Former agriculture and energy minister and ANC national executive committee member Tina Joemat-Pettersson has died, the ruling party confirmed on Monday evening.
Former agriculture and energy minister and ANC national executive committee member Tina Joemat-Pettersson has died, the ruling party confirmed on Monday evening.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved comrade,” the ANC said in a statement.
Joemat-Pettersson served as energy minister in Jacob Zuma’s cabinet from 2014 to 2017, after five years as minister of agriculture.
She resigned from parliament in 2017 but returned after the 2019 national elections, becoming the chairwoman of the portfolio committee on police.
She was 59, and had been ill for several years.
Joemat-Pettersson’s stint as energy minister was marred by the controversy over the 2015 sale by the Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF) of 10.3-million barrels of the country’s oil reserves for less than the going market rate.
In September the previous year, she signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Russia as part of the Zuma administration’s plans to procure 9 600 megawatts of nuclear energy capacity.
At the time, Russia’s Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation said it would provide up to eight nuclear reactors to South Africa in less than a decade but the proposed deal was halted.
In recent years, the former minister has been a staunch ally to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Joemat-Pettersson is survived by two sons.