Résumé of Mr BH Holomisa, MP*

Major General (Retired) Bantubonke ‘Bantu’ Holomisa co-founded the United Democratic Movement (UDM) on 27 September 1997, and serves as its elected President, which in 2022 celebrated its 25th year of existence. He was again elected as a Member of Parliament in the 2024 National and Provincial Elections and was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans in the Government of National Unity in the 7th Administration in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet.

He was the Commander of the Transkei Defence Force and Head of the Transkei Government (former independent homeland from 1987 to 1994) up to the first National Elections in South Africa in 1994. He was one of the first two black persons accepted by the South African Army College to do a one-year senior staff course for officers in 1984.

Between 1988 and 1989, the government led by Mr Holomisa unbanned approximately 33 organisations that were banned by his predecessors. His government worked closely with the liberation movements and as a result Transkei had a smooth transition prior to the 1994 National Elections. Mr Holomisa also led the Transkei delegation to the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa) negotiations.

The African National Congress (ANC) Election Committee asked him to campaign nationwide alongside Mr Thabo Mbeki, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, as well as the late Mr Nelson Mandela, Mr Joe Slovo, Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Mr Steve Tshwete during the 1994 general elections. In the same year he received the most votes at the ANC National Congress. In 1996 Mr Holomisa was expelled from the ANC after testifying at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission about issues and activities concerning the Transkei. He refused to retract his testimony arguing that his testimony was historical knowledge.

During his years as Head of the Transkei Government, important environmental initiatives took place such as a mass community clean-up on Independence Day on 26 October, where each citizen took the responsibility to clean their immediate environs, towns and roads. “Green battalions” were also established to combat soil erosion, river silting and removing alien vegetation from riverbeds and dams. Mr Holomisa also served as the Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism of South Africa in the Government of National Unity. Here he initiated the Consultative National Environmental Policy Process (CONNEPP), which in the end resulted in new environmental legislation for South Africa that, amongst others, talks to pollution and waste, sustainable resource management, global and international cooperation and responsibilities. Another project which he spearheaded during this time was the cessation of the culling of elephants in the Kruger National Park and that, with the assistance of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, a herd of around 35 animals was transferred to the Addo Elephant National Park. They are flourishing today.

Mr Holomisa has played a leading role in the establishment of Champions of the Environment Foundation an autonomous and apolitical group formed to meet the urgent need for a coordinated campaign to heighten national awareness of environmental conservation issues and best practices benefiting South Africa.

Some of Champions’ projects include:
• In 2020, Champions facilitated the donation of personal protection equipment, to the tune of R700,000, to around 32 Eastern Cape hospitals and care facilities as part of the Covid-19 response.
• With the Nyandeni/Kwakhonjwayo (Eastern Cape) land rehabilitation project, Champions partnered with the Department of Environmental Affairs, to create 143 jobs and opportunities, for sixteen months, for rural women and youth to develop long-term skills in the area, which falls under Chief Mpumalanga Gwadiso.
• Together with the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science, Champions hosted a Carbon Tax Workshop for chief executive officers and other decisionmakers on South Africa’s proposed carbon tax and the economic response to carbon emissions.
• The Enyokeni Palace Project, in partnership with the Department of Environmental Affairs, Tourism World, the Usuthu Traditional Council and the Zulu Royal House where some 34,000 trees, endemic to KwaZulu-Natal, were planted in one day by the traditional Reed Dancers.
• Champions’ first project was launched at the Ngqungqu Administrative Area (Eastern Cape) where three thousand indigenous trees were planted on four sites, which have yielded excellent results with 120 permanent jobs created and sustainable boreholes sunk.

He has, through his annual Bantu Holomisa Charity Golf Day, assisted several churches, including the parishes of the Anglican Church of Upper and Lower Ngqungqu. Mr Holomisa personally donated to the Anglican Cathedral in Mthatha, as well as the Anglican Youth Guild.

Mr Holomisa has addressed many international forums including the United Nations Security Council on the need to monitor violence in South Africa; the Confederation of British Industry; the Carnegie Endowment (USA); the Council on Foreign Relations (USA); Centre for International Security Studies (USA); the African-American Institute (USA); Prayer Breakfasts (USA); the World Tourism Organisation; the World Travel and Tourism Council Convention on Biodiversity. In 2000, he attended a Democratic Convention (Los Angeles, USA) and he led a delegation of UDM MPs to Beijing (China) upon invitation of the Chinese government. The Independent Electoral Commission asked to be a monitor in the 2007 East Timor elections. In 2007 he participated in a conference on the Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa: What Progress Toward Institutionalization (Ghana) and he attended the Second World Renewable Energy Assembly (Germany). He was part of a 2017 delegation to Germany, per invitation of the Hans Seidel Stiftung, to observe the Bundestag elections. In 2018 Mr Holomisa joined the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence on a benchmarking trip to Denmark and Sweden.

Mr Holomisa has also mediated in conflict between the Methodist of Southern Africa and the United Methodist of Southern Africa and he played a mediating role in solving taxi conflict in Transkei and Cape Town. He is regularly invited to address business, academia and civil society.

He served as the Deputy Chairperson of the National Defence Force Service Commission for nine years.

Mr Holomisa had in the past served on the Defence, as well as on the Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Portfolio Committees of the National Assembly.

Mr Holomisa plays a leading role in promoting the ethics of good governance and has exposed alleged corruption with the Government Employees Pension Fund’s investment in the Public Investment Corporation. He consistently called on President Ramaphosa to act and in the end, it led to the institution of the commission of inquiry into allegations for impropriety regarding the Public Investment Corporation; the ‘Mpati Commission’.

In 2017 author and political journalist Eric Naki penned: “Bantu Holomisa: The Game Changer: an Authorised Biography” which gives a detailed and frank account of Mr Holomisa’s life.

He is an able athlete, who has played rugby, soccer and tennis and was vice-captain of the Parliamentary Rugby Squad from 1994-1996. Mr Holomisa keeps fit with the occasional golf game. As a sports fan, in general, he is also an avid Kaizer Chiefs Football Club supporter and has attended all the Rugby World Cup final matches since 1995, with the latest in 2019 in Japan, where he witnessed Springbok captain Siya Kolisi and his team hold the Web Ellis Trophy high.

He is married, with two adult children.

*last updated on 17 July 2024