Member of Executive Council
Siphosezwe Masango
Profile of MEC Siphosezwe
Masango for the Mpumalanga
Department of Safety and Security
Moses Siphosezwe Amos Masango, was
born on the 2nd February 1955, at a
place called Mkhomazi (Moedig), near
Carolina, in Mpumalanga.
He started schooling at Bonefoi
Bantu Farm School in 1966, then
proceeded to Thokozani Bantu Farm
School and completed his primary
education, at Sobhuza Higher Primary
School in Carolina, in 1973. Whilst
at Sobhuza Higher Primary (1973), he
began to be conscious of the
polemics and the stark
contradictions that characterized
South Africa. This was due to the
political influence of one of his
teachers at that school.
In 1974 he proceeded to Maitjha High
School and whilst there, he was
elected chairperson of the Debating
Society. He participated in protests
against Bantu Education and the
imposition of Afrikaans as medium of
instruction in 1977. He was arrested
(together with others), later
expelled and banned from all
KwaNdebele schools in the same year.
He taught for a few months in 1979
(as an unqualified teacher), but
left teaching in the same year for a
clerical job at PUTCO bus company.
At PUTCO he was elected a
representative of clerks in the then
Workers Liaison Committee. He was
dismissed in 1981 for challenging
and questioning practices of racism
in its various manifestations (e.g.
using separate toilets) at this
company.
In 1982, he registered at the
University of the North for a B.A. (Paed)
degree where he failed his first
semester. He went back to teach at
Maitjha where he was a student and
went back to the University in 1983.
In that year, he joined a student
organization, AZASO (the predecessor
of SASCO). Whilst at Turfloop
University, he participated in a
plethora of student campaigns such
as the UDF’s One Million Signature
Campaign, the Tricameral Parliament
protests, class boycotts and other
AZASO, (UDF-led) activities.
He became a qualified teacher in
1987 and was later promoted to a
Principalship post at Makhosana High
School in 1988. In 1991 he was
demoted, because of his membership
and participation in SADTU (South
African Teacher’s Union) and ANC
activities, and transferred to
another school as a teacher. The
learners, teachers and parents,
however, rejected his demotion and
was subsequently reinstated as a
result of a strike by SADTU teachers
in KwaNdebele.
As a SADTU member, he participated
in and led many protest marches,
both for the improvement of
education and a de jure recognition
of SADTU. He quite often became one
of SADTU negotiators with the
Department of Education.
In 1994 he was seconded to the
Strategic Management Team (SMT) in
the Department of Education, which
helped to integrate the then
homeland departments of education of
KwaNdebele, KaNgwane, House of
Delegates, House of Representatives,
Transvaal Education Department,
Bophuthatswana, into a single
education department of Mpumalanga.
He joined the ANC after its
unbanning in 1990. The then Regional
leadership of Limpopo constituted
them into the first zonal structure
which launched ANC branches around
Moutse and KwaNdebele.
He was elected to various positions
such as Sub-Regional Treasurer,
Education Co-ordinator and was
elected Regional Chairperson in
December 1992, a position he held
until 1998.
He resigned from this position after
being elected as an ANC Deputy
Provincial Secretary in 1998.
After the untimely death of the
Provincial Secretary, (December
2000), he was appointed as an Acting
Provincial Secretary, a
responsibility he held until March
2002. He was elected into the
Provincial Executive Committee (PEC)
of the ANC at the conference held in
March 2002, having lost in the
contest for Secretary of the
Province.
He is currently the Convenor of the
Organizational Development and
Political Education Sub-Committee of
the PEC of the ANC.
Having been Principal for eight
years (1988 – 1995), he was promoted
to be a District Head of Moretele II
Region in 1996, a post he held until
April 1999, and in May of the same
year, was deployed by the ANC into
the Mpumalanga Legislature as an MPL.
After the 2nd June, 1999, general
elections he was appointed MEC for
Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture
up to August 2003.
On the 1st September 2003, the
Premier reshuffled the Executive
Council, whereby Siphosezwe Masango
was redeployed to the Department of
Social Services, Population and
Development as MEC.
After the April 14th 2004, general
elections, he was deployed by the
current Premier to the Mpumalanga
Department of Education as MEC, and
subsequently redeployed on 14 May
2008 to lead the Mpumalanga
Department of Safety and Security as
the political head.
He is a father of three daughters,
having got married in 1986.
Contact Details:
Head Office
Physical Address:
No. 7 Government Boulevard
Building 4, 2nd Floor
Riverside Park
Postal Address:
Private Bag x11269
Nelspruit
1200
Telephone: +27 13 766 4091
Fax: +27 013 766 4616
e-mail:
smabuza@mpg.gov.za
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