1. Fikile April Mbalula was born on 8 April 1971 and is a South African politician and current Secretary-General of the African National Congress since December 2022.
61 Facts About Fikile Mbalula
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Fikile Mbalula was a cabinet minister between 2010 and 2023, most proximately as Minister of Transport from 2019 to 2023.
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Fikile Mbalula continued to play a central role in the ANC's subsequent election campaigns.
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Fikile Mbalula went on to serve in Zuma's cabinet as Minister of Sport and Recreation from 2010 to 2017 and as Minister of Police from 2017 to 2018.
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Fikile Mbalula maintained a prominent public profile in both positions, even as his standing in the ANC suffered due to his falling out with Zuma and his unsuccessful bid to be elected as ANC Secretary-General in 2012.
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Fikile Mbalula left government in order to take up his full-time position as ANC Secretary-General, which he won at the ANC's 55th National Conference in December 2022.
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Fikile Mbalula was born on 8 April 1971 on a farm near Botshabelo, a township outside Bloemfontein in the former Orange Free State.
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Fikile Mbalula grew up in the township and entered politics through the Botshabelo Youth Congress, which he led between 1986 and 1987.
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Fikile Mbalula joined the local United Democratic Front in 1989.
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Fikile Mbalula was still a teenager when the African National Congress was unbanned by the apartheid government in 1990, and later the same year he became active in the ANC's youth structures.
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In 1996, Fikile Mbalula ascended to national office in the ANCYL as the league's secretary for political education.
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Fikile Mbalula held that office until 1998, when he was elected as national Secretary-General of the league, serving under ANCYL President Malusi Gigaba.
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Fikile Mbalula's candidacy was unopposed, and he was viewed as an attractive candidate because he could straddle the league's "old guard" and its new generation of younger students.
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Fikile Mbalula's presidency elevated him to national prominence and his tenure was controversial.
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Fikile Mbalula's politics have been described as populist, and he attracted media attention for his public statements.
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Fikile Mbalula's critics accused him of "eroding authority and decorum" in the ANC in a manner that "changed the culture of the league" and set a precedent for his successors.
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Fikile Mbalula personally was a member of a trust that co-owned Lembede Investment Holdings, an ANCYL-linked investment company that did business with Kebble.
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Fikile Mbalula said that he had never read or seen the Oxfam report.
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An American diplomatic cable, leaked later during Cablegate, claimed that Fikile Mbalula had not initially wanted to defend Zuma during his criminal trials but had faced pressure to do so from within the ANCYL.
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Fikile Mbalula said that the league would continue to support Zuma even if he faced further criminal charges.
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Fikile Mbalula received 2,116 votes from the roughly 4,000 delegates, making him the 15th-most popular candidate of the 80 ordinary members elected.
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Fikile Mbalula was elected to the ANC's influential 20-member National Working Committee and was appointed to head the NEC's newly established subcommittee on organisation-building and campaigns.
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Fikile Mbalula ran the ANC's campaign in the 2009 general election, with Zuma as the party's presidential candidate; the campaign was considered highly successful, especially in its appeal to young voters.
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Indeed, his organisational prowess has often been admired, with Fikile Mbalula described as "a talented fixer, spin doctor, organiser and campaigner" and as a "keen strategist" and moderniser.
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Fikile Mbalula defended his words after President Motlanthe called the letter "unbecoming".
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Fikile Mbalula was believed to be in line for a cabinet post, and newly elected President Zuma appointed him as Deputy Minister of Police under Minister Nathi Mthethwa.
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Fikile Mbalula was one of the youngest deputy ministers in the government, and he quickly gained a public profile, sometimes appearing even to overshadow Mthethwa.
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Fikile Mbalula spearheaded a project to re-introduce military ranks and discipline in the post-apartheid South African Police Service, inviting harsh criticism from ANC stalwart Kader Asmal, who said:.
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The Sunday Times suggested that Fikile Mbalula had become disillusioned with President Zuma when Zuma failed to give him a full ministerial post after the election.
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On 31 October 2010, in a major cabinet reshuffle, Fikile Mbalula was appointed as Minister of Sport and Recreation.
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Also in 2011, Fikile Mbalula's ministry drafted a national sport and recreation plan, which included a transformation charter.
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Fikile Mbalula has been complimented for his attempts to promote sports development, which were pursued particularly through compulsory physical education and sport in schools nationwide.
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Fikile Mbalula argued publicly that South Africa should bid to host the 2020 Olympics and, later, the 2024 Olympics.
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Fikile Mbalula frequently threatened sporting bodies with harsh penalties if they did not ensure greater diversity among sportsmen, threatening in 2014 to hike race quotas across all national teams and threatening in 2016 to withdraw the right of certain bodies to host international tournaments.
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In particular, there had long been reports that Fikile Mbalula aspired to be elected as ANC Secretary-General at the party's next internal elections, to be held at the 53rd National Conference in December 2012; Julius Malema and his ANCYL, in particular, gave early and outspoken support to Fikile Mbalula's candidacy.
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Fikile Mbalula stood on a ticket aligned to ANC Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, who challenged Zuma's incumbency in the ANC presidency.
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The elective conference was held in Mangaung in December 2012, and Fikile Mbalula ultimately became one of its "biggest losers", along with others who had sought to unseat Zuma.
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Fikile Mbalula failed to gain re-election as an ordinary member of the NEC, and Nomvula Mokonyane replaced him as the ANC's head of organisation-building and campaigns.
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Fikile Mbalula was involved in the ANC's campaign in the 2016 local elections.
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Fikile Mbalula explained he'd been called to Saxonwold [the Guptas' residence] by the Guptas in May 2009 and was told that he was being promoted from the position of Deputy Minister of Police to Minister of Sport.
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The weeping was about the fact that he, Fikile Mbalula, was happy that he'd made it into Cabinet but that it was wrong to have learnt this from Atul Gupta.
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Fikile Mbalula confirmed that Manuel's story was broadly correct, although he had in fact been promoted in 2010 and although he said that it was Ajay Gupta, not Atul Gupta, who had called to congratulate him.
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Ajay Gupta submitted an affidavit confirming that the phone call had taken place, though he said that he had gathered that Fikile Mbalula would be promoted from what he had read in newspapers, not based on any personal involvement in the decision.
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Fikile Mbalula said that he did not have any close personal association with Gupta family, though he had met Ajay Gupta three times while in the sports ministry, on one occasion at the Guptas' home in Saxonwold.
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In December 2018, Madonsela's successor as Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, reported that Fikile Mbalula had violated the Constitution and the Executive Ethics Act in his funding arrangements for an expensive family holiday, taken in Dubai while he was Sport Minister in 2016.
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On 31 March 2017, as part of a controversial cabinet reshuffle, Zuma appointed Fikile Mbalula to replace Nathi Nhleko as Minister of Police.
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At the ANC's 54th National Conference, held at Nasrec in December 2017, Fikile Mbalula was returned to the ANC NEC for another five-year term; by number of votes received, he was ranked 14th of the 80 ordinary members elected to the committee.
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When Ramaphosa announced his new cabinet on 26 February 2018, Fikile Mbalula was omitted; former Police Commissioner Bheki Cele replaced him as Minister of Police.
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Fikile Mbalula retained his role as the ANC's head of elections and led the party through the 2021 local elections.
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In 2022, the Makhanda High Court, granting an application by Intercape in the wake of attacks against long-distance buses, ordered Fikile Mbalula to "ensure that reasonable and effective measures are put in place to provide for the safety and security of long-distance bus drivers and passengers in the Eastern Cape".
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Fikile Mbalula was touted as the likely preference of Ramaphosa's faction for nomination for election as ANC Secretary-General, if a suitable woman candidate could not be found.
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The Secretary-General works full-time from Luthuli House, and Fikile Mbalula said that he would resign from government to take up his new position.
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At an early stage in his tenure as ANC Secretary-General, Fikile Mbalula was accused of interfering in the electoral processes of the ANCYL in a bid to strengthen Collen Malatji's chances of being elected ANCYL President.
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Fikile Mbalula denied having interfered, though the matter was reportedly raised by Mondli Gungubele and Enoch Godongwana at an NEC meeting.
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Fikile Mbalula is particularly well-known for his use of social media, and he was the most-followed South African cabinet minister on Twitter in 2022.
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Fikile Mbalula is married to Nozuko Mbalula, with whom he has children.
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Fikile Mbalula strongly denied the reports, saying that she had been a trustee of one of the companies but that it had never received any money from government.
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In September 2008, the Sunday Times reported that Fikile Mbalula had entered an initiation school in Philippi, Cape Town to begin a belated ritual initiation into manhood in the Xhosa tradition; Fikile Mbalula is amaMpondomise.
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Indeed, the traditional surgeon who circumcised Fikile Mbalula told the press that Fikile Mbalula was "not informed about the circumcision" but "now he has accepted what has happened".
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In October 2011, City Press reported that Fikile Mbalula had had an affair with a 27-year-old model whom he had met at a golf day in Johannesburg.
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However, Fikile Mbalula ultimately released a statement saying that he would not press charges, that he "should have known better", and that he apologised "to the South African society, to the African National Congress and the South African government".