Zola Skweyiya

Zola Sidney Themba Skweyiya OLS (14 April 1942 – 11 April 2018) was a South African politician who was Minister of Public Service and Administration from 1994 to 1999 and Minister of Social Development from 1999 to 2009. Skweyiya was re-elected to the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress in 2007.

Early life He was born in Simon's Town, Western Cape, in 1942. He is the young brother of Thembile Skweyiya. He completed high school in Alice, Eastern Cape, at Lovedale College. launched on 1 April 2006, aiming to address corruption and maladministration in the social grants payments system.

After 15 years in the Cabinet and Parliament, his retirement from both was announced on 6 May 2009, following the April 2009 general election. As a result, he was not sworn in for the new parliamentary term. He did not leave politics altogether, however; he remained a member of the ANC National Executive Committee, and on 7 May 2009 the party announced that he would have a new post working at the ANC Presidency. According to ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe, Skweyiya voluntarily chose to leave parliamentary politics, "contrary to current speculative and surreptitious commentary". He praised Skweyiya's "immense skill and expertise" and said that the ANC still wanted to make use of his abilities.

Skweyiya was appointed by President Jacob Zuma as the South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in September 2009.

From 2011 to 2015, an annual Zola Skweyiya Lecture series was hosted by the Centre for the Analysis of South African Social Policy (CASASP) at the University of Oxford, with the inaugural lecture being given by Dr Skweyiya himself.

Death Skweyiya died at a Pretoria hospital on 11 April 2018, at the age of 75, leaving behind his second wife, Thuthukile, and two stepchildren, a son, Vuyo, from his first marriage and his grandchildren, Sthembiso and Nanziwe Skweyiya .