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Obed Mlaba

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Obed Thembinkosi Mlaba, born in 1943 is the current High Commissioner of South Africa to the United Kingdom, the sixth since 1994. He is a former mayor of Durban, one of the biggest and commercially active cities of South Africa.

Early Life and career

Mlaba was born near Estcourt, KwaZulu Natal to Japhet and Garlina Mlaba and was one of three children and the only boy. He went to Inchanga Primary School and then St Augustine where he obtained his matric[1]. He holds BA in Administration and an MBA

He grew up in the apartheid era and the events of that period heavily influenced his views and expectations. He developed keen political awareness and became a member of the African National Congress, ANC when it was unbanned in 1990[2].

Mlaba started as social worker in a government department before moving into the private sector where he has held positions that include personnel officer, industrial relations specialist as well as senior managerial positions in the business development. In the process he has worked for some of the biggest companies in South Africa such as Grinrod and Co, South African Breweries and Eskom, the energy giant[3].

Over the years he has also been involved in the retail and groceries businesses and became an entrepreneur, building his own supermarket chain.

Throughout his career, he has sat on a number of boards; Thekwini Business Development Centre, South African Breweries, Osri Telecommunications and others. In 1994/95 he was chair of the Durban Metropolitan Council. During this time he was active member of the team tasked with the development and drafting of local government legislation[4].

In 1995 he became the chairman of the KwaZulu Natal Local Government Association and deputy chairman of national equivalent, the South African Local Government Association, SALGA[5].


Obed Mlaba (left)

Criticism

In late 2005 the New York Times reported that shack dwellers in the Foreman Road shanty town had burnt an effigy of Mlaba after they had been banned from staging a march on the mayor to protest against his housing policy.[6] A few days after the march Mlaba called a press conference at which he announced that a large amount of Huletts (now trading as Moreland) land would soon be made available for a R10 billion housing project for shack dwellers.[7] Moreland denied that there was such a project and later went on to announce a commercial project on the land.

Corruption Investigation

Mlaba is currently under investigation for corruption.[8]

References

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