Dan Mohapi grew up in Soweto. He was first involved in the political struggle in the 1970s as a high school student. He completed his high school education at Sekano Ntoane, Soweto, in 1976. He was part of a religious youth movement and from his experiences in the youth movement and as a worker, he joined the progressive trade union movement.
When he became unemployed, he began organising unemployed workers under the banner of the Congress of South African Congress of Trade Unions (COSATU). In the late eighties, he was elected the General Secretary of the National Unemployed Workers Coordinating Committee (NUWCC).
In the early nineties, he was elected to leadership structures of the Construction and Allied Workers Union (CAWU), a COSATU affiliate that was later merged into the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Mohapi was later appointed as the COSATU Witwatersrand Regional Education Secretary. Then in 1996, he was elected as the COSATU Witwatersrand Regional Secretary (one of the biggest COSATU Regions). His leadership position in the region, allowed him to serve on COSATU national structures.
In August 1997, in Johannesburg, about 12 000 marchers presented a memorandum to the offices of Business South Africa, while in Pretoria a similar march ended with the handing over of a memorandum to the Department of Labour. Johannesburg police opened a docket against Mohapi for contravening the 1993 Regulation of Gatherings Act by deviating from the march's pre-agreed course and starting time. The march was started ahead of schedule and left out the offices of the Labour Department, where a memorandum was also to be handed over.
In April 1998, Mohapi was elected to the Gauteng Provincial Executive Committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP).
In 1999, he was elected as the African National Congress (ANC) Member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature where he served as a Chairperson of the Economic Affairs Portfolio Committee until the end of term in 2004. After the 2004 Provincial elections, he served as the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Transport, Roads and Works. That same year he was elected as Provincial Deputy Secretary of the SACP for the Gauteng Province. Mohapi occupied both positions until his death.
Dan Mohapi passed away on 28 February 2006.
Makhura D.M. (2006) ANC Gauteng Province Pays Tribute to Comrade Dan Mohapi [online] Available at www.amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com Accessed on 25 November 2011|COSATU (2006), Dan Mohapi, from the Congress of South African Trade Unions, [online] Available at www.cosatu.org.za. Accessed on 25 November 2011|Mail and Guardian, (2004). New SACP leaders chosen in Gauteng from Mail and Guardian online. Available at www.mg.co.za. Accessed on 25 November 2011|Mail and Guardian online (1997), Cosatu Jo'burg and Pretoria marches peaceful from Mail and Guardian [online] Available at www.mg.co.za. Accessed on 25 November 2011|Umsebenzi. (1998), Provincial Focus, Gauteng [online] Available at www.sacp.org.za. Accessed on 28 November 2011