27 Facts About Dina Pule

Dina Pule has been the Deputy Secretary-General of the ANC Women's League since July 2023.

Dina Pule was fired from the cabinet in July 2013 during a parliamentary inquiry into allegations that she had contravened the parliamentary code of conduct.

At the ANC's 55th National Conference in December 2022, Dina Pule was elected to a five-year term as a member of the ANC National Executive Committee.

Dina Pule had previously served on the committee between 2007 and 2012.

Dina Pule was born on 19 July 1960 in a village on the outskirts of Hazyview in the former the Eastern Transvaal.

Dina Pule attended Elijah Mango College of Education in Nelspruit from 1987 to 1989, where she trained as a secondary school teacher; while there, she served on the student representative council and as a founding member of the anti-apartheid South African National Students Congress.

In 1990 and 1991, while working as a teacher, Dina Pule was a founding member of the Eastern Transvaal Women's Union and the secretary of a local branch of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union.

Dina Pule joined the post-apartheid government as a public servant in 1996, when she was appointed community liaison officer at the health department in the provincial government of Mpumalanga.

Dina Pule held that position until 1999, when she was elected chairperson of the local branch of the ANC Women's League in Nelspruit.

In 2001, Dina Pule ascended a rung in the ANC hierarchy when she was elected deputy secretary of the ANC's entire Ehlanzeni region; she held that position until 2004.

Dina Pule was Chairperson of the ANC's Ehlanzeni region from 2004 to 2007 and in June 2005 she was elected as a three-year term as Deputy Provincial Secretary of the Mpumalanga ANC, serving under Provincial Secretary Lucas Mello.

Towards the end of her term as Deputy Provincial Secretary, at the ANC's 52nd National Conference in December 2007, Dina Pule was elected to a five-year term on the ANC National Executive Committee.

Dina Pule was elected to the party's National Working Committee.

On 24 October 2011, Zuma appointed Dina Pule to succeed Roy Padayachie as Minister of Communications in his cabinet.

On 9 July 2013, while an investigation into the allegations was ongoing, Zuma fired Dina Pule and replaced her with Yunus Carrim.

The so-called Gupta Leaks, published in 2017 after Dina Pule had left government, appeared to suggest that Dina Pule, while still a Minister, had met the controversial Gupta family at their home in Saxonwold in October 2012.

The misconduct allegations against Dina Pule stemmed from her romantic relationship with Phosane Mngqibisa, a businessman who was alleged to have received improper benefits as a result of his relationship with Dina Pule.

Dina Pule denied continuously that she had a relationship with Mngqibisa or that his trips abroad had been subsidised by the government.

However, the panel did not find sufficient evidence to substantiate the Sunday Times's further claim that Dina Pule had received, and had failed to disclose, a gift from Mngqibisa.

Madonsela's report, released in 2013, found that Dina Pule's conduct had been unlawful; Madonsela added that it was "grossly improper and unethical that she tried to pass the buck to her staff".

Dina Pule recommended that Pule should apologise to Parliament, to the Department of Communications, and to the Sunday Times, and that the department should be reimbursed fully for the money spent on Mngqibisa's travel.

In 2019, City Press reported that Dina Pule was "set for a big comeback" in provincial politics as a contender for election as Provincial Chairperson of the Mpumalanga ANC.

However, the party's elective conference was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic; when it was finally held in 2022, Dina Pule did not contest a top position.

In 2022, Dina Pule was appointed to the interim task team formed to lead the national ANC Women's League after the league's elected leadership, headed by Bathabile Dlamini, was disbanded.

Dina Pule was ranked 67th of the 80 candidates elected to the committee by the number of votes received.

The ANC Women's League held its 13th National Conference in July 2023, and Dina Pule was nominated from the floor of the conference to stand for election as the league's Deputy Secretary-General.

Amid the ANC experiencing a decline in electoral support in the May 2024 general election, Dina Pule was elected to return to an ANC seat in the National Assembly.