Zweledinga Pallo Jordan (born 22 May 1942) is a South African politician. He was a member of the National Executive Committee of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election installe ...

, and was a cabinet minister from 1994 until 2009.

Early life

Jordan is the son of the academics Archibald Campbell Jordan and Phyllis Ntantala-Jordan. Like his parents, Jordan was active in the Non-European Unity Movement against

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid wa ...

. He then joined the

ANC The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

and went into exile, studying in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

and the United States.Zweledinga Pallo Jordan
South African History Online

Political career

Jordan worked for the ANC in London and in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n states. In 1982 he narrowly escaped the detonation of the letter bomb which the apartheid regime had sent to

Ruth First Heloise Ruth First (4 May 1925 – 17 August 1982) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar. She was assassinated in Mozambique, where she was working in exile, by a parcel bomb built by South African police. Family and edu ...

and killed her.Miracle Rising: South Africa
History Channel In 1985, he was elected to the ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC). He served as administrative secretary of the NEC Secretariat (1985–1988), on the NEC's Strategy and Tactics Committee as convenor (1985–1989), on the NEC's sub-committee on negotiations and the NEC's sub-committee on Constitutional Guidelines and as the Director of Information and Publicity (1989). Jordan returned to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

after the unbanning of the ANC in 1990. Having already participated in the 1987 negotiations in Senegal, he was also a negotiator in the

CODESA The apartheid system in South Africa was ended through a series of bilateral and multi-party negotiations between 1990 and 1993. The negotiations culminated in the passage of a new interim Constitution in 1993, a precursor to the Constitution ...

. In 1994, he was elected to be a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the r ...

for the ANC. He became Minister of Posts, Telecommunications, and Broadcasting (1994–1996) and subsequently Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (1996–1999). From 1999 to 2004, he served as Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the National Assembly. After the 2004 National Elections, Jordan was appointed Minister of Arts and Culture by President Thabo Mbeki, a post he held from April 2004 to May 2009. In the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

Province town of Lady Grey, a school was named after Jordan, called the "Dr Pallo Jordan Primary School".

2009 scandal

In 2009 Jordan was forced to step down as Minister of Arts and Culture after it was discovered that he lied about his academic record. He studied at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

in the United States and at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...

(LSE). His official biographies, as well as his official CV, claimed that he received a PhD and he has presented himself under the title Dr for numerous years, but a newspaper investigation revealed that he did not complete his degree at Wisconsin–Madison.Pallo Jordan's phantom doctorate
''

Times Live ''TimesLIVE'' is a South African online newspaper that started as ''The Times'' daily newspaper. ''The Times'' print version was an offshoot of ''Sunday Times'', to whose subscribers it was delivered gratis; non-subscribers paid R2.50 per edi ...

'', 4 August 2014 On 11 August 2014, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe announced that Jordan had resigned from Parliament and apologised to the ruling party after reports that his qualifications were false. The ANC statement also revealed that Jordan had resigned from the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC and from the ANC. At the same time, Jordan was fired from his position as a '' Business Day'' columnist because he failed to submit his weekly column for the publication. The ANC's Chief Whip in Parliament

Stone Sizani Phumelele Stone Sizani (born 2 March 1954) is a South African politician who was, until his resignation on 2 March 2016, a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa and the African National Congress Chief Whip. It has been reported that upon ...

said that with or without academic qualifications Jordan remains a source of pride for the party.Shamed, Pallo Jordan resigns

Independent Online ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

, 11 August 2014

References

External links

Government biography
(archived link) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Pallo 1942 births Living people People from Kroonstad Xhosa people African National Congress politicians Communications ministers of South Africa Arts and culture ministers of South Africa Members of the National Assembly of South Africa University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Alumni of the London School of Economics