Mbhazima Shilowa

South African politician (born 1958)

Mbhazima Samuel (Sam) Shilowa, correct Tsonga spelling "Xilowa" (born 30 April 1958) is a South African politician. A former Premier of Gauteng province while a member of the African National Congress, Shilowa left the party to help form the opposition Congress of the People, with whom he was briefly the Deputy President. In the 2009 general election, Shilowa was elected to parliament with COPE.

Shilowa was born at Olifantshoek in what is now called the Limpopo Province and completed his secondary education at Akani High School in 1978. The following year he moved to Johannesburg to seek employment and started working at John Weinberg Hardware in Germiston. He then moved to Anglo Alpha Cement in Roodepoort and later joined PSG Services in Johannesburg.

In 1981, Shilowa joined the trade union movement and became a shop steward fighting for better working conditions and defending the rights of his fellow workers. He was elected Vice President and later President of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union. Shilowa played a prominent role in the formation of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in 1985 and was elected Deputy Chairperson of COSATU’s Gauteng region. In 1991, he was elected Deputy General Secretary of COSATU and in 1993 became the General Secretary. He was succeeded by Paul Mashatile. Shilowa later resigned from the ANC and announced his support for Mosiuoa Lekota's movement for a national congress.

Lekota expelled Shilowa from the party after an internal hearing found him guilty of mismanaging parliamentary funds. He was found guilty of wrongfully authorising the transfer of R5m from the parliamentary allowance accounts to Cope's party accounts, and authorising a payment of more than R2m for purposes that were not legitimate. Shilowa has denied the charges and is challenging his expulsion in court.

He belongs to the Tsonga tribe and the appropriate spelling of his surname is "Xilowa". He has two children.