Mr Martins is the Minister of Transport of the Republic of South Africa since 12 June 2012. He is also a member of parliament since 1994; Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs; member of the Political Bureau and Central Committee of the South African Comminist Party (SACP); member of Council of the Robben Island Museum and member of Executive Committee of the Caversham Centre for writters and arts.

Mr Martins holds a Master of Law degree in International Law from the University of Cape Town; a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Natal (now University of KwaZulu-Natal) and a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of South Africa (UNISA) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management Practice (PGD Dip. Man. Prac.) from the University of Cape Town.

He attended school at St Joseph's College in Durban and Coronationville High school in Johannesburg.

Mr Martins has been a member of the Black Consciousness Movement in 1970s and he has worked for the Community Care Centre and Edenvale Ecumenical Centre in Pietermaritzburg from 1977 to 1983; African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP).

He travelled to Botswana and Lesotho many times between 1979 and 1983; where he has to meet with Wally Serote, Tim Williams and others who were living in exile from 1979 to 1983. And in 1978 he was charged and acquitted for producing banned Steve Biko T-shirt; and in 1979 he joined ANC and later became a member of Umkhnto we Sizwe (MK). Between 1983 and 1991 he was charged and imprisoned for eight years in Robben Island and Johanessburg. He was again arrested and kept in solitary confinement and tortured for seven months in 1983.

Prior to his appointment as Minister of Transport; Mr Martins was Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises of the Republic of South Africa from 1 November 2010 to 12 June 2012.

He contributed poetry, graphics and essays on art and culture to the Staffrider publications in 1970s and wrote a poetry book titled 'Baptism of fire published by Donker publishers in 1984.