Poet, artist … and now transport minister

New transport minister Ben Martins took the oath of office on June 13, with Sindisiwe Chikunga as his deputy, replacing Jeremy Cronin who takes up the post of deputy public works minister. But who is this man Martins? That was a question that FTW was met with as we did a round of people in the freight industry asking for views. In the words of Gavin Kelly, technical and operations manager of the Road Freight Association (RFA): “An unknown character. Even the people in the department of transport don’t know much about him.” He did, though, wonder if he would be a good replacement for previous minister, Sbu Ndebele, who he said had, despite his failings, at least supported the fuel levy in relation to the payment of the Gauteng freeways. “Ndebele was not convinced about the user-pays concept of e-tolling,” he said. And one suspicion that is going the rounds is that Martins may have been selected by President Jacob Zuma in the short-term because he would toe the government line and support the extremely contentious e-tolling. However, who is the man? Dikobe wa Mogale Ben Martins was born on September 2, 1956 in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. He attended school at St Joseph’s School in Aliwal North, Bechet College in Durban and Coronationville High School in Johannesburg. He did his tertiary education at the University of South Africa (Unisa) where he graduated as Bachelor of Arts (BA); at the Univ ersity of Kwa Zulu Natal where he added a Bachelor of Law (LLB); and at the University of Cape Town, where he read for his Master of Law (LLM) in international law, and did a post-graduate diploma in management practice (PG Dip Man Prac). He also served in parliament as an MP from 1994 to 2010, and as deputy minister of public enterprises from 2010 until he took over his transport post this month. Martins is also known as a political activist, was a member of the Black Consciousness Movement in the 1970s, is a member of the SA Communist Party (SACP) and of the African National Congress (ANC). But on his social side, he is a poet, with the poetry anthologies Baptism of Fire (1984) and Prison Poems (1992) – both published by Ad Donker – to his name as printed works, and the position of patron of the Congress of South African Writers. He is also an artist and attended art classes at Bill Ainsley’s Studio and at the Federated Union of Black Artists (FUBA). He certainly can’t be described as a part-time amateur wielder of the paintbrush, but is a practising artist whose work forms part of the permanent art collection of the Killie Campbell Collection of the University of Kwa Zulu Natal, the Pretoria and Johannesburg Art Galleries, as well as that of numerous private collections. His drawings, paintings, graphics and posters are signed Dikobe.