Comrade Zola Saphetha - General Secretary Of NEHAWU
Comrade Zola Saphetha - General Secretary Of NEHAWU The General Secretary Of NEHAWU Zola SaphethaHe became active in politics from a young age, when he was involved in Congress of South Africa Students {COSAS}, where he led COSAS at School until he led the Province of the Eastern Cape as a Chairperson. After graduating from COSAS, when he arrived at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University formerly known as Port Elizabeth Technikon College Campus, he joined SASCO. A year later, he served in SASCO as the Regional Chairperson of Port Elizabeth region and year later got elected as the Eastern Cape Provincial Secretary of SASCO. His activism in SASCO saw him being elected to serve in the SRC as Deputy President and later acted as the President of the Port Elizabeth Technikon and served for two terms as the Secretary General of the South African Techinkon Student Union (SATSU). At the time, he served as a council member of the Port Elizabeth and Council of Higher Education Transformation Advisory Board and as a National Coordinator of the merged National Student Unions, namely: South African Student SRC (SAU and SATSU) into Student Federation which culminated to the establishment of South African Union of Students as currently known SAUS.
Due to his activism he got elected as the ANC Political Commissar of Pankie Dobo during the period of 1990 to 1994 and got elected in the ANCYL KwaZakhele Zonal and Regional Executive Committee in PE respectively. In the same period, he got elected as the Regional Deputy Chairperson of the National Education Coordinating Committee (NECC). Comrade Zola’s activism in student and youth politics developed a passion within him on building an alternative education system model towards the transformation of higher education landscape in the country, which would be centred on People's Education for People's Power.
On his first employment, he joined the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) and was elected as a shop steward and later co-opted into the branch executive committee. After the merger of two Universities (University of Natal and Durban Westville) in 2004, he was elected as the Branch Chairperson of the Durban Westiville branch which is the main campus of the University. His activism at UKZN in NEHAWU saw him serve in different committees of the union in the province of KwaZulu-Natal province and that saw him being elected to serve as the Provincial Chairperson of KZN in July 2008.
Whilst being the Chairperson of KZN, after the departure of the then Provincial Secretary who is was the ANC Provincial Secretary of KZN, he was then entrusted with the responsibility of being the Acting Provincial Secretary after the position was vacant in the same year, November 2008. He accepted the responsibility as a disciplined comrade of the union, and acted as Provincial Secretary until he got elected in the position at the Provincial Congress that was held in March 2012. He held that position of Provincial Secretary of KZN until the NEHAWU Special National Congress held in June 2014, where he was elected as the Deputy General Secretary.
In 2019, in the 13th World Congress of the international Trade Union of Public Service and Allied, he was unanimously, as the first African leader elected as the General Secretary and currently serving his second term.
In the year 2022 in 18th World Congress of World Trade Unions held in Rome, Italy he got elected as a member of the Presidential Council of the World Federation of Trade Unions – WFTU.
In 2026, Cde Zola Saphetha was re-elected as the General Secretary of NEHAWU unopposed.