CCAWUSA, later SACCAWU) in 1978. She unionised her workplace, a Checkers branch in Vereeniging, Transvaal, and subsequently served as CCAWUSA's national treasurer from 1999 until 2009, when she was elected to hold the same office in COSATU.

Early life and union activism Rantsolase was born on 15 March 1954 in a rural area of the former Orange Free State. Her mother was a farmworker and Rantsolase's education was frequently disrupted during the political turmoil of the apartheid era; she herself became involved in anti-apartheid activism while at school. After leaving school without matriculating,

For some time thereafter, Rantsolase was the only union member at her workplace. She became an informal and then formal shop steward and represented the workers in negotiations with Checkers about union recognition, from 1983, and then in wage bargaining, from 1985; She was elected as CCAWUSA's regional treasurer in 1987 and then regional chair in 1993 – though by then the union had been expanded as the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers' Union (SACCAWU). Later in 1993, she was elected as SACCAWU's national treasurer, and ultimately remained in the office until 2009. She had self-taught accounting skills and was known for her strict fiscal discipline.

Parliament: 2009–2010 In the 2009 general election, Rantsolase was elected to represent the ANC in the National Assembly, the lower house of the South African Parliament. She was one of a handful of COSATU leaders included in the ANC caucus for the explicit purpose of strengthening the union's representation in the framework of the Tripartite Alliance. According to the Sunday Times, she was reluctant to take up the seat.

After the election, she was appointed as the chairperson of the ANC's caucus in the National Assembly and also served as the party's whip in the Portfolio Committee on Labour. In her capacity as chairperson, her attention to parliamentary rules and reluctance to abide by "ANC hierarchy" reportedly led to tensions with Mathole Motshekga, the ANC's chief whip. When the party's provincial conference was held in May that year, she lost the election to Ntombi Mekgwe, who stood on the slate of the winning candidate for provincial chairperson, Paul Mashatile.

Personal life and death Rantsolase had one daughter, who is a chartered accountant. She died in November 2010 in Vereeniging after a period of illness.