55 Facts About Lindiwe Sisulu

Lindiwe Nonceba Sisulu was born on 10 May 1954 and is a South African politician.

Lindiwe Sisulu represented the African National Congress in the National Assembly of South Africa between April 1994 and March 2023.

The daughter of anti-apartheid leaders Albertina and Walter Sisulu, Sisulu was born in Johannesburg and attended boarding school in neighbouring Swaziland.

Lindiwe Sisulu lived primarily in Swaziland and England until 1990, when she returned to South Africa during the negotiations to end apartheid.

Under President Thabo Mbeki, Lindiwe Sisulu served as Minister of Intelligence from 2001 to 2004 and as Minister of Housing from 2004 to 2009.

Lindiwe Sisulu did appear on the 2017 ballot as Ramaphosa's running mate, but David Mabuza won the deputy presidential slot.

Lindiwe Sisulu has been a member of the ANC National Executive Committee since December 1997; she was re-elected to a sixth five-year term in December 2022.

Lindiwe Sisulu served four terms as a member of the ANC National Working Committee between 2003 and 2022.

Lindiwe Sisulu graduated in 1973 with the Cambridge General Certificate of Education: Advanced Level.

Lindiwe Sisulu studied Latin in school, intending to pursue a legal education in Britain, but was a denied a passport.

On 13 June 1976, at home in Johannesburg between semesters, Lindiwe Sisulu was arrested by the South African Police on suspicion of association with the banned ANC.

Lindiwe Sisulu was detained without trial under the Terrorism Act for the next eleven months, held in jails at John Vorster Square, Hartbeespoort, Nylstroom, and the Pretoria Central Prison.

Lindiwe Sisulu was released from detention in July 1977 and, shortly afterwards, she left South Africa to live permanently in exile.

Lindiwe Sisulu spent her early career in education in Swaziland, teaching at Manzini Central High School in 1981 and at the University of Swaziland's history department in 1982; she was a sub-editor for the Mbabane-based Times of Swaziland in 1983.

Lindiwe Sisulu returned briefly to Swaziland from 1985 to 1987, working at Manzini Teachers Training College, but then went back to York to complete her MPhil.

Lindiwe Sisulu returned to South Africa in April 1990 amid the negotiations to end apartheid; her father, recently released from prison, met her at Jan Smuts Airport in Johannesburg.

Lindiwe Sisulu was personal assistant to Jacob Zuma, who was then the chief of the ANC's intelligence department, in 1990; the ANC's chief administrator at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa in 1991; and an administrator in the ANC's intelligence department in 1992.

When South Africa's first post-apartheid elections were held in April 1994, Lindiwe Sisulu was elected to represent the ANC in the National Assembly, the lower house of the new South African Parliament.

Lindiwe Sisulu ultimately held that position from June 1996 to January 2001, and she deputised Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the leader of the opposition Inkatha Freedom Party.

In January 2001 he announced a cabinet reshuffle which saw Lindiwe Sisulu join the cabinet as Minister of Intelligence, replacing Joe Nhlanhla.

Lindiwe Sisulu was elected to the smaller National Working Committee for the first time.

Lindiwe Sisulu served in that portfolio throughout the Third South African Parliament of April 2004 to May 2009, through Mbeki's second term and the brief term of Mbeki's successor, President Kgalema Motlanthe.

Lindiwe Sisulu was criticised for threatening publicly that residents who did not "cooperate" would be removed from the waiting list for government housing, and academic Martin Legassick excoriated her for refusing to meet with the occupiers and, more generally, for failing to consult affected communities.

Johnson, explained Lindiwe Sisulu's rise as a result of her having "quietly joined the Zuma camp" in the run-up to the conference, abandoning Mbeki; according to Mark Gevisser, her relationship with Mbeki had soured during his second term, partly due to her perceived demotion from the Intelligence portfolio to the Housing portfolio.

Lindiwe Sisulu responded strongly, sending dismissal notices to some 1,300 soldiers who were involved in the protest.

The Constitutional Court had affirmed the military's constitutional right to unionise in SANDU v Minister of Defence, but Lindiwe Sisulu said in December 2010 that she was prepared to undertake the necessary constitutional amendments.

Shortly after Lindiwe Sisulu left the Defence Ministry, the opposition DA launched a campaign to scrutinise her use of luxury jets for travel while she was Defence Minister.

In October 2012, in response to a parliamentary question from the DA, the Defence Ministry reported that Lindiwe Sisulu had chartered 203 private Gulfstream flights, at a cost of over R40 million to the South African Air Force, between 2009 and 2012.

Lindiwe Sisulu asked her successor in the Defence Ministry, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, to withdraw the original parliamentary response, leading to a series of mutual public recriminations between the two ministers; Lindiwe Sisulu ultimately laid a formal complaint against Mapisa-Nqakula and threatened to sue her.

In June 2012, Zuma announced a reshuffle in which Lindiwe Sisulu became Minister of Public Service and Administration; she succeeded Roy Padayachie, who had recently died.

Also during her first year, Lindiwe Sisulu made another controversial appointment, recruiting Menzi Simelane as a special adviser soon after the Constitutional Court questioned his integrity in a high-profile judgment.

However, when the conference took place in December 2012 in Mangaung, Lindiwe Sisulu stood only for re-election to her fourth term as an ordinary member of the National Executive Committee.

Lindiwe Sisulu was re-elected as the third-most popular candidate, behind only Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Malusi Gigaba.

Ahead of the ANC's 54th National Conference in 2017, Lindiwe Sisulu launched a campaign to succeed Zuma as the party's president.

Lindiwe Sisulu announced her candidacy on 21 July 2017 at Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown, Soweto, where the Freedom Charter was adopted in 1955.

Lindiwe Sisulu said that she intended to "cleanse the ANC and recover its original values".

Lindiwe Sisulu entered into a public spat with Gwede Mantashe, the ANC's secretary-general, as a result of an interview she gave the Dispatch in October 2017.

When local ANC branches finished nominating candidates for the leadership positions, Lindiwe Sisulu did not emerge as a presidential candidate but was a popular candidate for the deputy presidency.

Lindiwe Sisulu replaced Naledi Pandor as the running mate of Zuma's main challenger, national Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Lindiwe Sisulu was re-elected to the National Executive Committee as the 12th-most popular candidate, and she returned to the National Working Committee as well.

Lindiwe Sisulu appointed Sisulu to replace Maite Nkoana-Mashabane as Minister of International Relations and Cooperation in his new cabinet.

In November 2018, human rights advocates criticised South Africa's decision to abstain from a Third Committee resolution which condemned the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar, but, soon afterwards, Lindiwe Sisulu announced that her department would reverse its position as part of a broader policy of taking a stronger stance on human rights issues.

Lindiwe Sisulu was in office when South Africa unilaterally downgraded its relations with Israel, replacing the South African Embassy in Tel Aviv with a liaison office.

Lindiwe Sisulu announced this decision in a speech at the South African Institute of International Affairs in April 2019.

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies was strongly opposed to the move; its vice-president, Zev Krengel, accused Lindiwe Sisulu of being "the single biggest enemy" of South Africa's Jewish population.

Later, in an October 2022 interview with SABC, Lindiwe Sisulu complained that she had been "left dangling alone" to field public attacks and had expected President Ramaphosa to defend her publicly.

Pursuant to the May 2019 election, Ramaphosa restructured his cabinet, and Lindiwe Sisulu was appointed as Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, in which capacity she oversaw the merger of the Department of Human Settlements and the Department of Water and Sanitation.

Lindiwe Sisulu remained in the Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Ministry for just over two years before Ramaphosa reversed the merger of those portfolios in an August 2021 reshuffle.

The Acting Chief Justice, Raymond Zondo, held a rare press briefing to respond to and reject Lindiwe Sisulu's remarks, characterising them as an unsubstantiated "insult" to "all African judges".

However, in what the Daily Maverick called "a show of unprecedented defiance from a Cabinet minister", Lindiwe Sisulu released her own statement disputing the Presidency's account and asserting that "I stand by what I penned".

Some observers speculated that Lindiwe Sisulu was attempting to provoke Ramaphosa into sacking her from the cabinet so that she could instigate a backlash against him.

Lindiwe Sisulu was not elected to return to the National Working Committee.

Lindiwe Sisulu announced soon afterwards that she would not serve as an ordinary Member of Parliament but would instead resign from the National Assembly.

Lindiwe Sisulu told the media that she looked forward to spending more time engaging in world politics.

In 2022, Lindiwe Sisulu said that she had herself been treated for cancer.