Ms Thandi Ruth Modise
National AssemblyMinister of Defence and Military Veterans
Party: African National Congress
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Profile
Ms Modise was the Speaker of the National Assembly at the commencement of the sixth administration. She was the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) during the fifth democratic Parliament. She is currently the Chancellor of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
Ms Modise was first elected to Parliament in 1994 and served as the chairperson of several parliamentary committees, such as, the Portfolio Committee on Defence, the Joint Standing Committee on Defence and the Ad Hoc Committee for ratification of the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
She has also been a Speaker of the North West Provincial Legislature (from 2004 to 2009) and Premier of the North West (from 2010 to 2014).
She has a long history of participation in the struggle for freedom from apartheid, starting with the 1976 student uprising. It included exile in Botswana and Angola and military training while in exile, as one of a tiny minority of women undergoing such training for the African National Congress (ANC).
Ms Modise serves as a member of the ANC National Executive Committee. She also served as Deputy President and Acting President of the ANC Women’s League. She was also Deputy Secretary-General of the ANC from 2007 to 2012, among other positions.