McCollen Ntsikelelo Jack (8 March 196512 August 2020), known as Mac Jack, was a South African educator and politician. 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 ...

, Jack was appointed to the

Northern Cape Provincial Legislature The Northern Cape Provincial Legislature is the legislature of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is a unicameral body of 30 members elected every five years. The current legislature was elected on 8 May 2019 and has an African Natio ...

in June 2013. He served as the

Member of the Executive Council In South Africa, the Executive Council of a province is the cabinet of the provincial government. The Executive Council consists of the Premier and five to ten other members,''Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996'', Chapter 6: "Pro ...

(MEC) for Transport, Safety and Liaison from June 2013 until May 2014, when he was appointed the MEC for Health. Following a cabinet reshuffle in March 2016, he was appointed the MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism. Jack held the position until his appointment as MEC for Education in May 2019, despite him briefly being demoted from the Executive Council in May 2017.

Early life and education

McCollen Ntsikelelo Jack was born on 8 March 1965 in the town of

Graaff-Reinet Graaff-Reinet is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the oldest town in the province. It is also the sixth-oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, Paarl and Swellendam. The town was the c ...

, then part of South Africa's

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequen ...

. He

matriculated Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term "matriculation" is seldom used now. ...

from Thubalethu High School in

Fort Beaufort Fort Beaufort (Xhosa: iBhofolo) is a town in the Amatole District of South Africa's Eastern Cape Province, and had a population of 25,668 in 2011. The town was established in 1837 and became a municipality in 1883. The town lies at the confluen ...

in 1984. He went on to study at the Masibulele College of Education where he received a teacher's diploma. He then obtained a further diploma in educational management from the

Rand Afrikaans University The Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) was a prominent South African institution of higher education and research that served the greater Johannesburg area and surroundings from 1967 to 2004. It has since merged with the Technikon Witwatersrand ...

. From the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...

, he attained a CPMD-Finance certificate, completed a Housing Policy Development Programme (HPDP), and received a certificate in governance and leadership. In 2013, Jack received his honours degree in public administration from the

University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

. At the time of his death, he was busy fulfilling his master's degree from Wits University.

Career

Jack was first employed as a teacher at Isibane Primary School in his hometown. Later on, he began working as the principal at the Lillian Noveve Combined School in

Victoria West Victoria West is a town in the central Karoo region of South Africa's Northern Cape province. It is situated on the main N12 route, at an elevation of . It is the seat of the Ubuntu Local Municipality within the Pixley ka Seme District Municipal ...

. Not long after, the Eastern Cape Department of Education appointed him as an assistant chief education specialist. In 1997, the Northern Cape government appointed him as the deputy director-general of the provincial Department of Housing and Local Government in

De Aar De Aar is a town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It has a population of around 42,000 inhabitants. It is the second-most important railway junction in the country, situated on the line between Cape Town and Kimberley. The junctio ...

. He was also the municipal manager of the

Pixley ka Seme District Municipality Pixley ka Seme is one of the five districts of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The seat of Pixley ka Seme is De Aar. The majority (77%) of its 186,351 people speak Afrikaans as first language (2011 Census). The district code is DC7. ...

Political career

Jack was a long-standing member of the

. He served on the party's regional structure as an additional member, the treasurer, the secretary, prior to being elected chairperson of the region, a post he held for a decade. Jack had also served as a member of both the ANC's provincial executive committee and the provincial working committee.

Provincial government

On 4 June 2013, Jack was appointed a member of the provincial legislature. Newly elected premier

Sylvia Lucas Sylvia Elizabeth Lucas (born 22 April 1964) is the current Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces in the Republic of South Africa, after having taken office on 23 May 2019. From 2013 to 2019, she served as the 4th Premier of the ...

appointed him the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Transport, Safety and Liaison on 5 June, succeeding

Patrick Mabilo Solomon Patrick Mabilo is a South African politician from the Northern Cape who served as the Executive Mayor of the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality from 2018 to 2021. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), he served as a Member of the N ...

. He held the position until after the 2014 general election, when Lucas moved him to the Health portfolio of the executive. Jack succeeded Mxolisa Sokatsha on 30 May, while Martha Bartlett became the new Transport, Safety and Liaison MEC. Lucas reshuffled her cabinet on 1 March 2016 and appointed him the MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, succeeding John Block. Lebogang Motlhaping succeeded him as Health MEC. In May 2017, Lucas removed him from the Executive Council and replaced him with

Gail Parker Gail Denise Parker is a South African politician and public servant who represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature from 2014 to 2019. During that time, she served briefly as the Northern Cape's M ...

. She reversed her decision on 1 June 2017. Following the 2019 general election,

Zamani Saul Zamani Saul (born 7 March 1972) is a South African politician who is the 5th and current Premier of the Northern Cape and a Member of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature. He has also been serving as the Provincial Chairperson of the African ...

was elected the provincial premier. He named him the MEC for Education. He was sworn in 29 May and succeeded Martha Bartlett. Maruping Lekwene took over as Finance MEC.

Death

In August 2020, Jack tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa The COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). On 5 March 2020, Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize had conf ...

. He died from it on 12 August, at Mediclinic Gariep in the provincial capital Kimberley, aged 55. He was survived by his wife, seven children and nine grandchildren. His funeral was held on 16 August, in his hometown.

References

External links

*
MEC Mac Jack – Government of the Northern Cape

Profile of the MEC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jack, Mac 1965 births 2020 deaths Xhosa people People from Graaff-Reinet People from the Eastern Cape People from the Northern Cape African National Congress politicians 20th-century South African politicians 21st-century South African politicians Members of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature University of the Witwatersrand alumni Stellenbosch University alumni Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa