Frans Baleni

Msokoli Frans Baleni (born 1959 or 1960) is a South African businessman and former trade unionist who was general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers between 2006 and 2015. Since 2007, he has been a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party.

Early life Baleni was born in the Free State and attended high school in the Eastern Cape on a bursary, until he moved back to the Free State in 1979 when his political activity had attracted the attention of Eastern Cape police. Between 1979 and 1988, he worked as a gold miner in Welkom, Free State, at an Anglo American (then AngloGold) mine.

1982–2015: Trade union career He was a founding member of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1982, and the next year was elected a shaft shop steward at Western Holdings mine in Welkom. By 1993, he was head of the organising department, and was later the chief education officer. In 2006, he succeeded Gwede Mantashe as general secretary of NUM, by then the biggest union in the country and the most powerful affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). and he was thought to have the support of Mantashe, who has been described as his mentor. He was general secretary between 2006 and 2015, gaining re-election in both 2009 and 2012. After the Marikana massacre, when police shot and killed miners in an Amcu-led wildcat strike at the Lonmin mine, Baleni defended the police's actions.

Among other things, the NUM was criticised for its and Baleni's perceived closeness to mining bosses and to the government, to the extent that critics nicknamed the union the "National Union of Management." and, similarly, Raphaël Botiveau says he "embodies the ideal type of the 'trade union executive.'"

Baleni was seen as something of an elder in Cosatu... What Baleni wanted, Baleni got. — Daily Maverick, 2015 This criticism related to Tripartite Alliance politics as well as to inter-union rivalries. Baleni was reportedly close to his predecessor, Mantashe, who by then was secretary general of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), and he was allied to the South African Communist Party under Blade Nzimande – he had been elected to its Central Committee months after he was elected general secretary. who in turn was a key ally of eventual national president Jacob Zuma. Indeed, Baleni himself has been described as "a leading figure" in Zuma's campaign for re-election as ANC president ahead of the ANC's 2012 Mangaung conference. He was seen as "a key player in leading the offensive" He also had an antagonistic relationship with Julius Malema, the former president of the ANC Youth League.

Although Baleni supports state intervention in strategic economic sectors, he is opposed to nationalising the mines – according to the Mail & Guardian, on "pragmatic" grounds. He has not taken up political leadership positions outside the NUM, except in the SACP. He declined an ANC nomination for a seat in the National Assembly of Parliament in 2009. In 2011, he was rumoured to be a potential candidate for the next general secretary of COSATU, when Vavi was believed to be stepping down, although left-wing critics objected to his perceived sympathy for the government's economic policies. The result of the vote was described as unexpected, and local commentators viewed it as reflecting a shift of momentous significance, with journalist Max du Preez calling it "a political earthquake." The Mail & Guardian said that the election "threatened to split the union."

Local commentators believed that the expulsion of Vavi and Numsa had been the decisive issue in the leadership contest – Sipunzi was notably more sympathetic towards them than Baleni.

Career in public entities After losing the 2015 election, Baleni retired from union work. In December 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed him to the Eskom sustainability task team, which reviewed the turnaround plan and long-term strategy of the public power utility. and he was appointed to the board of the Public Investment Corporation, the state-owned asset manager, in November 2021. He has also been on the board, at one point as deputy chairperson, of the state-owned Development Bank of Southern Africa.

Personal life Baleni's wife, Andeya Merriam Baleni, died in a car accident in December 2006. He remarried to Phindile Baleni, an attorney who became South Africa's first female director-general in the presidency in 2021. As of 2018, he lived in Boksburg, Gauteng.