Born on 10 August 1955,[1] Njikelana rose to prominence as a trade unionist based in East London in the former Cape Province.
[4][5] At the 1981 conference of the Anti-SAIC Council, an early precursor to the formation of the United Democratic Front (UDF), Njikelana made a speech as one of two representatives (the other being Samson Ndou) of the black labour movement.
[2] In addition to being detained several times for organising illegal strikes,[6] Njikelana and other SAAWU leaders faced harsh state repression for opposing the award of nominal independence of the nearby Ciskei bantustan.
[8] In May 1981, Njikelana was arrested at the house of Neil Aggett, his friend and colleague in the labour movement; he was detained at John Vorster Square for ten weeks before being released.
[14] After the end of apartheid, Njikelana represented the African National Congress (ANC) as a local councillor in the City of Johannesburg's Eastern Metropolitan Council from 1995 to 1998; he was assigned to the municipality's urban planning and development portfolio.
From 2015 to 2018, he was a research fellow at the University of Johannesburg's Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development, and he is a former chairperson of the South African Independent Power Producers Association.