Personal

• Date of Birth: 29 June 1952

Positions last Held

• Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of South Africa (25 September 2008 10 May 2009).
• Deputy Minister of Defence of the Republic of South Africa (17 June 1999 - 28 April 2004).
• Deputy Minister of Health of the Republic of South Africa (29 April 2004 - 2007).

Academic Qualifications

• Primary and Secondary Education - Magogo and Fairview Schools and Inanda Seminary in Durban respectively.
• Studied at Natal and Fort Hare Universities.
• Obtained a Diploma in Medical Technology (1979).
• Obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Adult Education (1989).
• Obtained a degree in Social Science, majoring in Philosophy and Sociology (1994).

Career/Positions/Memberships/Other Activities

• Worked for six years as a medical Laboratory Technologist.
• In the height of the struggle resigned to work as a full-time organiser for the Natal Organisation of Women (NOW) for three years.
• Worked as researcher at the Centre for Social and Development Studies and at the Centre for Adult Education at the University of Natal.
• Joined the underground structures of the African National Congress (ANC) in 1979.
• Chairperson of the Natal Organisation of Women.
• Joined the South African Communist Party (SACP) (1984).
• Served as Regional Chairperson of the SACP and was later elected to its Central Committee.
• Served on the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Women's National Coalition.
• Was a delegate at CODESA and worked as a Managing Secretary for the Transitional Executive Council (TEC) Sub-Council on the Status of Women.
• Served on the Reconstruction and Development Pogramme (RDP) Task Team to draft policy on the Empowerment of Women.
• Member of Parliament for the ANC and activist for women's rights and peace.
• Served on the Portfolio Committee on Land Affairs and the Parliamentary Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of Life and Status of Women.
• Chairperson of the Multi-Party Parliamentary Women's Group.
• Chairperson of the ANC Parliamentary Women's Caucus.
• Second Vice-President of the Co-ordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians, a body affiliated to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
• Serves on a number of organisations, including WOW, a network of local women leaders.
• Deputy Minister of Defence of the Republic of South Africa (17 June 1999 - 28 April 2004).
• Deputy Minister of Health of the Republic of South Africa (29 April 2004 - 2007).

Awards/Decorations

• Recipient of the Peacemakers in Action Award, awarded by the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding (New York) (2002).

Research and Publications

• Published articles and papers for newspapers, magazines and journals, such as Work in Progress and Speak.
• Has published easy readers for newly literate adults.
• Published manual for caregivers of elderly people.
• Co-authored a chapter on South African Feminism for a book on global feminism published in 1995.
• Co-authored South Africa's report to the United Nations (UN) for the 4th World conference on Women in Beijing (1995).