18 Facts About Pat Matosa

Petrus Zanemvula "Pat" Matosa is a South African politician from the Free State.

Pat Matosa represented the African National Congress in the National Assembly from 1997 to 1999 and before that in the Free State Provincial Legislature from 1994 to 1997.

Pat Matosa was born in rural Rouxville in the former Orange Free State.

Pat Matosa was a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe in the 1980s, at the height of apartheid, and in 1986 he was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment for his role in an explosion at Phehello Secondary School in Odendaalsrus.

Pat Matosa was released from Robben Island early, in the early 1990s, and became a regional leader of the ANC, recently unbanned by the government, in the Northern Free State.

Pat Matosa had won that position, with Magashule's support, in a "surprise challenge" to Mosiuoa Lekota, who was the favoured candidate of the ANC's national leadership.

Pat Matosa won comfortably, receiving 263 votes against Lekota's 190; of the 81 local party branches in the region, Pat Matosa was supported by 33, Lekota by 22, and Magashule by 26.

Pat Matosa consistently argued that the party had given Lekota his mandate to lead and that he should therefore consult the party before exercising his constitutional powers.

The provincial party leadership responded with outrage, and Pat Matosa said in a press conference:.

Pat Matosa must understand that he is an ordinary member.

Several weeks later, the national party additionally announced that Pat Matosa had agreed that he would not run for re-election as ANC Provincial Chairperson at the next provincial elective conference, nor would Magashule or Lekota run.

Pat Matosa served in the National Assembly until the next general election in 1999.

On 27 October 1997, Pat Matosa was convicted by the Theunissen Magistrate's Court on an attempted murder charge, and was convicted on the lesser charge of having brandished his firearm at another person, a former police officer, who arrived at the scene after the traffic cop.

Pat Matosa was sentenced to five-and-a-half years' imprisonment and therefore would be ineligible to stand for re-election to Parliament.

The judgement concluded that it was far more likely that Pat Matosa had only intended to frighten the cop:.

Pat Matosa's attempted murder conviction was therefore set aside and commuted to a charge of wilfully pointing a firearm at the officer; he was sentenced to pay a R1,200 fine or serve 120 days' imprisonment, in addition to a R600 fine on the other, separate charge of brandishing a firearm.

In July 2002, Pat Matosa returned to the provincial leadership of the ANC when he was elected ANC Provincial Secretary, serving under Provincial Chairperson Magashule.

Nonetheless, at the end of his three-year term as Provincial Secretary in June 2005, Pat Matosa was elected to deputise Magashule as ANC Deputy Provincial Chairperson, an office he held until the next provincial elective conference in 2008.