Economic Affairs Ministers

Prior to his appointment as minister of tourism in May 2009, Marthinus Christoffel Johannes van Schalkwyk served five years as minister of tourism and environmental affairs. He was premier of the province of the Western Cape between 2002 and 2004, when the New National Party of which he was president merged with the ANC. Active in student politics at Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), Van Schalkwyk was a founding member and chairman of the Afrikaans youth organisation, Jeugkrag. He was a member of the National Party until 1997. Van Schalkwyk holds a B Proc, a BA Honours in political science and an MA in political science from RAU, where he lectured before joining the staff of the University of Stellenbosch.

Ebrahim Patel was appointed minister of economic development in May 2009, prior to which he was overall convenor for organised labour at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac). Active in the trade union movement since his student days at the University of the Western Cape, Patel  has served on negotiating teams in numerous forums, including the International Labour Organisation (ILO). A founder member of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), he was general secretary of the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) before taking up his position as a member of cabinet. 
 

Before being appointed in May 2009 as minister of trade and industry, Rob Davies served four years as deputy minister in the same portfolio. A member of parliament in the National Assembly since 1994, he chaired the parliamentary portfolio committees on finance and on trade and industry. Davies participated in the Seattle, Dohar, Cancun and Hong Kong rounds of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks as part of the South African ministerial delegation. In exile in Britain and Mozambique from the 1970s, he worked at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Maputo until returning to South Africa in 1990, when he became co-director of the Centre for Southern African Studies at the University of the Western Cape. Davies holds a BA Honours in economics from Rhodes University, a MA in international relations from the University of Southampton, and a Ph D in political studies from the University of Sussex. He is a member of the central committee and politburo of the South African Communist Party (SACP).