Pursuant to the 2014 general election, Majola ended his union career to take up an ANC seat in the National Assembly.
After the 2019 general election, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Majola to his deputy ministerial position, which he held throughout the sixth Parliament.
[7] Indeed, under Majola, Nehawu became highly influential in the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and more broadly in the governing Tripartite Alliance.
[15] His election did not come to fruition, however, and, ahead of the 2009 general election, he declined a nomination to stand for a parliamentary seat on the ANC's ticket; since Nehawu president Noluthando Sibiya had accepted her own nomination, he said that he would remain with the union in order to maintain a balance between the union's external influence and its internal strength.
By 2011, Majola was a prominent member of a group of labour leaders – also including Blade Nzimande of the SACP, Frans Baleni of the National Union of Mineworkers, Mugwena Maluleke of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union, and Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini – who were known to support Zuma's bid for a second term in the ANC presidency.
[17][18][19] In February 2012, the Sowetan reported that Majola had openly urged workers to rally behind Zuma during an address at the World Federation of Trade Unions in Johannesburg; Majola, however, clarified that it would be "inappropriate" for him to take a stance in the ANC's succession debate and that he was only expressing Cosatu's long-established support for the incumbent ANC leadership.
[20] Also during this period, in mid-2012, Nehawu endorsed proposals to nationalise key economic sectors,[14][21] although it was not clear whether Majola personally supported the policy.
[19] The ANC's 53rd National Conference was held at Mangaung in December 2012, and Zuma won a second term.
[18][24] In August 2011, the Mail & Guardian reported on an informal campaign by Zuma's supporters to oust Vavi and replace him with Majola.
[31] Bheki Ntshalintshali, who went on to become Cosatu general secretary, alleged that Majola and other pro-Zuma members – Nzimande, Thulas Nxesi, and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe – had formed an informal caucus, the so-called "progressive leaders", that had dominated the Central Executive Committee.
He blamed the caucus for encouraging factionalism within the union federation during Zuma's presidency, particularly after Vavi broke with them.
[32] In Ntshalintshali's recollection: Nzimande, Vavi, Mantashe, Majola and Nxesi were people who were sitting together deciding before the meetings of Cosatu.
[33][6] In addition to raising concern about corruption at Cosatu headquarters, he accused Vavi of "deviation" from Cosatu policy,[33] saying that Nehawu had concluded: that there was a political strategic rupture within the federation, in particular with regard to our strategic posture as Cosatu on the one hand and the political views and organisational practice of the general secretary [Vavi] on the other hand... it is this political strategic rupture that constitutes the essence of the current internal instability and disarray within the federation.
[6]In the same speech, in further veiled criticism of Vavi, Majola argued against the notion that the trade unions should take an "oppositional" stance with respect to the Tripartite Alliance partners and government.
Cosatu is not an oppositional watchdog to the ANC and the alliance, and we are strategically opposed to all forces, be they nongovernmental organisations, institutes, political parties or the media, that are positioned as such.
[2] In a September 2015 interview with City Press, Majola committed to ensuring transparency in the deal and said that his committee would seek to block it if it was ill-advised, saying:I think we have entered a new phase of the nuclear procurement process.
I am certain that if the legislature is going to proceed in such a way that it becomes just a rubber stamp, then it will not be in the interests of the spirit of the Constitution, which is meant to ensure there can be balance in the exercise of power.
[44][50] A source told the Mail & Guardian that, until his promotion, Majola had been "very unhappy for a long time in Parliament as he was never considered for a [cabinet] post".