36 Facts About Paul Mashatile

Paulus Shipokosa Mashatile was born on 21 October 1961 and is a South African politician who is the 9th Deputy President of South Africa.

Paul Mashatile became Deputy President of the governing African National Congress in December 2022.

Formerly an anti-apartheid activist in the United Democratic Front, Mashatile was a member of President Jacob Zuma's first cabinet, serving as Minister of Arts and Culture from 2010 to 2014.

Paul Mashatile remains especially influential in Gauteng, his home province, where he was ANC Provincial Chairperson between 2007 and 2017.

Paul Mashatile was born on 21 October 1961 in Gerhardsville, in what is the municipality of Tshwane, in the Gauteng province.

Paul Mashatile was a member of the Congress of South African Students and co-founded the Alexandra Youth Congress, becoming the latter's inaugural president in 1983.

Paul Mashatile was appointed interim regional secretary of the SACP in 1990, and was in charge of the ANC's political education programme in the region between 1991 and 1992.

Two years later, Paul Mashatile joined the provincial cabinet, where he served for the next 13 years, initially as Member of the Executive Council for Transport and Public Works and then as MEC for Safety and Security.

Paul Mashatile was a close ally of Shilowa, viewed as the latter's right-hand man and protege.

Paul Mashatile remained Provincial Secretary until 1998, when he was elected Deputy Provincial Chairperson under new Provincial Chairperson Mathole Motshekga.

Paul Mashatile was viewed as an opponent of Motshekga in ensuing years, during which the ANC's Provincial Executive Committee became divided over Motshekga's leadership, leading in 2000 to its dissolution by the ANC's National Executive Committee.

In 2001, when the provincial party elected a new leadership, Paul Mashatile was viewed as a possible successor to Motshekga, but ultimately stood for re-election to the deputy chairmanship and lost against Angie Motshekga, wife of Mathole.

Paul Mashatile remained a member of the SACP until at least 2007.

At the provincial ANC's next elective conference in 2007, Paul Mashatile launched a bid for the provincial chairmanship, the most senior position in the provincial party, running against fellow MECs Angie Motshekga and Nomvula Mokonyane.

On 7 October 2008, Paul Mashatile was elected Gauteng Premier, replacing Shilowa, who had resigned in protest against the ANC's decision to remove President Thabo Mbeki from office.

However, Paul Mashatile served as Premier for less than a year.

In subsequent months, the Sowetan reported that Paul Mashatile faced division inside the provincial ANC, with some groups aligned to Mokonyane or the Motshekgas.

Mokonyane was presumed to be the national ANC leadership's preferred candidate for ANC provincial chairperson, but at the elective conference of the Gauteng ANC in May 2010, Paul Mashatile prevailed decisively, winning re-election by 531 votes to Mokonyane's 356.

Paul Mashatile was sworn into the National Assembly in order to take up the position.

At the conference, Paul Mashatile stood for national Treasurer General on a slate aligned to presidential challenger Kgalema Motlanthe.

Paul Mashatile failed to gain enough votes to win election to the party's National Executive Committee, although he remained an ex officio member of the committee in his capacity as Provincial Chairperson.

Paul Mashatile retreated to the backbenches of the National Assembly, where he served as chair of the appropriations committee.

Paul Mashatile was re-elected, unopposed, as ANC Gauteng Chairperson in October 2014.

Paul Mashatile left the national legislature in February 2016, when he was appointed MEC for Human Settlements and Cooperative Governance in the cabinet of Gauteng Premier David Makhura, a close ally.

Paul Mashatile served in the provincial cabinet until early 2018, when he took up the full-time party position of ANC Treasurer General.

On 18 December 2017, Paul Mashatile was elected Treasurer General of the ANC at the latter's 54th National Conference, which marked the end of Zuma's term as party president.

Paul Mashatile ran on the slate of winning presidential candidate Cyril Ramaphosa, and reportedly partnered with David Mabuza in negotiating access to that slate.

Some commentators have said that Paul Mashatile had a long-running and instrumental role in engineering Ramaphosa's ascent.

In January 2022, with Secretary General Ace Magashule on suspension and Deputy Secretary General Jessie Duarte on sick leave, Paul Mashatile was appointed acting ANC Secretary General; he continued in the position after Duarte's death in July.

On 19 December 2022 at the ANC's 55th National Conference, Paul Mashatile was elected ANC Deputy President, serving under Ramaphosa.

Paul Mashatile emerged as a frontrunner for the deputy presidency during the nominations phase: he was the favoured candidate of branches in seven of the party's nine provinces, with the exception of the Eastern Cape, which favoured Oscar Mabuyane, and Mpumalanga, which favoured Ronald Lamola.

Paul Mashatile was appointed Deputy President of South Africa by President Cyril Ramaphosa after the resignation on David Mabuza.

On March 2024, Paul Mashatile stood in for President Ramaphosa by attending the Proudly South African Presidential Localization Dinner at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.

Paul Mashatile made a trip to the United Kingdom, to meet with high level government officials, executives of big corporations as well as SMMEs and start-ups.

Two months later, Paul Mashatile hosted another government dinner at the same restaurant, at a higher cost of R108,000, and his spokesperson inflamed the scandal by falsely denying the reports.

Paul Mashatile filed a R2-million defamation lawsuit against opposition party the Economic Freedom Fighters and two of its leaders, Julius Malema and Mandisa Mashego, after they implied that he had been involved in corruption in administering the Alexandra Renewal Project.