He rose to prominence as the Provincial Secretary of the Western Cape branch of the African National Congress (ANC), an office he held between 1998 and 2008.
He joined the National Assembly in the 2014 general election and in the aftermath was appointed as a deputy minister by President Jacob Zuma.
Born on 31 July 1964,[citation needed] Skwatsha matriculated at Fezeka Senior Secondary School in Gugulethu, a township in Cape Town.
Early in his tenure, in July 1999, he and five other ANC members were arrested in connection with the 1997 murder of a political activist, Milton Mbewana.
[2] Concurrently with his party office, Skwatsha held business interests, including in a private security company.
[9][10][11] In the aftermath, the ANC said that Skwatsha had agreed to step down from the Western Cape Provincial Cabinet in order to focus on his full-time party office.
[26] In July 2009, the ANC's national leadership implemented Nissen's recommendation, dissolving the Western Cape Provincial Executive Committee and therefore removing Skwatsha from his office prematurely.
[27] Skwatsha conceded that the provincial party was affected by factionalism, but pointed out that he had not had sufficient time to address it during his short tenure in office.
[27] That campaign lasted almost two years:[28] the provincial party did not hold fresh leadership elections until it met in Cape Town on 12 February 2011.
[29] Yet when the conference opened, Skwatsha unexpectedly withdrew from the race, allowing Marius Fransman to gain election unopposed.
[30] Although removed from top party office, Skwatsha remained an ordinary Member of the Provincial Parliament during this period.