 He grew up in Alexandra, Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng).His parents, Louis Mathakoe Motlanthe, a cleaner and Masefako Sophia Madingoane (d. 2014), a domestic worker married in 1946.Motlanthe (also known as Mkhuluwa, the elder one) has two younger brothers, Tlatlane Ernest and Lekota Sydney.