29 Facts About Collen Maine

Collen Maine was the president of the African National Congress Youth League between September 2015 and July 2019.

Collen Maine was a Member of the North West Executive Council during the premierships of Thandi Modise and Supra Mahumapelo from 2013 to 2015.

Collen Maine served on the ANC National Executive Committee between December 2017 and December 2019, and he was briefly a Member of the National Assembly in 2019.

Collen Maine returned to the North West Provincial Legislature and provincial government in the May 2024 election.

Collen Maine returned to the Executive Council the following month, now leading the Department of Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation.

Collen Maine is from the region that is the North West province of South Africa.

In Collen Maine's account, he was a member of the Congress of South African Students in his youth, joined the African National Congress Youth League in 1996, and served as a regional organiser for the ANC Youth League in Bophirima in the North West until he became deputy provincial chairperson of the league in the North West in 2008.

The Daily Maverick reported that, according to the North West provincial leader of the rival Congress of the People, Collen Maine was a member of COPE until 2009; Collen Maine denied this.

Pursuant to the 2009 general election, Collen Maine was elected as a North West delegate to the National Council of Provinces, the upper house of the South African Parliament.

Collen Maine was appointed MEC for local government and human settlements under newly elected Premier Supra Mahumapelo.

Pule Mabe, Ronald Lamola, and Lesego Makhubela were all viewed as Collen Maine's competitors, but none made it to the final ballot; declining a nomination to stand for the deputy presidency, Lamola said that the electoral process was "a farce".

Collen Maine's candidacy was reportedly supported by the so-called Premier League, comprising the Premiers and ANC provincial chairpersons of the North West, Free State, and Mpumalanga.

Mahumpelo had reportedly supported Collen Maine's rise through the North West Youth League in earlier years.

Collen Maine's age attracted media interest, given the Youth League's rule that only persons under 35 were eligible for membership and leadership positions: he insisted that he was "34.5" at the time of the conference.

In early November 2015 Collen Maine resigned from the Executive Council and was replaced by Wendy Nelson in an acting capacity; he did not publicly explain his reasons for resigning.

Collen Maine publicly supported some of Zuma's left-wing populist policy proposals, particularly free higher education and an assault on so-called "white monopoly capital".

Collen Maine subsequently appeared to temper his pro-Zuma activism; he publicly pledged the league's loyalty to Ramaphosa as ANC president.

Moraka said of Collen Maine that "he doesn't deserve to be called a comrade, because he is a sellout of note" and called for him to resign from the league.

Collen Maine was sworn in on 22 May 2019 and became a member of the portfolio committee on public service and administration; despite speculation to the contrary, he was not appointed to Ramaphosa's cabinet.

On 5 July 2019, Collen Maine announced that he would resign from his seat in the National Assembly due to "private matters".

Collen Maine was nonetheless among the several former ANC Youth League presidents who were appointed as members of the interim task team that was installed to lead the League until it could hold fresh leadership elections.

Collen Maine was elected to the North West Provincial Legislature in the 2024 provincial election.

Collen Maine was elected as the deputy speaker of the North West provincial legislature on 11 October 2024, succeeding Tshepo Khoza, who had resigned following allegations that he forged his matric certificate.

In February 2016, for example, Collen Maine was quoted as saying "an attack on the Guptas is an attack on the ANC".

In May 2016, amaBhungane reported that there was evidence to "suggest" that Collen Maine "received a generous helping hand from the Gupta family" through a loan which helped he and his wife to purchase a R5.4 million house on a golf estate outside Pretoria.

Collen Maine clarified that in his defence of the Guptas, "I was dealing with those issues as a matter of principle, not that I have anything to do with them".

Collen Maine said that he had not intended to go but had been "taken there", and that he had been taken not by Zuma but by Supra Mahumapelo.

At the time Mahumapelo was confronting fierce opposition, in which Collen Maine was thought to be involved, to his leadership of the North West.

Collen Maine is married to Kelebogile Maine and as of 2015 had three children.