He joined the migratory labour force in the mining industry and became a Recreation Officer at Western Deep Levels Mine, in 1975. He later moved to Prieska Copper Mines where he was Welfare Officer until 1982.<\/p>\n

In 1982 he co-founded the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and became the Witbank branch chairperson a position he held until 1984.<\/p>\n

In 1985 he was elected NUM Regional Secretary. He became the NUM\u2019s National Organiser in 1988 a position he held until 1993. He later became its Regional Coordinator between 1993 to 1994.<\/p>\n

He served as the Assistant General Secretary of the NUM, from 1994 to 1998, whereupon he was elected as the first worker General Secretary at the union\u2019s congress in 1998.<\/p>\n

He relinquished his position as the General Secretary of the NUM in May 2006 at the union\u2019s 12th National Congress.<\/p>\n

In 2007 he was elected Secretary-General of the African National Congress at the party\u2019s 52nd national conference.<\/p>\n

In February 2010\u00a0Julius Malema\u00a0called on Mantashe to resign after Malema was booed at the SA Communist Party\u2019s special conference in Polokwane.<\/p>\n

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) publicly backed Mantashe. \u201cMantashe is being singled out and targeted because he is a communist,\u201d Numsa general-secretary Irvan Jim said.<\/p>\n