27 Facts About Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu

Hendrietta Ipeleng Bogopane-Zulu was born on 11 March 1971 and is a South African politician and activist who is currently serving as Deputy Minister of Social Development since 26 May 2014.

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu represented the African National Congress in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2019.

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu was born blind but had several operations as a child and was left partially blind.

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu entered politics as a social activist and was particularly active in disability activism in several different forums.

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu was a co-founder of Disabled Youth South Africa, the youth wing of Disabled People South Africa.

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu was re-elected to her parliamentary seat in the April 2009 general election, and on 10 May, newly elected President Jacob Zuma appointed her as Deputy Minister of Public Works under Minister Geoff Doidge.

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu was the first visually impaired woman to be appointed as a minister or deputy minister, and she was one of only two disabled ministers and deputy ministers under Zuma's cabinet, the other being Michael Masutha.

The project was investigated for several years thereafter, long after Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu left the portfolio, and both she and Minister Doidge were implicated in those investigations.

In December 2013, Doidge's successor, Thulas Nxesi, presented the report of an inter-ministerial investigation into the security upgrades; the report absolved Zuma of wrongdoing but recommended that Doidge and Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu should be investigated further for possible misconduct.

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu denied wrongdoing and said that she had not been sufficiently consulted during the inquiry.

When Madonsela's final report was released in March 2014, it revealed that Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu had been involved in discussions about the controversial swimming pool at Nkandla; she had reportedly supported the installation of a swimming pool for "developmental" reasons, suggesting that local children could take swimming lessons in it.

Madonsela concluded that there was no evidence to substantiate the claim that Doidge and Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu had interfered in the appointment of contractors on the project.

On 24 October 2011, Zuma announced a reshuffle in which Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu was appointed as Deputy Minister for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities under Minister Lulu Xingwana.

Pursuant to the May 2014 general election, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu was re-elected to her fourth term in the National Assembly and was appointed by Zuma as Deputy Minister of Social Development, serving under Minister Bathabile Dlamini.

Dlamini and Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu had a tense relationship with Parliament and were accused of absenteeism from parliamentary committee meetings.

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu was retained in her deputy ministerial office by Zuma's successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, under Ministers Susan Shabangu and Lindiwe Zulu.

However, in the 2019 general election, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu was ranked 143rd on the ANC's party list and failed to gain re-election to her parliamentary seat; Ramaphosa therefore re-reappointed her using a constitutional provision that permitted two deputy ministers to be appointed from outside the National Assembly.

In 2016, while addressing the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs on behalf of an African Union bureau, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu called for a harm-reduction approach to substance abuse.

In 2020, again speaking at the UN, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu again called for harm reduction and a "human rights-based" approach, arguing that the global war on drugs had failed and that drug addiction should be decriminalised.

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu attracted press coverage for her views about gender-based violence, which received a great deal of public attention in 2019 and 2020 after the murder of Uyinene Mrwetyana.

In December 2019, during her keynote address to a UN-sponsored violence-prevention conference in Johannesburg, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu argued that women were not only "victims" but "contributors" to gender-based violence.

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu argued that women "raise angry boys", for example when single mothers deny fathers access to their sons.

In January 2020, City Press obtained an audio recording of a 2016 conversation between Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu and Zwidofhela Mafoko, who at the time was an administrative clerk in her office and the fiance of her niece.

The arrangement was viewed as nepotistic, but Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu denied that it was unlawful, saying:.

In November 2009, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu was honoured at the Top Women Awards in Johannesburg, named as the Top Woman in the Public Sector.

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu was hospitalised for 10 days in January 2014 after she collapsed at home.

The newspaper reported that the complaint included the allegation that Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu had been informed of the complaint in July 2010, but had encouraged the woman to "just be nice to him and pretend as if there is nothing wrong" while documenting her encounters with Zulu.