36 Facts About Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams

Stella Tembisa Ndabeni-Abrahams was born on 30 June 1978 and is a South African politician who is currently serving as the Minister of Small Business Development since 5 August 2021.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams previously served as Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies from November 2018 to August 2021.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams is a member of the National Executive Committee and a National Working Committee of the African National Congress.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was nominated to the assembly as an activist of the ANC Youth League; she was a member of the league's National Executive Committee from 2008 until 2010, when she fell out with the league's leadership and was expelled in a motion of no confidence.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was moved to the Ministry of Small Business Development in an August 2021 reshuffle by Ramaphosa.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has been a member of the ANC National Executive Committee since December 2022, and she was formerly a member of the party's Provincial Executive Committee in the Eastern Cape from 2012 to 2022.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams is a Deputy Chairperson of the Local Government Interventions Committee and a member of the Economic Transformation Committee of the ANC National Executive Committee.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was born on 30 June 1978 in Sakhela, a village outside Mthatha in the former Cape Province.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams is the eldest of six children, and both of her parents were pastors.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams attended the Holy Cross Senior Secondary School in Mthatha and later completed several tertiary diplomas.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was recruited to the African National Congress as a marshal in 1989, while still a child.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams represented the ANC in the Eastern Cape constituency.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams's expulsion was effected by a motion of no confidence without any formal disciplinary proceedings, and it was part of a wave of action against ANCYL members, including Lehlogonolo Masoga, who were perceived as antagonistic to the leadership of league president Malema and his allies.

In particular, the league accused Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams of having lied in an affidavit she submitted in Masoga's lawsuit against the league; in the affidavit, she claimed that Malema's allies had conspired to ordain Masoga's expulsion from the ANCYL.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams later said that, "I was expelled because I like to challenge the status quo".

In January 2011, the ANC's parliamentary caucus was reshuffled and Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was appointed as the party's whip in the Portfolio Committee on Communications.

On 24 October 2011, President Zuma announced a wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle, in which Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was promoted to succeed Obed Bapela as Deputy Minister of Communications under newly appointed Minister Dina Pule.

In parallel to her government office, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams served as a member of the Provincial Executive Committee of the ANC's Eastern Cape branch, having gained election to the committee for the first time in 2012.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was re-appointed as Deputy Minister of Communications, now under Minister Faith Muthambi.

However, in October 2016, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams told the Sunday Times that she had written to President Zuma to complain that she and Minister Muthambi had "no working relationship" and that Muthambi sidelined her and treated her "like a PA".

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said that she had resolved to stop attending government events involving Muthambi, including the June 2016 budget vote in Parliament.

Just after midnight in the early hours of 31 March 2017, Zuma announced a controversial reshuffle in which Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was moved to the other wing of the communications portfolio: she succeeded Hlengiwe Mkhize as Deputy Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, under Minister Siyabonga Cwele, while Tandi Mahambehlala succeeded Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams in the Ministry of Communications.

Formerly viewed as a political ally of President Zuma, in 2017 Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams became a prominent supporter of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was elected as ANC president at the party's 54th National Conference in December 2017.

An East London-based businessman, Siphiwe Cele, later claimed that, in April 2018, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams's husband had attempted to buy a controlling R1-billion stake in his electronics manufacturing company, Yekeni Manufacturing.

Cele alleged that his refusal to accept the offer, which was proffered while Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was deputy minister, had ultimately led his company into liquidation, because the Eastern Cape Government had subsequently declined to offer financial assistance to Yekeni.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams's allegations were published in the Sunday Times in January 2020, after Ndabeni-Abrahams had been promoted to the cabinet.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams's promotion was the most significant change in an otherwise minor reshuffle, and the press anointed her "a rising star" in the ANC.

Ramaphosa announced that the communications portfolio would be re-unified, with Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams's ministry absorbing the Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services, in a move to ensure "better alignment and co-ordination of matters that are of importance to our economy".

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams remained in office to oversee the merger: in the 2019 general election, she was re-elected to the National Assembly, ranked 27th on the ANC's national party list, and she was re-appointed as Minister of Communications in Ramaphosa's second-term cabinet.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams styled herself as "the commander of the fourth industrial revolution", a moniker she had earlier claimed during her tenure as telecommunications deputy minister, and Ramaphosa appointed her at the head of the Presidential 4IR Commission, a policy advisory body.

Indeed, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said that the central thrust of the newly unified portfolio was to reconfigure the mandates of state agencies in alignment with Ramaphosa's drive to leverage the fourth industrial revolution.

On 9 February 2019, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams attended an ANC event in Mount Frere, Eastern Cape for the launch of the provincial party's manifesto ahead of the upcoming general election.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was placed on special leave for two months, with her salary docked for one month.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams subsequently released a brief video statement, in which she admitted to and apologised for breaching the lockdown regulations.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams traded portfolios with Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who took over as Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies.

In May 2022, at a provincial party elective conference in Buffalo City, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was re-elected to the Provincial Executive Committee of the ANC's Eastern Cape branch, ranked sixth by popularity among the 30 ordinary members of the committee.