Zola Saphetha
cde General Secretary in a NEHAWU jacket.
Saphetha at NEHAWU's 12th Congress in 2021
6th General Secretary of NEHAWU
Assumed office
June 2017
Preceded byBereng Soke
Deputy
  • December Mavuso
10th General Secretary of TUI-PS&A
Assumed office
2019
Preceded byPierpaolo Leonardi
Deputy
  • A. Sreekumar
Personal details
Born (1979-05-04) 4 May 1979
Eastern Cape, South Africa
Political partyAfrican National Congress
Other political
affiliations		South African Communist Party
SpouseNtombikayise Sibhidla-Saphetha
Website

Zola Saphetha is a South African trade unionist. He was elected general secretary of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union in 2017.

Career

Born in the Eastern Cape, Saphetha joined the Congress of South African Students while at school and rose to become its provincial chair. He studied at the Port Elizabeth Technikon, where he became regional chair of the South African Students Congress, then president of the SRC, and general secretary of the South African Technikon Student Union. While active in the student movement, he helped establish the South African Union of Students.[1] In 1990, Saphetha was elected as the African National Congress's (ANC) political commissar for Pankie Dobo, and he served on the party's regional executive for Port Elizabeth.[1]

On leaving education, Saphetha began working at the University of Durban-Westville. He joined the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (NEHAWU), becoming a shop steward and then branch chair. In 2008, he was elected as NEHAWU's regional chair for KwaZulu-Natal, and before the end of the year was also its acting provincial secretary. In 2012, he was elected as secretary on a permanent basis, then in 2014, he won election as deputy general secretary of NEHAWU.[1]

Saphetha was elected as general secretary of NEHAWU in 2017.[1] In this role, he threatened to withdraw union support from the ANC unless it concedes to some of the union's demands.[2] In 2019, he was additionally elected as general secretary of the Trade Union International of Public Services and Allied Employees.[3]

Personal life

He is married to ANC politician Ntombikayise Sibhidla-Saphetha with two children.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "National Office Bearers Of NEHAWU". NEHAWU. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  2. ↑ "Nehawu threatens to withdraw ANC support". eNCA. 14 September 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  3. ↑ "COSATU congratulates the new General Secretary of WFTU Trade Union International of Public Services and Allied (TUI-PS&A) Cde Zola Saphetha". Polity. 18 November 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  4. ↑ Oliphant, Nathi (16 March 2014). "Keeping it in the family". Sunday Tribune. Retrieved 8 January 2023 – via PressReader.
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