Mohammed Valli Moosa

Valli Moosa is Deputy Chairperson of the Presidential Climate Commission and Chairperson of the Constitution Hill trust.

He was born in Johannesburg and is a veteran of the South African freedom struggle.

Valli worked closely with Nelson Mandela during the settlement talks, served as negotiator for the ANC, and participated in drafting the South African Constitution.

He served in President Mandela's cabinet as Minister of Constitutional Development, and in President Mbeki's government as Environment Minister.

Valli Moosa was born on 9 February 1957 in Johannesburg.

His family was forcibly moved to Lenasia with the implementation of the Group Areas Act in the early 1960s.

Valli joined the Black Consciousness Movement(BCM) in the 1970s and was the branch secretary of the Durban Westville branch.

In 1971 at the young age of 14, Valli became involved in politics when he was involved in the Republic Day burning of the apartheid flag as well as the refusal to sing the Apartheid National Anthem, "Die Stem".

He was also an executive member of the South African Students Organisation (SASO) when it was banned in 1977.

Valli played an important role in the campaign against the apartheid-era South African Indian Council.

After being refused permission to attend the then whites only University of the Witwatersrand, he enrolled at the University of KwaZulu-Natal where he obtained a BSc degree in Mathematics and Physics in 1978.

After graduating he returned to Lenasia where he was a mathematics teacher from 1979 -1981 and a mathematics course writer at the South African College of Higher Education in 1982.

Valli served lengthy periods in detention without trial in the 1980s.

The first was in 1980 when he was detained and held in solitary confinement in the notorious John Vorster Square.

In 1981 he was dismissed from his teaching post because of his anti-apartheid views.

He became one of the founder members of the revived Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC) in 1983.

Valli played a role in the creation of a progressive non-racial network of democrats across the country, through mass-based residents and civic organisations.

He was a founding member of the United Democratic Front (South Africa)(UDF) 1983 and served on its National Committee.

From 1985 to 1989 he served as the acting National General Secretary of the UDF.

He was also a member of the National Reception Committee.

In 1985 he was again detained for three months and held at the Sandton police station during the state of emergency.

He was arrested in July 1987 in Port Elizabeth and transferred to Johannesburg Prison where he was incarcerated for another fourteen months.

This committee was responsible for managing the reception of former President Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners (1988-1990).

In 1988 he escaped from prison together with Murphy Morobe and Vusi Khanyile and took refuge in the American Consulate.

In the process they successfully created international awareness through the media about the plight of detainees in South Africa.

In 1989 Valli was again detained, for 6 weeks.

He was served with a banning order and then placed under house arrest.

He served as Secretary of the Internal Leadership Core of the ANC (1990-1991).

The Internal Leadership Core, under the chairpersonship of Walter Sisulu was responsible for establishing and managing the legal organisational structure of the ANC.

The banning order was lifted in February 1990 with the unbanning of the ANC and other political organisations.

Valli was also responsible for the organisation of the first ANC National Conference in over thirty years (1991).

Valli was elected to the National Executive Council (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC).

He served on the NEC for a total of 19 years.

Valli's portfolio on the National Executive Committee of the ANC from 1991-1994 was the negotiations to end Apartheid.

As a result, he was responsible for the work of the Negotiations Commission and reported directly to the NEC on all matters related to the negotiations.

As Secretary and Chief Executive of the ANC Negotiations Commission, Valli represented the ANC at CODESA.

Valli joined the corporate sector in 2004 and currently serves on the board of Sappi Ltd. He has previously served on the boards of Anglo Platinum, Eskom and Sanlam.

Valli served as a facilitator in the global climate change negotiations for a number of years.

He previously served as President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as Chairman of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development and as Chairman of WWF(SA).

He resigned from the NEC in 2009 but retained his membership of the party.