From DefenceWeb,
President Jacob Zuma has appointed the current South African ambassador Welile Nhlapo as his new National Security Special Adviser and former transport minister Mac Maharaj as Special Envoy.
Zuma’s office, making the announcement on Friday, said the Presidency “will be greatly strengthened by these appointments. Both individuals bring to their positions extensive experience, expertise and knowledge.”
Nhlapo has previously served as Special Envoy to Burundi. He was the head of the technical team that assisted then-Deputy President Zuma in peace negotiations there.
After going went into exile in Botswana in 1974, Nhlapo served as the ANC Chief Representative in Botswana and joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1994.
In 1995 he was appointed South African Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
The Presidency notes in a potted biography that in 1998 he was appointed Deputy Director-General responsible for Africa in the Department of Foreign Affairs.
In 2001 he was appointed Head of the Presidential Support Unit which advised the Presidency on conflict situations in Africa and the Middle East. He assumed the post of Ambassador to the US in August 2007.
Maharaj was Minister of Transport in the administration of Nelson Mandela. He played a key role in the negotiation process that led the way to South Africa’s first democratic elections, and was joint secretary in 1994 of the Transitional Executive Council (TEC).
A political activist since the early 1950s, he was a member of the African National Congress’ armed wing uMkhonto we Sizwe. He went into exile in 1976 after escaping from the house arrest order that was immediately imposed on him in Durban after serving 12 years imprisonment.
After 12 years in exile, Maharaj returned to South Africa as commander of Operation Vula. He served on the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) and was a member of the SA Communist Party’s Political bureau and Central Committee.
Nhlapo and Maharaj’s exact mandates were not announced, although the former will likely play a role on the Cabinet-level National Security Council (NSC).
The NSC was the result of a Cabinet investigation set up in late 1999 to “investigate how the concept of national security should be reflected in the structure of the country and how this relates to operational security coordination,” according to a November 2000 ad hoc publication by the Institute of Strategic Studies at the University of Pretoria.
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