Fikile Zachariah Majola

Fikile Zachariah "Slovo" Majola (born 1963 or 1964) is a South African politician and former trade unionist who served as the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry from May 2019 to June 2024. He represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly between 2014 and 2024, and before that he was the general secretary of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) from 1998 to 2014.

Having joined Nehawu in 1989, Majola served six terms as general secretary, presiding over a growth in the union's influence within the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and broader Tripartite Alliance. As an early and prominent political supporter of Jacob Zuma, who became president with Nehawu's support, Majola had a fractious relationship with Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.

Pursuant to the 2014 general election, Majola ended his union career to take up an ANC seat in the National Assembly. He chaired Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Energy during the fifth democratic Parliament from 2014 to 2019, a period in which the committee had a prominent role in oversight of Zuma's controversial Russian nuclear deal. After the 2019 general election, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Majola to his deputy ministerial position, which he held throughout the sixth Parliament.

Majola has been a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party since 2007 and currently serves on the party's politburo. He was a member of the ANC National Executive Committee from 2012 to 2017 and a member of Cosatu's Central Executive Committee from 1995 to 2014.

Early life and education Majola was born in 1963 or 1964 near Kragborn in the former Orange Free State. He has an Honours degree in public administration from the University of the Western Cape.

Early career and activism He entered politics in the 1980s through the anti-apartheid movement of the former Southern Transvaal; he served in youth organisations, such as the South African Youth Congress, and in the United Democratic Front. He served six terms in the office, gaining re-election in 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2013. Indeed, under Majola, Nehawu became highly influential in the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and more broadly in the governing Tripartite Alliance. Majola had links to both of Cosatu's Tripartite Alliance partners as a longstanding member of both the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). Majola was first elected to the SACP Central Committee at the party's 12th National Congress, held in Port Elizabeth in July 2007, and by that time, he was viewed as a member of the "inner circle" of SACP leader Blade Nzimande. Majola has served on the Central Committee continuously since 2007 and he was later appointed to the party's politburo. With Mkhwanazi and Sizwe Shezi, Majola was one of three trustees of the fund. Over the next two years, Majola was a political supporter of Zuma's bid to replace President Thabo Mbeki as ANC president, a bid which succeeded at the ANC's 52nd National Conference in Polokwane in December 2007.

Majola was himself rumoured to be in contention for election to the ANC National Executive Committee at the same party conference. His election did not come to fruition, however, and, ahead of the 2009 general election, he declined a nomination to stand for a parliamentary seat on the ANC's ticket; since Nehawu president Noluthando Sibiya had accepted her own nomination, he said that he would remain with the union in order to maintain a balance between the union's external influence and its internal strength.

Majola remained a political supporter of Zuma after he was elected as President of South Africa in May 2009. By 2011, Majola was a prominent member of a group of labour leaders – also including Blade Nzimande of the SACP, Frans Baleni of the National Union of Mineworkers, Mugwena Maluleke of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union, and Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini – who were known to support Zuma's bid for a second term in the ANC presidency. In February 2012, the Sowetan reported that Majola had openly urged workers to rally behind Zuma during an address at the World Federation of Trade Unions in Johannesburg; Majola, however, clarified that it would be "inappropriate" for him to take a stance in the ANC's succession debate and that he was only expressing Cosatu's long-established support for the incumbent ANC leadership. Also during this period, in mid-2012, Nehawu endorsed proposals to nationalise key economic sectors, although it was not clear whether Majola personally supported the policy. His election – and that of other pro-Zuma trade unionists, including Thulas Nxesi, Sam Mashinini, and Senzeni Zokwana – was viewed as a "reward" for pro-Zuma campaigning. Majola defended his decision to accept nomination to the ANC leadership, saying that "Navigating between alliance positions is nothing new" and "To influence the ANC you need serving trade unionists". In August 2011, the Mail & Guardian reported on an informal campaign by Zuma's supporters to oust Vavi and replace him with Majola. Indeed, Majola had longed been viewed as a possible successor to Vavi; as late as June 2010, Vavi himself was believed to favour Majola as his successor. News24 described Majola as a strong contender, as the "most senior and experienced" leader of any public-sector union, "idolised by his union members";

Majola did not ultimately stand for the Cosatu office, but he remained on Cosatu's Central Executive Committee; he was a member from 1995 to 2014. Vavi later accused him of having been SACP leader Nzimande's chief "ideologue" within Cosatu. Bheki Ntshalintshali, who went on to become Cosatu general secretary, alleged that Majola and other pro-Zuma members – Nzimande, Thulas Nxesi, and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe – had formed an informal caucus, the so-called "progressive leaders", that had dominated the Central Executive Committee. He blamed the caucus for encouraging factionalism within the union federation during Zuma's presidency, particularly after Vavi broke with them. In Ntshalintshali's recollection: Nzimande, Vavi, Mantashe, Majola and Nxesi were people who were sitting together deciding before the meetings of Cosatu. When they disagreed, when this thing disintegrated, they were hating [each other] like nobody's business. They were not even on speaking terms... My view is that they moved beyond the organisational relationship. They had a personal relationship. When there was disagreement, they moved in all directions. I think we need to avoid that.

Career in government: 2014–present

Portfolio Committee on Energy: 2014–2019

Nomination to Parliament Ahead of the May 2014 general election, Cosatu launched a campaign for more union representation in the government of South Africa, and Majola was listed as an ANC parliamentary candidate, nominated initially by the ANC's local branches in Gauteng. He was elected to a seat in the National Assembly, the lower house of the South African Parliament, and announced that he would step down from Nehawu's leadership to take up his seat. Nehawu welcomed the election of Majola and other Nehawu leaders (including Thozama Mantashe and Joe Mpisi), and indeed, later in the legislative term, the union donated a R864,000 BMW X5 to Majola.

On 6 June 2014, Nehawu elected Bereng Soke, the outgoing deputy general secretary, to succeed Majola as general secretary. In his final secretariat report to the union, Majola argued that future challenges would "reshape South Africa's trade union movement", warning, "We mustn't be nostalgic... we must not expect to have the same Cosatu as we did in 1995". with Zukisa Faku serving under him as the party's committee whip. He was duly elected to the chair, unopposed, at the committee's first meeting on 24 June. Majola said that he was surprised that he had been deployed to the energy committee, given his background, but joked that, having been born next to a small power station in Kragborn, "I've always had a relationship with power stations." and, over the objections of Tina Joemat-Pettersson's Ministry of Energy, it held public hearings to consult on the deal. He was criticised for closing a November 2016 committee meeting to the press, but he said that it was a "misunderstanding" and that the meeting had not discussed the nuclear deal.

Tripartite Alliance positions Majola continued to serve in the SACP Central Committee while in Parliament, and he served the remainder of his five-year term on the ANC National Executive Committee. By 2017, there were signs that his support for Zuma had waned, with the Sunday Times reporting that he supported an anti-Zuma motion at a leadership meeting in May 2017. He was not re-elected to the National Executive Committee when his term expired at the ANC's 54th National Conference in December 2017.

Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry: 2019–2024 Majola was re-elected to the National Assembly in the May 2019 general election, and, in the aftermath of the election, he was named as Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry by Zuma's successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa. With Nomalungelo Gina, he was one of two deputy ministers in the newly created Ministry of Trade, Industry and Competition and served under Minister Ebrahim Patel, also a former trade unionist. His appointment alongside Patel was viewed as a major coup for the union movement. A source told the Mail & Guardian that, until his promotion, Majola had been "very unhappy for a long time in Parliament as he was never considered for a [ cabinet] post". He also has a child with an official in Nehawu's Western Cape office.