Buyelwa Patience Sonjica (born 23 March 1950) is a South African politician who served as

Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (formerly Minister of Environmental Affairs) is the member of the Cabinet of South Africa. The post was created by President Jacob Zuma, in his cabinet announced on 10 May 2009; it partia ...

from May 2009 until November 2010.WASH News Afric
Edna Molewa replaces Buyelwa Sonjica as Water and Environmental Affairs Minister, top officials suspended
, 2 November 2010

Early life

Sonjica received degrees from

Vista University Vista University, South Africa was established in 1981 by the apartheid government to ensure that urban black South Africans seeking tertiary education would be accommodated within the townships rather than on campuses reserved for other populatio ...

and

Rhodes University Rhodes University is a public university, public research university located in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, ...

. She worked as a student nurse and a teacher.

Politics

In 1976–77 she was involved in student politics in

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

. She was active against the

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 ...

regime in the UDF and SADTU when 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 ...

was illegal in South Africa. After the readmission of the ANC, she became active for it in

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...

. Since the 1994 general election, Sonjica was a member of South Africa's Parliament. She was Deputy minister in the Department for Arts and Culture. In 2004, she was appointed as Minister in the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, in 2006 as Minister for Minerals and Energy, and in 2009 as

References

External links

Who's who profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonjica, Buyelwa 1950 births Living people Xhosa people African National Congress politicians Government ministers of South Africa Members of the National Assembly of South Africa Women government ministers of South Africa 21st-century South African women politicians 21st-century South African politicians 20th-century South African women politicians 20th-century South African politicians Women members of the National Assembly of South Africa