Leonah Lindiwe Ntshalintshali is a South African politician who has been Deputy Minister of Correctional Services and a member of the National Assembly of South Africa since July 2024, representing the African National Congress.
29 Facts About Lindiwe Ntshalintshali
1.
2.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was previously Mpumalanga's Member of the Executive Council for Arts, Sports, Culture and Recreation from 2019 to 2021 before serving as the MEC for Social Development from 2021 until 2024.
3.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali left local government and the mayoral position in March 2018, when she became acting Provincial Secretary of the ANC in Mpumalanga.
4.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was elected to a second term as ANC Deputy Provincial Secretary in April 2022 and resigned to this post when she was elected the member of the ANC's National Executive Committee in December 2022.
5.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was born on 11 April 1977 in Lynville, Witbank and grew up in Phola outside Ogies, both towns on the Highveld of what is Mpumalanga province.
6.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali matriculated at Mabande Comprehensive School in 1996 and subsequently obtained a certificate in nursing from Middelburg Nursing College before beginning work as a nurse at Middelburg Hospital, a public hospital in Middelburg, Mpumalanga.
7.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was among the councillors elected by proportional representation from the ANC's party list and was re-elected to a second term as councillor in the 2011 municipal elections.
8.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali replaced Salome Sithole, whom the ANC had "recalled" as part of the party's efforts to "rejuvenate" ANC-led governments ahead of the August 2016 local government elections.
9.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali stood successfully as the ANC's Emalahleni mayoral candidate in the 2016 elections and was elected to a full five-year term as mayor.
10.
In 2016, while mayor, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was elected as one of three deputy presidents of the South African Local Government Association, serving alongside President Parks Tau, mayor of Johannesburg, and fellow deputy presidents Zandile Gumede of eThekwini and Sebenzile Ngangelizwe of Lejweleputswa.
11.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali had previously been a member of SALGA's provincial executive between 2013 and 2015.
12.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali served as president of the African section of United Cities and Local Government.
13.
Simultaneously, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was a member of the Provincial Executive Committee of the ANC in Mpumalanga, having been elected to the seat at a party elective conference in 2012.
14.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was appointed to lead the ANC's election campaign in Mpumalanga province ahead of the 2019 general election, and she became acting ANC Provincial Secretary in Mpumalanga, a full-time post at the party's provincial headquarters.
15.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was appointed acting secretary when the incumbent secretary, Mandla Ndlovu, became acting Provincial Chairperson due to the simultaneous departures of longstanding chairperson David Mabuza and his deputy, Violet Siwela.
16.
In February 2021, in a reshuffle of the Executive Council, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali traded portfolios with Thandi Shongwe, becoming MEC for Social Development.
17.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was present to confirm that the leadership committees of both regional branches would be disbanded and that the branches would be amalgamated into a single region, to be governed initially by an unelected interim leadership corps.
18.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali's bodyguard laid a case of criminal assault at the Mbombela police station, as did Lindiwe Ntshalintshali.
19.
The Mpumalanga ANC's elective conference was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdown, leaving Lindiwe Ntshalintshali to continue as acting Provincial Secretary throughout 2020 and 2021.
20.
The Business Day noted that Lindiwe Ntshalintshali diverged from the rest of the Focus slate in that she was "a staunch ally" of Ace Magashule, the ANC's suspended national secretary general, whereas Ndlovu, Chirwa, and the others supported incumbent ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa.
21.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was elected to the NEC; by number of votes received, she ranked 63rd.
22.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was elected to the National Assembly of South Africa in the 2024 general election.
23.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was then appointed to the National Executive by president Cyril Ramaphosa on 30 June 2024.
24.
In September 2016, while Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was mayor, the Emalahleni council controversially approved a decision to use R1.5 million in public funds, a budget rollover from developmental projects, to buy a new mayoral car for Lindiwe Ntshalintshali.
25.
In 2021, after Lindiwe Ntshalintshali had left Emalahleni and become an MEC, the Mpumalanga provincial government commissioned a forensic investigation into alleged improprieties that occurred in the council under her tenure.
26.
In March 2022, the report of the investigation recommended that Lindiwe Ntshalintshali should be subject to criminal charges in relation to a decision to increase the salaries of municipal managers, which the report said had been unlawful.
27.
In January 2020, while Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was an MEC, SABC aired an audio recording of a woman, alleged to be Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, apparently discussing members of her staff, whom she said she intended to fire, and government tenders.
28.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali additionally claimed that Ntshalintshali had twice offered him employment in government.
29.
Lindiwe Ntshalintshali denied that she had had an affair with the man and said that the leak was part of an organised attempt to discredit her ahead of the Mpumalanga ANC's elective conference.