Gaolatlhe Godfrey Oliphant (born 27 March 1959) is a South African politician and former trade unionist from the Northern Cape.

He went on to hold senior office in all three wings of the Tripartite Alliance: he served as deputy provincial chairperson of the ANC in the Northern Cape, as national vice-president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and, between 1995 and 2022, as a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party.

[1] After finishing his primary education in 1974 in Warrenton, he attended Huhudi High School in Vryburg, where he became involved in anti-apartheid politics.

[1] He later said that, infected with political "militancy" at high school, the living and working conditions of his fellow mineworkers politicised him further.

[4] He was briefly absent from the National Assembly for three months after the April 2009 general election, when he failed to gain re-election to his seat, but he was sworn back in on 5 August 2009 to fill the casual vacancy created by Ngconde Balfour's resignation.

However, in August 2007 he was replaced by Ismail Vadi and transferred to the chair of the less prestigious Portfolio Committee on Science and Technology, a demotion that was regarded as the result of his lukewarm relationship with President Thabo Mbeki.

[4] On 31 October 2010, in his first cabinet reshuffle as President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma appointed Oliphant as Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources.

During that time he served under three consecutive Mineral Resources Ministers: Shabangu was succeeded by Ngoako Ramatlhodi after the 2014 general election,[15] and then by Mosebenzi Zwane after a 2015 cabinet reshuffle.

[16][17] His duties included the chairmanship of the Presidential Inter-Ministerial Committee on Revitalising Distressed Mining Communities, which reported directly to President Zuma's office.

[20] Conversely, Miningmx agreed that he was "capable and knowledgeable of the industry" but regarded him as unlikely to be promoted to a cabinet position "owing to the fact he doesn't carry huge favour with Zuma".