Personal Information
- Date of Birth: 13 November 1956
- Marital Status: Married
Former Position
Minister of Defence and Military Veterans of the Republic of South Africa since 12 June 2012
Current Positions
- Speaker of the National Assembly
- Member of Parliament since 2004.
- Member of National Executive Council (NEC) of African National Congress (ANC) since December 2007.
Academic Qualifications
- Matriculated from Mount Arthur High School.
- Obtained Primary Teacher's Diploma from the Bensonvale Teacher TRG College.
- Project Management with Canadian University Studies (CUSO).
- Studying Psychology with the Newport University.
- Obtained basic Human Relations Course.
- Obtained Community Development course.
- Obtained Communications course.
Career/Memberships/Positions/Other Activities
- Theme 3 Core Group Member of the Constitution Making Process since 1994.
- Member of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence since 1994.
- Chairperson of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence since 1994.
- Assistant Director of the Masazane Open School (a project of the South African Institute of Race Relation-SAIRR)(1982—1984).
- Youth Worker with Target Timothy (A project of SANSSA) (1981—1982).
- Teacher at St Matthews Teachers' Training College (1979).
- Teacher at Bensonvale Junior Secondary School (1978).
- Trained in Youth Leadership and Community Development (NYLTP).
- Worked with open schools to help students from disadvantaged communities who were matric drop-outs.
- Founder member of the East London Domestic Workers Association (ELDWA) (1982).
- Left the country and underwent military training in Angola and the Soviet Union respectively (1984).
- Member of political and military structures (Soviet Union) (1985).
- Worked with the political military structures (ANC) (1986—1988).
- Representative of the ANC Women's section to Pan African Women's Organisation (PAWO) (1988—1990).
- Deployed in the country to help rebuild ANC structures (1990).
- Served as Head of Commission set up to investigate desertions of ANC MK members to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Angola (1984).
- National organiser of the ANC Women's League and member of its National Executive (1990—1993).
- Secretary-General of the ANC Women's League (1993—1995).
- Member of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) (1994—1997).
- Attended Equality Development and Peace seminar in Nairobi (1985).
- Attended 2nd ANC Consultative seminar in Kabwe (1985).
- Attended PAWO Regional seminar on the emancipation of women in Lusaka (1989).
- Worked closely with women's organisations inside and outside the country.
- Represented the ANC Women's section to the People's Republic of Angola for two years.
- Attended Malibongwe Conference in Amsterdam (1990).
- Attended World Racism conference in Durban (2001).
- Deputy Chairperson of ANC Political Committee and Chief Whip of majority party (2001).
- Deputy Minister of Home Affairs of the Republic of South Africa (6 May 2002—28 April 2004).
- Minister of Home Affairs of the Republic of South Africa (29 April 2004—10 May 2009).
- Minister of Home Affairs of the Republic of South Africa until 10 May 2009.
- President of African National Congress Women League (ANCWL) (2003—3 July 2008).