20 Facts About Charlotte Lobe

Madiepetsane Charlotte Lobe is a South African politician, diplomat and civil servant who represented the African National Congress in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2004 and in the Free State Provincial Legislature from 2004 to 2008.

Charlotte Lobe is a former Provincial Secretary of the ANC's Free State branch and a former member of the ANC's National Executive Committee.

Charlotte Lobe has a master's degree in governance and political transformation from the University of the Free State.

Charlotte Lobe served as Deputy Provincial Secretary of the ANC's Free State branch from 2002 to 2005, deputising Pat Matosa, and in June 2005 she was elected to succeed Matosa as Provincial Secretary.

Charlotte Lobe was the first woman to hold the office, which she filled while retaining her legislative seat.

In February 2008, Charlotte Lobe resigned as Provincial Secretary of the Free State ANC, saying that she disagreed with how certain organisational matters had been handled by the provincial party leadership.

Charlotte Lobe said that Sibongile Besani, her deputy, had colluded with Magashule as part of a scheme of "consolidated efforts to render me useless by sidelining me from my core function", concluding that the current provincial leadership was "not conducive, not only to my conscience, but to my health".

However, Charlotte Lobe retained her membership in the NEC until 15 October 2008, when she announced her resignation from that position.

Charlotte Lobe said that her resignation was based "purely on principle" and that she had decided she would "rather join those who speak out and seek alternative ways of protecting the Constitution of South Africa".

In 2010, a series of media reports suggested that Charlotte Lobe had become delinquent in her duties as COPE General-Secretary.

At that time, the party was riven by a leadership contest between Lekota and Shilowa, in which Charlotte Lobe was viewed as aligned to Shilowa; sources told the Sunday Times that Charlotte Lobe had lost interest in her job due to the strain of the infighting.

The Sunday Times additionally claimed that Charlotte Lobe had attempted to resign from COPE earlier in 2010 but had been convinced not to.

Party spokesman Phillip Dexter said that the party had "no idea" where Charlotte Lobe had been for the last few months.

Charlotte Lobe was unemployed until 2012, when she got part-time work at the University of the Free State as a coordinator for the university's community learning programme.

Charlotte Lobe later became a deputy director at the parliamentary office of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, a job for which she said she applied under her maiden name and without leaning on her political connections.

In 2014 in Cape Town, Charlotte Lobe ran into Susan Shabangu, an ANC politician soon to be appointed as Minister in the Presidency for Women.

At Shabangu's encouragement, Charlotte Lobe joined the Department of Women as a media liaison.

Charlotte Lobe later transferred to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, where she served as chief director for transformation and transversal programmes.

Charlotte Lobe rejoined the ANC and in 2021 was appointed as South African High Commissioner to Singapore by Zuma's successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Charlotte Lobe presented her credentials in Singapore in July 2022.