Education
Leipzig University.
Leipzig University.
Since his return from exile in 1990, he has directed the Department of Legal and Constitutional Affairs. He has helped to set up the Centre for Development Studies and the South African Legal Defence Fund, both at the University of the Western Cape. Skweyiya also serves on the board of trustees of the National Commission for the Rights of Children.
He was also elected as president of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization"s Management of Social Transformations.
Skweyiya was first elected to Parliament in 1994, and he joined the Cabinet as Minister of Public Service and Administration in the same year. He was moved to the position of Minister of Social Development under President Thabo Mbeki in 1999.
After 15 years in the Cabinet and Parliament, his retirement from both was announced on 6 May 2009, following the April 2009 general election. As a result, he was not sworn in for the new parliamentary term.
According to African National Congress Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe, Skweyiya voluntarily chose to leave parliamentary politics, "contrary to current speculative and surreptitious commentary".
He praised Skweyiya"s "immense skill and expertise" and said that the African National Congress still wanted to make use of his abilities. He was appointed by President Jacob Zuma to as the South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland in September 2009.
Skweyiya was re-elected to the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress in 2007. He did not leave politics altogether, however. He remained a member of the African National Congress National Executive Committee and on 7 May 2009 the party announced that he would have a new post working at the African National Congress Presidency.