Executive Board
Thembelani (Thulas) Waltermade NXESI (President)
 Thembelani (Thulas) Waltermade NXESI |
Thembelani (Thulas) Waltermade Nxesi is the current President of Education International (EI)and the General Secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU).
Born in 1959 in Eastern Cape in South Africa, Thulas Nxesi became a founder member of the National Education Union of South Africa (NEUSA) in 1985, after graduating from Fort Hare University with a Bachelor of Arts. In 1987, Thulas Nxesi completed both his Higher Education Diploma from the University of South Africa and his Bachelor of Education from the University of the Witwatersrand. From 1985 to 1990, Thulas Nxesi taught geography at the Ikusasa Senior Secondary School, Tembisa, Gauteng, South Africa. He became the school’s head of the social sciences department in 1988.
Thulas Nxesi’s experiences in trade unionism started in 1985, when he became chair of the Tembisa branch and PWV region of NEUSA. In 1988, he became its national General Secretary. In 1990, he led NEUSA in national unity talks culminating in the formation of SADTU - the first national, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic teachers union, uniting a number of racially- and ethnically-defined organisations across the country. He was Assistant General Secretary of SADTU from to 1990 to 1995, and has been its General Secretary since 1995. Under his leadership, SADTU launched an organized recruitment strategy, establishing union structures nationally, provincially, regionally and at branch level. Membership increased from 30,000 to 220,000 between 1990 and 2000. From 1990 to 1994, Thulas Nxesi led campaigns for full and equal trade union rights for educators and public sector workers, and took SADTU into the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Thulas Nxesi’s success as a teacher union leader in South Africa led to his election to the EI African Regional Committee and to the EI Executive Board. He was a Vice President of EI from 2001 to 2004.
In 2004, Thulas Nxesi was elected President of Education International at its World Congress held in Porto Alegre, Brazil.