Johannesburg –
South Africa’s new Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba hails from the lush Dlinza
Forest in the rolling hills of Zululand, where he was born in August 1971.
Gigaba, who
became the Finance Minister after a Midnight Cabinet reshuffle that saw his predecessor
Gordhan Pravin ousted and the rand drop to its lowest level since 2015, was
appointed Minister of Home Affairs in May 2014, according to that department’s
website.
Prior to being
appointed as Minister of Home Affairs, he served as the Minister of Public
Enterprises from November 2010.
The site also
notes he is also a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the
African National Congress (ANC); Patron of the OASIS for Hope Hospice, patron
of the Tholulwazi Organisation of Youth and was appointed as ministerial
representative to the Council of the University of Potchefstroom by former
Minister of Education, Prof Kader Asmal in 2001.
Gigaba graduated from the University of Durban-Westville with a Bachelor of
Pedagogics (Education) in 1991. He further completed a Master of Arts degree in
Social Policy, majoring in Urban Affairs and Policy, in 1993, graduating in
1994, Home Affairs notes.
Home Affairs also
notes, in 1997, the UDW Faculty of Education conferred on Gigaba a Certificate
of Merit for Outstanding achievements and contribution to faculty and society.
In June 2002, the Cuban National University Students Federation awarded him the
highest medal awarded to students and youth leaders in Cuba, the Jose' Antonio
Echeverrias Medal, at the University of Havana's Aula Matta, it says.
Read also: Baptism of fire awaits Gigaba
Gigaba has been
active in various students and youth organisations and served in different
positions in the ANC Youth League. Between 1999 and 2001, he was a Member of
Parliament for the ANC and resigned in 2001. He was re-elected to Parliament in
2004.
Wikipedia notes Gigaba
is the second born to Reverend Jabulani Gigaba and nurse Nomthandazo Gigaba.
He has three sisters and a brother. Gigaba did his
primary school education at Mathonsi Primary School in Mandeni around 1983. He
then proceeded to do his high school education at Vryheid State High School in
1988.
Bloomberg reports that, in 2007, he was found to have
billed R1 020 rand to his government credit card to buy flowers for his wife.
He described the spending as an “administrative” error and repaid the money.
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