Current Positions
Dr Chana Pilane-Majake was appointed as Deputy Minister of Public Service and Administration on 5 August 2021. Dr Chana Pilane-Majake was Deputy Minister of Public Service and Administration from 27 February 2018 until 25 May 2019.
She has been a Member of Parliament of the Republic of South Africa since 21 May 2014.
Academic Qualifications
She holds a Doctoral Degree from the University of South Africa; a Master’s Degree in Social Science from the University of Natal, now part of University of Zululand; a Bachelors degree and Honours degree from University of the North, now University of Limpopo; and a Diploma in Development Studies from Stanford University, California, USA.
Career/Positions/Memberships/Other Activities
She was previously appointed as Chief Executive Officer for the Commission on Gender Equality (CGE) in 2002, a position she held for eight years before joining VIP Consulting Engineers as Executive Director for Human Resources, where she worked until her deployment to Parliament. Before joining the CGE, she worked for a bilateral programme between South Africa and the European Union – the EU Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa – as a consultant and project officer, assisting in funding human rights organisations promoting the culture of human rights in South Africa.
Dr Pilane-Majake was instrumental in getting the European Union Parliament funded office established in South Africa. She also has extensive lecturing experience at University of the North and University of Natal respectively, teaching Human Rights and Development Studies.
She is a Founder member of a number of schools for children with disabilities.
Dr Pilane-Majake has experience in organizing major international and national events that promote South Africa as a destination of choice. One such event was when she became Head of the SA delegation as the 5th President to bid with the support of President Nelson Mandela to host in South Africa South Africa, the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) controlled by the 13th International Congress on Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.
The bid was won and the Congress was held for approximately 3 500 delegates from all over the world in the year 2000 at the Durban International Convention Centre.
Together with the National Children’s Rights Committee, Dr Pilane-Majake was part of a team that developed the National Programme of Action for Children of South Africa.
She served on different Boards in pursuance of political, economic and social development of the People of South Africa and the world.
During the struggle days, she worked tirelessly on the ground for SABSWA an affiliate of UDF on a number of development projects with women, children detainees and Scandinavian country funded unionization work.
At the height of political violence in Kwazulu-Natal where she lived at the time, she worked as a peace broker and counsellor for displaced families.
The Deputy Minister was also part of the National Co-ordination Committee for Repatriation from 1992 to 1994, receiving and resettling expatriates back home.
Dr Pilane- Majake also has extensive knowledge and understanding of SADC, African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN) Systems and has lead the South African National NGO Planning Committee KwaZulu-Natal Delegation to the 4th United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing China in 1995.
She has also participated in a number of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) Session at UN Headquarters in New York, USA as part of the SA Technical Team. In 2019, she represented South Africa as part of High Level Panel discussion on Sustainable Development at the UN Headquarters in New York, USA.
The Deputy Minister has also published a number of articles in various journals and was instrumental to the process of putting together the SA Gender Resource and Training Manual that has been widely utilized by non-governmental and government departments in gender transformation in South Africa.
She was part of team of experts that developed an AU Reporting Framework for Heads of States on Gender Equality in Africa. A framework produced for African Heads of States to make each other to account in terms of advancement of the status of women in their respective countries.
Dr Pilane-Majake has been a member of the ANC from her student days working with structures on the ground including South African Black Social Workers Association that was liaising with internal and exiled leadership of the ANC.
She was part of the team that worked towards launching the Progressive Women’s Movement of South Africa. In the 4th Parliament, she served as a member of the Justice & Constitutional Development Portfolio Committee, ad Hoc Committee for Code of Judicial Conduct (For Judges) and Public Enterprises Portfolio Committee.
In the 5th Parliament, she served as a member and Whip for the Justice and Correctional Services Portfolio Committee and Whip for Peace and Stability Cluster in Parliament.
She is currently, in the 6th Parliament serving as a Programming Whip of Parliament, a member of the Ethics Committee and Multi Party Women’s Caucus Committee in Parliament.
As Deputy Minister for the Public Service and Administration, Dr Pilane-Majake works tirelessly towards improvement of a people first public service that promotes Batho Pele principles and following on sub regional, regional and international trends.
Source: Public Service and Administration
