Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe received an MBA (Master of Business Administration) during a virtual graduation ceremony on Saturday.
The 65-year-old Mantashe shared photos of the occasion on Twitter:
Studying for an MBA requires a lot of discipline, hard work, & ability to stick to time. However, when you achieve your MBA, you don't feel the length of the journey. It takes courage & it is an important qualification. I encourage young people to study pic.twitter.com/8lpuuIHgXu
— Gwede Mantashe (@GwedeMantashe1) June 5, 2021
He received the qualification from private higher education institution Mancosa (Management College of Southern Africa).
The two-year long-distance course requires a dissertation, and Mantashe also had to complete modules in a range of subjects, including financial management and corporate strategy.
"Studying for an MBA requires a lot of discipline, hard work, and ability to stick to time. However, when you achieve your MBA, you don't feel the length of the journey," Mantashe tweeted. "It takes courage and it is an important qualification."
The total cost of the MBA programme ranges between R73 000 and R83 780 - dependent on the payment plan chosen. Mancosa describes its MBA as specifically tailored for flexible learning and "speaking to the management, leadership and business needs of a dynamic global market".
Distance learning is not new to Mantashe. In the late 1990s he enrolled with the University of South Africa (Unisa) and first received a B.Com, followed by a B.Com Honours degree in 2002. He also received a Master's degree from the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) in 2008.
After growing up in the rural Eastern Cape, Mantashe started his career as a "recreation officer" at Western Deep Levels mine in Carletonville, later working as a welfare officer at Prieska Copper Mines.
He co-founded a branch of the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1980s, and by 1998, was the union's general secretary. In 2006, he became an executive director of the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the next year was elected as chair of the SA Communist Party, as well as secretary general of the ANC. He became national chairperson of the ANC in 2017. He has been mining minister since 2018.