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20 Facts About Florence Radzilani

1.

Fulufhelo Florence Radzilani is a South African politician who is currently serving as Member of the Executive Council for Social Development in Limpopo Province.

2.

Florence Radzilani has represented the African National Congress in the Limpopo Provincial Legislature since 2019.

3.

Florence Radzilani has been a member of the ANC Provincial Executive Committee in Limpopo since 2011, and in June 2018 she was elected Deputy Provincial Chairperson of the ANC in Limpopo.

4.

Florence Radzilani was born on 21 April 1971 in Ha-Masakona village in the region that is Limpopo province.

5.

Florence Radzilani earned a Bachelor's degree from the University of Venda and a diploma in higher education from the University of the North.

6.

Florence Radzilani was a member of the African National Congress Youth League.

7.

Florence Radzilani was an ANC councillor in the Makhado Local Municipality in Limpopo from 2000 to 2006, when she was appointed to a management position in the Office of the Limpopo Premier.

8.

Florence Radzilani served her first term as Executive Mayor of Vhembe from 2011 to 2012.

9.

On 15 March 2012, Florence Radzilani was sworn in as a Member of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature and as Member of the Executive Council for Safety, Security and Liaison in the Limpopo provincial government.

10.

However, when Stan Mathabatha took office as Limpopo Premier in July 2013, he reshuffled his executive, firing Florence Radzilani and replacing her with Joyce Mashamba.

11.

Florence Radzilani completed her term as ANC Deputy Provincial Secretary in 2014, when she was elected to a four-year term as an ordinary ANC PEC member.

12.

Florence Radzilani was not re-elected to the provincial legislature in the 2014 general election, having been ranked 41st on the ANC's provincial party list.

13.

Also in 2018, Florence Radzilani was implicated in a major corruption scandal at VBS Mutual Bank when she was named in the report of an investigation commissioned by the South African Reserve Bank.

14.

The investigation was conducted by advocate Terry Motau, who said that Florence Radzilani had been at the centre of "one of the most illuminating examples of the rampant corruption and bribery that occurred" at VBS, which was declared insolvent in 2018 after bank executives defrauded depositors.

15.

The report reproduced WhatsApp messages in which the former VBS chairperson, Tshifhiwa Matodzi, was informed that Florence Radzilani had been "crying" because she had only received R300,000 in kickbacks.

16.

Florence Radzilani denied wrongdoing and said that Motau's report was defamatory.

17.

Later the same week, the ANC PEC asked her and other implicated mayors to resign their government positions; Florence Radzilani submitted her resignation letter on 11 December 2018.

18.

Florence Radzilani was therefore reinstated as ANC Deputy Provincial Chairperson, and in June 2022 she won election to a second four-year term in that position.

19.

Florence Radzilani is married to Stanley Florence Radzilani, who is a pastor.

20.

Pastor Florence Radzilani said that he had leaked the recording and had played it to his church congregation.