Tasneem Essop

Tasneem Essop is currently the Provincial Minister of Environment, Planning and Economic Development in the Western Cape.

An educator by profession, she started her career in 1985, teaching English, History and Guidance at Glendale Senior Secondary in Mitchell’s Plain.

Even though her teaching career appeared to be brief, she left the school in 1988, her love for education continued to play a dominant role in her career.

Minister Essop worked as an education officer for the British council for two years before taking up a post as education and media officer at the South African Municipal Workers Union; she went on to become Cosatu’s regional education officer, a position she held from 1992 to 1994. After the first democratic elections in 1994 she became a member of the Provincial Parliament.

In 2001 then Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk appointed her as Western Cape provincial minister of Transport, Public Works & Property Management. In May 2004, she was appointed as provincial minister of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning. Following a cabinet reshuffle in July 2005, Tasneem Essop was made the Provincial Minister of Environment, Planning and Economic Development.

She has also served as the African National Congress (ANC)’s Western Cape spokesperson on Finance & Public Accounts, and as chairperson of the National Association of Public Accounts Committees (APAC) South Africa.

In 2005 she became the co-chair of the Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development (the NRG4SD), an international body, formed after the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in September 2002.