Vusi Nhlapo

Nhlapo was born on 20 September 1956 in Orlando East in Soweto. He grew up in a two-roomed house with his parents – a plumber and a domestic worker – and seven siblings. He attended Orlando North Secondary and Madibane High, but, despite the politically charged environment of mid-1970s Soweto, he eschewed involvement in anti-apartheid politics; as the eldest son in the family, he was fixated on getting a job. He wanted to become an architect or lawyer. His first job was as a clerk and insurance salesman at Metropolitan Homes Trust Life between 1977 and 1980. After being retrenched in 1980, he was employed for a year as a stock-counting clerk at Checkers before he was retrenched again. Thereafter he was unemployed for nearly three years. In 1984, he joined a laboratory at the zoology department of Witwatersrand University, where he worked for the next decade as a technician. == Union activism ==

In 1986, Nhlapo joined the General and Allied Workers' Union (GAWU) on the Wits campus. Nhlapo also served as Cosatu's chief negotiator in discussions with government on the restructuring of state assets. He occasionally made attempts to gain high office in Cosatu – in 1997, he entered into a contest with John Nkadimeng and Connie September over Nkadimeng's post as Cosatu vice-president, On the latter occasion, Nhlapo was viewed as the favoured candidate of ANC president Thabo Mbeki. In 2002, Cosatu commissioned a commission of inquiry to investigate various financial and political problems in Nehawu. The commission was staffed by Senzeni Zokwana of the National Union of Mineworkers, Ebrahim Patel of the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union, and Cosatu officials. Although its findings were not published after the inquiry concluded in 2003, the Mail & Guardian reported that the commission described Nehawu as highly polarised between two factions: one ANC-aligned faction, clustered around Nhlapo, and another faction aligned to the South African Communist Party, clustered around Slovo Majola. At Nehawu's next elective congress in July 2004 in Pretoria, the left-wing faction won a decisive victory: Nhlapo lost the Nehawu presidency to his former deputy, Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya, who received 243 votes to his 136. == Legislative career ==

By the time Nhlapo was ousted from the Nehawu presidency, he was a candidate on the ANC's national party list; though not initially elected in the 2004 general election, he was in line to be sworn in when a casual vacancy arose. He left Parliament at the 2009 general election. == Personal life ==

As of 1994, Nhlapo was married and had two children. == References ==