From 2005 to 2014, he took a hiatus from legislative politics to work in business and public administration, including as correctional services commissioner in Kwa-Zulu-Natal and as director-general in the Department of Labour.
After a cabinet reshuffle, he served as Minister of Public Works from March 2017 until February 2018, when he was sacked by Zuma's successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa.
[2] From 1982 to 1986, he attended Amangwe High School in Matshana, where he was active in student politics,[5] but he did not matriculate: he failed his exams twice and missed a third sitting because he had been detained by the apartheid police.
[8][4] In May 2002,[9] Nhleko was appointed as Chief Whip of the Majority Party after the incumbent, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, became Deputy Minister of Home Affairs.
[12] The Mail & Guardian lamented his departure from Parliament, saying that he (along with Ned Kekana, Vusi Mavimbela, and Raenette Taljaard) had formerly "seemed poised to make it a site of interesting politics".
[5] Nhleko's activities in the Department of Labour were later the subject of a large civil lawsuit, launched by a founding member of the Workers Association Union.
[23] Nhleko also established a multi-disciplinary police task force to investigate and seek to prevent political killings in South Africa, announced in June 2016.
Following the Public Protector's report on the saga, which found Zuma personally liable to pay for the upgrades, Nhleko was appointed to conduct the government's own investigation.
Nhleko had apparently helped the members of the squad gain employment in law enforcement agencies, including the Hawks and police crime intelligence.
[34] According to McBride, the members of the squad, mostly from northern KwaZulu-Natal, had been recruited through Indoni, a youth moral regeneration movement founded by Nhleko's partner, Nomcebo Mthembu.
"[37] Just after midnight in the early hours of 31 March 2017, Zuma announced a controversial cabinet reshuffle that saw Nhleko appointed as Minister of Public Works.
[38] Nhleko announced a target of creating 1.4 million job opportunities in the 2017/2018 financial year through the department's extended public works programme and other schemes.
[40] Until then, Nhleko had served in the cabinet from outside Parliament; the day after Ramaphosa's reshuffle, on 27 February, he was sworn in to an ANC seat in the National Assembly, replacing Makhosi Khoza, who had been expelled from the party.
[41] As an ordinary Member of Parliament, Nhleko joined the Standing Committee on Finance, where he served until he left the National Assembly in the 2019 general election.
[43] Mbalula responded to the letter by redoubling his criticism of Nhleko, Tweeting that, "Indeed our revolution did produce villains,"[45] and the ANC's KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary, Bheki Mtolo, was quoted as having said, "It's good riddance, it's long overdue.