List of presidents of south africa
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Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe
Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe was born on 19 July 1949 at the Boksburg-Benoni Hospital. He grew up in Alexandra, Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng). His parents, Louis Mathakoe Motlanthe, a cleaner and Masefako Sophia Madingoane, a domestic worker married in 1946.
Motlanthe (also known as Mkhuluwa, the elder one) has two younger brothers, Tlatlane Ernest and Lekota Sydney.
Motlanthe’s maternal grandfather, Kgalema Marcus Madingoane and his grandmother, Louisa Mmope Sehole lived in Apex, a squatter camp on Benoni [East Rand, Transvaal, now Gauteng] Old Location where they moved to in search of work. Here, Madingoane became involved in community affairs and eventually became a Councillor in Apex. He was instrumental in founding the township of Daveyton in 1955 where he ran a funeral parlour and a general dealership.
When he was 11, his parents were forced to move from Alexander to Meadowlands [Johannesburg, Gauteng]. He first attended school in Ga-Mothiba, Northern Transvaal [now Limpopo].
Motlanthe returned to Alexandra and enrolled in Grad
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Kgalema Motlanthe was born on 19 July 1949 in Alexandra township, Johannesburg, to a working class family. Most of his childhood was spent in Alexandra and much of his adult life was spent in Meadowlands, Soweto.
In the 1970s, while working for the Johannesburg City Council, he was recruited into Umkhonto we Sizwe. He formed part of a unit tasked with recruiting comrades for military training.
The unit was later instructed to transform its function from recruitment to sabotage. While some members of the unit left the country, he and Stan Nkosi remained in the country to establish such a machinery. Their unit was also involved in smuggling MK cadres in and out of the country via Swaziland.
On 14 April 1976 they were arrested for furthering the aims of the ANC and were kept in detention for 11 months at John Vorster Square in central Johannesburg.
In 1977 he was found guilty of three charges under Terrorism Act and sentenced to an effective 10 years imprisonment on Robben Island.
After his release in 1987, he was tasked with strengthening the union movement.
Motlanthe worked f
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Kgalema Motlanthe
President of South Africa from 2008 to 2009
His Excellency Kgalema Motlanthe | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Motlanthe in June 2009 | |||||||||||||||
| In office 25 September 2008 – 9 May 2009 | |||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Baleka Mbete | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | |||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Jacob Zuma | ||||||||||||||
| In office 9 May 2009 – 26 May 2014 | |||||||||||||||
| President | Jacob Zuma | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Baleka Mbete | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Cyril Ramaphosa | ||||||||||||||
| In office 18 December 2007 – 18 December 2012 | |||||||||||||||
| President | Jacob Zuma | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jacob Zuma | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Cyril Ramaphosa | ||||||||||||||
| In office 20 December 1997 – 18 December 2007 | |||||||||||||||
| President | Thabo Mbeki | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | |||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Gwede Mantashe | ||||||||||||||
| In office 6 May 2009 – 7 May 2014 | |||||||||||||||
| In office 6 May 2008 – 25 September 2008 | |||||||||||||||
| Constituency | National list | ||||||||||||||
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