Nkosiyakhe Amos Masondo (born 21 April 1953 in

Louwsburg Louwsburg is a small town in northern KwaZulu-Natal, Louwsburg was a small village named after a farmer, Louw, who donated his farm Toggevonden for establishing of the town in 1925. Cattle, Vegetable and maize farming are the primary economic ...

) is a South African politician, who has served as the Chairperson of South Africa's

National Council of Provinces The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) is the upper house of the Parliament of South Africa under the (post-apartheid) constitution which came into full effect in 1997. It replaced the former Senate, but is very similar to that body, and to ma ...

since 23 May 2019. He was the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

of the city of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, between December 2000 and 2011. He is a member of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

, and was the first elected mayor of the Unified City of Johannesburg.

Biography

Born in Louwsburg and educated in

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

, Masondo was a participant in the anti-

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

riots in 1972. He also established underground Umkhonto we Sizwe cells in Soweto, and was imprisoned on

Robben Island Robben Island ( af, Robbeneiland) is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the Dutch word for seals (''robben''), hence the Dutch/Afrik ...

from 1975 to 1981 for his participation in anti-

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

activities. After he was released, he served as a member of the

Soweto Civic Association The Soweto Civic Association was an organisation formed in Soweto, South Africa, in 1979, formed out of what was known as the "Committee of Ten", by black professionals who wished to administer the city's affairs by themselves and not by an Aparthei ...

, and was again detained under the emergency regulations from June 1985 to March 1986, and again from July 1986 to 1989. He was also elected as a member of the

Gauteng Legislature The Gauteng Provincial Legislature is the legislature of the South African province of Gauteng. It is a unicameral body of 73 members elected every five years. The current legislature, the sixth, was elected on 8 May 2019 and has an African Natio ...

, and was subsequently elected to serve as Mayor of Johannesburg in 2000.

References

External links

Profile on Joburg city homepage

Interview on Joburg city homepage

Interview on "Joburg is advertised as a world-class city"
1953 births Living people People from Soweto Zulu people African National Congress politicians Mayors of Johannesburg Inmates of Robben Island {{Gauteng-politician-stub

Biography

See also

References

External links