Former speaker of the National Assembly Thandi Modise has replaced Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula as South Africa’s defence minister. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the move after a Cabinet reshuffle on Thursday night, which saw a shakeup of the security cluster.
Modise was removed from National Assembly Speaker to the executive cabinet as a well-respected presiding officer.
Deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli stepped in then, as he will be stepping in as acting speaker now.
Brief History of Thandi Modise
Ms Thandi Modise was appointed as the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans on 5 August 2021. She was the Speaker of National Assembly of the Republic of South Africa from 22 May 2019 to 5 August 2021.
Previously she was the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces since 22 May 2014.
Positions last held in government
Ms Thandi Modise was the Premier of North West province from 19 November 2010 until 20 May 2014.
Academic Qualifications
Ms Modise holds a B. Comm degree in Industrial Psychology and Economics from Unisa(1989).
She has also attended a special leadership course from the University of United Nations University in Jordan(2000).
She holds Certificates in Security Studies from the Naval University in Montreal (1998/1999).
Career/Positions/Memberships/Other Activities
Ms Modise was jailed for ten years for fighting the Apartheid regime in 1980.
She was elected as a Member of Parliament of the Republic of South Africa in 1994-2004.
Chaired the Ad Hoc Committee for the ratification of the Convention to Eliminate all forms of Discrimination against Women in the National Assembly(1995-1996)
Served as Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and the Joint Standing Committee on Defence from 1998 to 2004.
Served as speaker of North West Provincial Legislature( 2004- 2009).
Served a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress Women?s League from 1991-2004.
Elected Deputy President of the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) from 1994 to 2004;
President of ANC Women’s League in 2004.
Member of the ANC National Executive Committee from 1994-2012.
She was Deputy Secretary General of the African National Congress from 2007-2012.
She participated in the Peace-building Activities such as Peace Mission to stabilise regions such as East Timor, Civil- military roundtables in Nigeria and Ghana.
Contribution to International Conferences, highlighting women’s roles in negotiations and conflict resolution in Rwanda and Burundi.
Campaign for the adoption and implementation of Affirmative Action programmes to combat Gender and Race Discrimination in South Africa.
She also participated in leading debates in the National Assembly on investigation into controversial multi-billion-rands arms deal with Yemen and led South Africa’s parliamentary fact-finding mission to the Middle East, which recommended South Africa’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
She was a member of the inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace Policy Commission; a member of the Board of Ilitha la Bathu and a member of the Board of International Security Studies.
She is a former councillor and Chairperson of the Robben Island Museum Council (1994-2010) and serves as a member of the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission.
Research, Presentations, Awards, Decorations, Bursaries and Publications
Ms Modise has amongst others presented papers titled:
Sustaining Democracy in post-Apartheid South Africa; the role of gender in the DDR in Sudan;
the role of NGOs in the struggle against HIV and AIDS amongst women in South Africa;
Conceptualising moral regeneration with specific reference to sexual harassment
Effects of women’s involvement in conflict resolution processes
Elements of post-conflict recovery and reconstruction; Engineering Security Sector Reform; Civil-military relations;
Women’s contribution to Peace and NEPAD: women in South Africa’s struggle for Liberation.
Premier Modise was presented with a Special Recognition for her role in the Advancement of Peace and Women in Africa at the 2013 inaugural African Diaspora Awards.
Oral Brief History of Thandi Modise, a woman in war.
ANC military training camps during the apartheid war. As a female
commander in Umkhonto we Sizwe, Thandi Modise fought two wars – one
against apartheid and another against the m
comrades. She spoke to ROBYN CURNOW about this time of her life and
about present attitudes towards women who were on the front-line
When it comes to men, it’s heroism. When
it comes to women it’s almost like you
should be ashamed. Why otherwise do we
not accept that women played a part in
the [armed] struggle?” (Former Umkhonto we Sizwe commander, Thandi Modise)’
After being trained in African National
Congress (ANC) camps in Tanzania and
Angola, Thandi Modise worked inside South Africa as an Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) operative.
She was eventually arrested and subsequently jailed for 10 years. Today she is the Deputy President of the ANC Women’s League and the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence.
Hers is an impressive ‘struggle’ history –
but Thandi Modise’s biography reveals more than just the struggles of one woman fighting an unjust system. Instead, her narrative touches on a social reality that many South African women have experienced. The difference is that while most have
remained silent about their apartheid
experiences, Modise has spoken out.
Modise’s narrative highlights how
women in the struggle didn’t only fight one war against the South African apartheid state; instead the women who bore arms in the name of racial freedom had to fight a two-pronged battle. They also fought as women, constantly having to protect and justify their sexuality, their gender and their bodies. In her experience she was a woman soldier and a woman political prisoner.
During military training, despite Modise’s high rank, there was gender antagonisım and competition. Women had to constantly prove’ they weren’t the weaker sex.
Modise talks of deep strains between the male and female platoons in the camp she commanded before returning to South Africa.
Unlike many women whose lives have
been assigned to the private sphere,
Modise’s adult life has been conducted
within the boundaries of the ANC’s public battle to end apartheid. In Modise’s case, this is not a personal narrative because it goes much wider than a single oral history.
It deals with the perceptions held of
masculinity and femininity in the context of war. This story is important because it breaks a silence that surrounds South African women’s lives in the armed wing of the liberation movement:
It helps subvert the male-centric versions of the struggle.