28 Facts About David Makhura

Manemolla David Makhura was born on 22 February 1968 and is a South African politician who served as the sixth Premier of Gauteng from May 2014 to October 2022.

David Makhura was elected to a five-year term on the ANC National Executive Committee in December 2022.

David Makhura rose to national prominence as the provincial secretary of the Gauteng branch of the ANC, a position he held continuously between November 2001 and October 2014.

David Makhura became Premier of Gauteng after the May 2014 general election and was elected to a second term after the May 2019 general election.

David Makhura was born on 22 February 1968 at Mara Buysdorp in the Soutpansberg of the former Northern Transvaal, a region that later became part of Limpopo Province.

David Makhura was recruited into underground structures of the banned African National Congress and South African Communist Party in 1986 and 1987 respectively.

David Makhura did not graduate from Turfloop but later completed a Master of Science in public policy and management at the University of London.

Between 1997 and 2001, David Makhura was active in the trade union movement in the leadership of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union : he entered as the union's national education secretary and then, in April 1998, was elected as the union's deputy general secretary, serving under newly elected general secretary Fikile Majola.

David Makhura was the inaugural convener of the SACP's National Youth Desk, a precursor to what became the party's Young Communist League.

However, later that year, in November 2001, David Makhura was elected unopposed as the provincial secretary of the ANC's branch in Gauteng.

David Makhura had never served in the mainstream ANC's provincial executive before, but he had been appointed as interim coordinator of the branch in 2000 after Mathole Motshekga's leadership corps was disbanded.

David Makhura went on to hold the provincial secretary position, a full-time position, until October 2014, gaining re-election to four consecutive three-year terms; he served the first two terms under provincial chairperson Sam Shilowa and the latter two terms under provincial chairperson Paul Mashatile.

David Makhura worked closely with Mashatile, particularly as the provincial party became increasingly strident in its criticism of ANC president Jacob Zuma.

David Makhura served in the office until October 2022: he became the ANC's candidate for premier in the May 2019 election campaign, and he was re-elected by the newly elected provincial legislature on 22 May, defeating an opposition challenge by Solly Msimanga of the Democratic Alliance.

For many observers, the largest scandal of David Makhura's administration was the Life Esidimeni scandal: the 2016 revelations that dozens of psychiatric patients had died in under-resourced and unlicensed private care homes after being moved to those homes as part of the policy of deinstitutionalisation adopted by the Gauteng Department of Health under the leadership of David Makhura's provincial health minister, Qedani Mahlangu.

In May 2018, the opposition Democratic Alliance tabled a motion of no confidence in David Makhura's leadership, framed as a means of exerting accountability for the Life Esidimeni tragedy; the motion failed by 38 votes to 27 in the ANC-controlled legislature.

In later years David Makhura continued to deny responsibility for the tragedy.

At the outset of his premiership, David Makhura officially remained the provincial secretary of the ANC, but a party elective conference in October 2014 elected him to the position of deputy provincial chairperson.

David Makhura declined a nomination to challenge Mashatile for the chairmanship at the conference.

In December 2017, Mashatile was elected as national treasurer-general of the ANC, and David Makhura became acting provincial chairperson in his stead.

The provincial party held its next elective conference in Irene six months later; on 21 July 2018 David Makhura was officially elected as ANC provincial chairperson, running unopposed after Sputla Ramokgopa declined a nomination to stand against him.

David Makhura therefore did not stand for re-election in 2022, though he acknowledged that the election of a new party leader might create two centres of power, making it politically untenable for him to stay on as premier.

In early September 2022, David Makhura announced that he would resign from the premiership once the ANC had selected his successor, though he denied reports that Lesufi's provincial executive was forcing him to resign.

In December 2022, David Makhura attended the ANC's 55th National Conference at Nasrec, which elected him to a five-year term on the party's National Executive Committee.

David Makhura received 1,772 votes across roughly 4,000 ballots, making him the tenth-most popular member of the 80-member committee.

At the committee's first meeting in February 2023, David Makhura was named as the party's head of political education, a position that would involve full-time work at ANC headquarters at Luthuli House.

David Makhura was appointed as deputy chairperson of the drafting subcommittee, under subcommittee chairperson Thoko Didiza, and as chairperson of a new subcommittee on coalition governance.

David Makhura's wife is Mpho Makhura; they have three children.