Sello Moloto

Later that year, ahead of the ANC's 51st National Conference, he was nominated to stand for election to the ANC National Executive Committee, though he was not ultimately elected.

Phaswana Cleopus Sello Moloto (born 27 August 27 1964) is a South African politician and diplomat from Limpopo.

Sello was born on 27 August 1964 in Claremont, a village near Bakenberg in the former Northern Transvaal.

He came from a poor rural family and started primary school late, but he matriculated at Bakenberg High School (now Lephadimisha Secondary) and entered the University of the North in 1985.

He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in pharmacy.

Moloto became politically active at university and in 1989 he served as president of the local branch of the South African National Student Congress.

During the same period, he was active in underground cells of the South African Communist Party, which at the time was banned by the apartheid government.

In the early 1990s, Moloto worked as a pharmacist in the rural Northern Transvaal, first at Groothoek Hospital in Lepelle-Nkumpi and then, from 1992, at Mokopane Hospital in Mahwelereng.

At the same time, the SACP had been unbanned in 1990 to facilitate negotiations to end apartheid, and Moloto helped rebuild the party's legal structures in the region.

He also joined the African National Congress (ANC) and became chairman of a regional ANC branch in Waterberg.

After a brief stint representing the ANC in the Senate from 1994 to 1996, he joined Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi's Executive Council as Member of the Executive Council for Health and Welfare from 1999 to 2004.

In South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994, Moloto was elected to an ANC seat in the Senate of South Africa, where he represented Limpopo Province (then still called the Northern Transvaal).

He served in his seat until 1996, when the ANC transferred him back to Limpopo to serve as chief executive officer of the conservative Bushveld District Council, until then a predominantly white administration.

In the 1999 general election, Moloto was elected to a seat in the Limpopo Provincial Legislature.

He was also appointed to the Executive Council of Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi, who named him as Limpopo's Member of the Executive Council for Health and Welfare.

According to the Mail & Guardian, Ramatlhodi was his political mentor.

During the legislative term, Moloto rose through the ranks of the Tripartite Alliance in the province.

During this period, he was also the Provincial Chairperson of the South African Communist Party from 2001 to 2004.

In 2001, he was elected as the SACP's Provincial Chairperson in Limpopo, a position which he held until 2004.

The following year, he was elected as Deputy Provincial Secretary of the ANC, deputising Cassel Mathale and serving under Provincial Chairperson Ramatlhodi.

He was the second Premier of Limpopo from April 2004 until March 2009.

He resigned after defecting from the African National Congress (ANC) to the Congress of the People (COPE).

A pharmacist by training, Moloto entered politics through the anti-apartheid movement.

He succeeded Moloto as Premier after the 2004 general election.

However, during the latter half of his term, Moloto faced sustained political pressure from Cassel Mathale, Julius Malema, and other provincial politicians who supported Jacob Zuma's bid to succeed Thabo Mbeki as ANC President.

In the next general election in 2004, Moloto was re-elected to the Limpopo Provincial Legislature.

Although Ramatlhodi's term as Premier of Limpopo had expired, and although Moloto was ranked first on the ANC's party list in the election, he was not viewed as the frontrunner to succeed Ramatlhodi – Joyce Mabudafhasi was viewed as the likely candidate, or perhaps John Nkadimeng.

However, on 21 April, the ANC announced that it would nominate Moloto to serve as Premier.

He was sworn in on 26 April.

His administration emphasised continuity: he retained eight of ten of Ramatlhodi's provincial ministers and a similar economic policy.

Moloto served only one term as ANC Provincial Chairperson, from 2005 to 2008, before Mathale unseated him from that office.

In June 2005, the Limpopo ANC's fifth elective congress was held in Turfloop at Moloto's alma mater, by then renamed the University of Limpopo.

Moloto did not stand for re-election as Deputy Provincial Secretary but instead won election unopposed as Provincial Chairperson.

Joyce Mashamba was elected as his deputy, and Cassel Mathale was retained as Provincial Secretary.

By the middle of his term as Premier, Moloto was increasingly politically embattled, particularly as a perceived ally of President Thabo Mbeki.

Several influential political groupings in the Limpopo ANC were becoming vocal supporters of Mbeki's rival, ANC Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

His resignation from the premiership and from the ANC was announced on 3 March 2009.

Moloto subsequently served as COPE's candidate for Premier of Limpopo during the 2009 general election.

Though not elected as Premier, he returned to the Limpopo Provincial Legislature on the opposition benches as Leader of the Opposition.

In April 2011, he resigned again, leaving COPE in order to accept appointment as an ambassador.