39 Facts About Mdumiseni Ntuli

Mdumiseni Ntuli was born on 5 March 1979 and is a South African politician.

Mdumiseni Ntuli has represented the African National Congress in the National Assembly since June 2024, and he formerly served in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature from May 2016 to July 2018.

Mdumiseni Ntuli left the latter position to serve as Provincial Secretary of the ANC's KwaZulu-Natal branch, an office he held between 2018 and 2022.

Mdumiseni Ntuli spent a decade working for the ANC as an administrator and organiser at its national headquarters at Luthuli House.

Mdumiseni Ntuli was born on 5 March 1979 in rural KwaXimba outside Cato Ridge in KwaZulu-Natal.

Mdumiseni Ntuli was educated at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he became active in student politics.

Mdumiseni Ntuli holds a Master's in political studies from the university.

Around 2008, Mdumiseni Ntuli left KwaZulu-Natal for Johannesburg, where he worked at the ANC's headquarters, Luthuli House, for a decade.

Mdumiseni Ntuli worked as an administrator and organiser for both the ANC and its Youth League.

Simultaneously, Mdumiseni Ntuli, like his brother, was a member of the Youth League.

However, neither the provincial league nor the national league went ahead with their leadership elections in 2014; and by the time they were held in 2015, Mdumiseni Ntuli was 36, too old to be eligible for Youth League membership.

Mdumiseni Ntuli was elected to the Provincial Executive Committee of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal at its seventh elective conference in 2015.

The PEC was suspended and the running of the provincial party was entrusted to a provincial task team appointed by the ANC National Executive Committee in January 2018; Mdumiseni Ntuli was appointed as one of its sixteen members.

Mdumiseni Ntuli was elected provincial secretary of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal in July 2018 when, after delays caused by legal challenges, the province held its eighth elective conference to elect a new leadership.

Mdumiseni Ntuli won in a vote against Super Zuma, who had been elected to the position in 2015, by a margin of over 200 votes among about 1,700 delegates.

Mdumiseni Ntuli was carried to the podium on the shoulders of supporters when the result was announced.

At that time, the Daily Maverick said that Mdumiseni Ntuli "appears to be very much in the middle of the road between the two main groups [pro-Zuma and anti-Zuma], rather than a diehard supporter of either".

The night before the conference opened at Durban University of Technology, Mdumiseni Ntuli had addressed a so-called "cadre's forum" with remarks that suggested support for the ANC renewal agenda of incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa, warning that some people within the ANC would resist the party's renewal.

Mdumiseni Ntuli's speech was interpreted as "a veiled attack" on former President Zuma and his supporters in the province, Zandile Gumede and Willies Mchunu.

Mdumiseni Ntuli's election was understood to be the result of his inclusion on an informal slate known as the "unity" or "zebra" slate, which had been negotiated between the pro-Zuma and pro-Ramaphosa factions to ensure adequate representation for both.

Sources told City Press that Mdumiseni Ntuli had been invited, and had declined, to serve as deputy chairperson on the status quo slate, an arrangement that would have allowed Super Zuma to gain the secretary post unopposed.

Mdumiseni Ntuli served as provincial secretary for a single term between 2018 and 2022, working alongside Zikalala, who was re-elected unopposed as provincial chairperson at the 2018 conference.

The fairly pro-Zuma PEC led by Mdumiseni Ntuli resolved that Zuma should participate in the ANC's campaign in KwaZulu-Natal ahead of the 2019 general election; defending the decision, Mdumiseni Ntuli said that Zuma "remains a darling of many people in this country, not just in KZN".

The PEC resolved that ANC members should rally outside the courthouse to support Zuma during his trial, though Mdumiseni Ntuli told the media that such support did not carry "anti-president" implications.

In May 2021, at the beginning of Zuma's corruption trial, Mdumiseni Ntuli accompanied Zikalala to the Pietermaritzburg High Court, where Zikalala assured a crowd of supporters gathered outside that in the provincial ANC "we stand with President Zuma, even today".

Mdumiseni Ntuli suggested that they had been sent from Mpumalanga or the Free State to "create an impression that the leadership of the province is losing the support of its own members" and to destabilise the province.

Mdumiseni Ntuli publicly challenged Ramaphosa's characterisation of the unrest as a "failed insurrection", warning that he might be "over-exaggerating".

The eThekwini branch apparently believed that they were not willing to challenge the national ANC on its so-called step-aside policy, although Mdumiseni Ntuli had in the past expressed misgivings about how the policy was implemented.

In May 2021, Mdumiseni Ntuli got into a public spat with Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a Zulu prince and the former president of the opposition Inkatha Freedom Party.

When Buthelezi claimed that the ANC-led government intended to withdraw the police protection provided to the new Zulu King Misuzulu Zulu, Mdumiseni Ntuli accused Buthelezi of lying to score political points; in subsequent exchanges, he said that Buthelezi used his affiliation with the Zulu royal family to "create an impression in society that there is no distinction between the IFP and the Zulu kingdom" and to gain political support on the basis of tribalism.

At the KwaZulu-Natal ANC's ninth provincial elective conference in July 2022, Mdumiseni Ntuli stood unsuccessfully for a second term as provincial secretary.

At the conference, Mdumiseni Ntuli lost the election, winning 894 votes to Mtolo's 699.

Mdumiseni Ntuli was nonetheless re-elected to the PEC for another term.

In 2022, ahead of the ANC's 55th National Conference in December, Mdumiseni Ntuli launched a campaign to be elected secretary-general of the national ANC, one of the party's so-called Top Six positions.

However, Mdumiseni Ntuli said that it was an advantage not to be aligned to any slate, because he would run on personal merit and would not be "beholden to any faction".

Mdumiseni Ntuli's candidacy received few endorsements not only on the national but on the provincial and regional levels: none of the nine PECs announced support for him.

On 19 December 2022, Mdumiseni Ntuli lost the race to Mbalula, who received 1,692 votes against Masualle's 1,590 and Mdumiseni Ntuli's 1,080.

Mdumiseni Ntuli was elected to the party's National Working Committee.

In March 2024, the ANC announced that Mdumiseni Ntuli would stand as a candidate in the upcoming general election, ranked 32nd on the party's national list.