29 Facts About Cassel Mathale

Cassel Mathale was born on 23 January 1961 and is a South African politician who was the third Premier of Limpopo between March 2009 and July 2013.

Cassel Mathale is currently the Deputy Minister of Police in the South African government and before that was Deputy Minister of Small Business Development from February 2018 to May 2019.

Formerly an anti-apartheid activist in the United Democratic Front, Mathale began his political career in the Limpopo provincial legislature and in the Limpopo branch of the African National Congress.

Cassel Mathale served as Provincial Secretary of the ANC in Limpopo from 2002 to 2008, when he was elected the party's Provincial Chairperson.

When Moloto resigned in March 2009, Cassel Mathale became acting Premier and then was formally elected as Premier by the provincial legislature.

Cassel Charlie Mathale was born on 23 January 1961 in Tzaneen outside Polokwane in what was then the Northern Transvaal, now Limpopo province.

Cassel Mathale matriculated at Phangasasa High School in Tzaneen and earned a Bachelor's degree in social sciences from the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town.

Cassel Mathale was a member of the regional executive committee of the United Democratic Front in Northern Transvaal from 1986 to 1990 and was president of the South African Youth Congress in Northern Transvaal in 1990.

Cassel Mathale was detained between 1986 and 1989 under the Terrorism Act.

Additionally, in 1990, Cassel Mathale was appointed as a member of its interim leadership core of the Northern Transvaal branch of the African National Congress, which had recently been unbanned by the apartheid government and was re-establishing its structures inside South Africa.

In South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, Cassel Mathale was elected as a Member of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature and became Commissioner for Youth Affairs in the provincial government.

Cassel Mathale served on the Provincial Executive Committee of the Limpopo ANC between 1994 and 1997.

Cassel Mathale left the provincial legislature and government in 1996, and the ANC provincial executive in 1997, but in 1996 was elected to a two-year term as a member of the ANC Youth League's National Executive Committee.

In 2002, Cassel Mathale was elected Provincial Secretary of the ANC in Limpopo, one of the most senior leadership positions in the provincial party.

Cassel Mathale was supported by the Limpopo branch of the ANC Youth League, which at that time was led by league provincial secretary Julius Malema.

Two weeks later, the Cassel Mathale-led Provincial Executive Committee declined a request from the national ANC to nominate three people to stand as the ANC's candidate for Premier of Limpopo in the 2009 general election; instead, the committee submitted only one name, Cassel Mathale's.

The Limpopo Executive Council appointed Cassel Mathale as acting Premier of Limpopo from 3 to 23 March 2009 while the provincial legislature prepared to select Moloto's successor.

Cassel Mathale was re-elected as ANC Provincial Chairperson in December 2011, despite growing opposition to his leadership of the province.

Discontent rested partly with the Limpopo provincial branches of the ANC's partners in the Tripartite Alliance, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party, which had publicly called for Cassel Mathale's resignation, accusing him of presiding over a corrupt administration.

Yet when the Limpopo ANC held its elective conference, Cassel Mathale beat his challenger, Joe Phaahla, with 601 votes against Phaahla's 519.

However, Cassel Mathale did not complete his full term either as Premier or as ANC Provincial Chairperson.

In early December 2011, five provincial departments in Cassel Mathale's administration, including the provincial treasury under MEC David Masondo, had been placed under administration by the national government.

At the conference, Cassel Mathale stood unsuccessfully for direct election to the ANC's National Executive Committee.

Several months later, allegations of corruption and maladministration in Limpopo continued to receive a great deal of national attention; some members of the ANC in Limpopo complained that Cassel Mathale had sown division in the party.

ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe said that the Cassel Mathale-led committee had been dissolved "for displaying totally un-ANC behaviour and institutionalised factional conflict".

In July 2013, the national leadership of the ANC asked Cassel Mathale to resign as Premier, "recalling" him from the post in line with the party's cadre deployment policy.

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union, a Cosatu affiliate, praised the national ANC for its decision, saying, "Without being triumphalists, our union is happy to see that the ANC has at long last endorsed our view that Mr Cassel Mathale was a liability and an embarrassment to our movement and government".

On 26 February 2018, Cassel Mathale gave up his committee chairmanship to take office as the Deputy Minister of Small Business Development under Minister Lindiwe Zulu.

Cassel Mathale was installed in that position in a cabinet reshuffle by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had recently ascended to the presidency following the resignation of President Jacob Zuma.