54 Facts About Enoch Godongwana

Enoch Godongwana was born on 9 June 1957 and is a South African politician and former trade unionist who is currently serving as the Minister of Finance since August 2021.

Enoch Godongwana is a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress.

Enoch Godongwana was first elected to the ANC National Executive Committee in December 1997, and he was the Deputy Provincial Chairperson of the ANC's Eastern Cape branch from 2003 to 2006 under Chairperson Makhenkesi Stofile.

Between May 2009 and January 2012, Enoch Godongwana was a deputy minister under the first cabinet of President Jacob Zuma.

Enoch Godongwana was Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises from 2009 to 2010 and Deputy Minister of Economic Development from 2010 to 2012.

Enoch Godongwana resigned from the latter position in January 2012 after a scandal involving one of his business interests, an investment company called Canyon Springs.

Enoch Godongwana was appointed to the cabinet of President Cyril Ramaphosa on 5 August 2021.

Enoch Godongwana was born on 9 June 1957 in Cala in the former Cape Province, now part of the Eastern Cape.

Enoch Godongwana matriculated at St John's College in Mthatha, and he completed an MSc in financial economics at the University of London in 1998.

Enoch Godongwana began his political career in the trade union movement, beginning as a shop steward for the Metal and Allied Workers' Union in 1979 and rising through the ranks to become an organiser for the National Union of Metalworkers between 1983 and 1989.

Enoch Godongwana was Numsa's regional secretary from 1990 until 1993, when he was elected to succeed Moses Mayekiso as its national general secretary.

Enoch Godongwana served as general secretary until 1997, when he stepped down and was succeeded by Mbuyi Ngwenda.

Enoch Godongwana was a founding member of the National Economic Development and Labour Council and represented labour during the drafting of post-apartheid labour legislation, including the Labour Relations Act.

The Financial Mail credited Enoch Godongwana for bringing Numsa, a notoriously militant and workerist union, "into the Cosatu fold", as well as for setting it up for the major expansion in membership that it subsequently underwent.

Enoch Godongwana left the union movement in 1997 to take office in the Executive Council of the Eastern Cape, appointed by Premier Makhenkesi Stofile as Member of the Executive Council for Finance, Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism.

Between 1998 and 2002, Enoch Godongwana instituted a "single government chequebook" in the provincial government, reducing the ability of other departments to pursue discretionary spending.

Enoch Godongwana was re-elected to a second five-year term on the committee in December 2002.

Enoch Godongwana won in a crowded field of candidates, receiving 177 votes against the 125 to Phumulo Masualle, 98 to Mandisi Mpahlwa, and 83 to Thobile Mhlahlo.

Enoch Godongwana held the Deputy Provincial Chairperson position for a single term, stepping down in December 2006 to be succeeded by Mbulelo Sogoni.

The reasons for Enoch Godongwana's dismissal remained unclear, and his departure created tensions in the provincial Tripartite Alliance.

Enoch Godongwana received 1,891 votes across roughly 4,000 ballots, making him the 34th-most popular member of the 80-member committee.

However, during the five-year term of the 52nd NEC, that subcommittee was disbanded, and Enoch Godongwana took up a highly influential role as chairperson for policy in the subcommittee on economic transformation, the overall chair of which was Max Sisulu.

On 14 November 2008, Enoch Godongwana joined the National Assembly, the lower house of the South African Parliament.

Enoch Godongwana filled a casual vacancy in the seat formerly held by Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, who was among the ministers who resigned after the ANC removed President Thabo Mbeki from office.

Enoch Godongwana was re-elected to a full term in the National Assembly in the April 2009 general election, and he was appointed Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises under the first cabinet of newly elected President Jacob Zuma.

On 31 October 2010, Zuma announced his first cabinet reshuffle, in which Enoch Godongwana was moved to succeed Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde as Deputy Minister of Economic Development.

Enoch Godongwana claimed to be unaware of the company's money sources.

On 15 January 2012, presidential spokesperson Mac Maharaj said that Enoch Godongwana had resigned as Deputy Minister of Economic Development "to pursue personal interests".

Enoch Godongwana resigned from the National Assembly with effect from 31 December 2011, ceding his seat to Shepherd Mayathula.

Enoch Godongwana denied that his resignation was related to the Canyon Springs controversy, saying that he had realised he would be busy with "party work" in 2012.

Enoch Godongwana ran a consultancy and was a visiting fellow at the Wits School of Governance from 2018 to 2021.

Enoch Godongwana retained his most prominent public profile through the ANC's NEC subcommittee on economic transformation.

Enoch Godongwana was later described as "part of the team that pushed back against the call to nationalise the mines".

Re-elected to the NEC in December 2012, Enoch Godongwana was appointed to succeed Max Sisulu as overall economic subcommittee chairperson.

When Minister Lindiwe Zulu was quoted as saying that the market reaction was the result of manipulation intended to undermine Zuma, Enoch Godongwana publicly questioned this claim and challenged Zulu to provide evidence.

Years later, Lungisa Fuzile, who was director-general in the Treasury at time, told the Zondo Commission that Enoch Godongwana had called to warn him about the implications of the reshuffle.

Enoch Godongwana told eNCA that, "I share that view that in fact these charges are being concocted in order to cover all of those things [misconduct], to find a minister which [sic] is pliant, which is going to accept all those things".

Also in 2017, Enoch Godongwana was involved in mediating the ongoing policy dispute around two populist proposals of the pro-Zuma radical economic transformation faction: a proposal to nationalise ownership of the South African Reserve Bank and, particularly important, a proposal to expropriate land without compensation.

Enoch Godongwana personally argued against amending the Constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation, saying that land reform had been obstructed by a lack of political will rather than by the constitutional framework.

Enoch Godongwana later elaborated that previous governments had made "a lot of mistakes" in pursuing land reform, including blindly accepting the principle that expropriated land should be compensated at market value.

However, at the ANC's 54th National Conference in December 2017, Enoch Godongwana was involved in drafting a policy resolution that endorsed the plan to amend the Constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation, provided that doing so was sustainable and did not harm other economic sectors.

The Financial Mail said that Enoch Godongwana had mastered "the art of producing vague, watered-down compromises in the guise of economic policy" as a means to constraining the "worst excesses" of the ANC's left.

In September 2019, Enoch Godongwana was appointed chairperson of the board of DBSA, deputised by Mark Swilling.

Enoch Godongwana complained about Godongwana's leadership, saying that Godongwana was unsuitable for the chairmanship as a "politically exposed person" and that he had turned the institution "into his personal spaza shop".

On 5 August 2021, President Cyril Ramaphosa reshuffled his cabinet, announcing that Enoch Godongwana would take office as Minister of Finance.

Enoch Godongwana succeeded Tito Mboweni, who had asked to stand down.

The markets responded adversely to the announcement, with the rand losing value, but recovered quickly, viewed as a reflection of Enoch Godongwana's existing reputation with investors.

Enoch Godongwana was appointed to the cabinet from outside Parliament until 28 February 2023, when he was sworn in to the National Assembly, replacing Mike Basopu.

Enoch Godongwana was sworn into president Ramaphosa's third cabinet on 3 July 2024.

In November 2021, Enoch Godongwana said that he would step down as the chair of the NEC's subcommittee on economic transformation in order to allow younger leaders to emerge.

At the ANC's next national conference, held at Nasrec in December 2022, Enoch Godongwana was re-elected to the NEC, ranked 19th of 80.

Enoch Godongwana is married to Thandiwe Godongwana, with whom he has children.

In December 2001, while Enoch Godongwana was serving in the Eastern Cape Executive Council, the East London Magistrate's Court convicted him of drunk driving.

Enoch Godongwana was fined R8,000 in lieu of serving 200 days in prison, with half of the fine suspended; he was given a prison sentence of three years, suspended for the duration.