70 Facts About Zweli Mkhize

Zwelini Lawrence Mkhize was born on 2 February 1956 and is a South African medical doctor and politician who served as the Minister of Health from May 2019 until his resignation on 5 August 2021.

Zweli Mkhize previously served as the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs from 2018 to 2019.

Zweli Mkhize was the Chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal from 2009 to 2017.

Zweli Mkhize was a Member of the Executive Council in the provincial government between 1994 and 2004 and was elected provincial chairperson of the African National Congress in 2008.

Zweli Mkhize rose to national prominence in 2012 when he was elected national Treasurer-General of the ANC at the party's 53rd National Conference.

Zweli Mkhize campaigned unsuccessfully for the ANC presidency ahead of the 55th National Conference in 2022.

Zweli Lawrence Mkhize was born on 2 February 1956 in Willowfontein on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg in what is KwaZulu-Natal province.

Zweli Mkhize belongs to the Zulu Mkhize clan, formerly of the Nkandla region, but, by the time of the advent of apartheid in 1948, his family was bound to farm labour by a labour tenancy agreement.

Zweli Mkhize attended secondary school at Dlangezwa High School, a boarding school in Zululand, where he was a strong student.

Zweli Mkhize later said that the anti-apartheid protests of a local "eccentric", David Cecil Oxford Matiwane, sparked his interest in politics.

In 1976, the year of the Soweto uprising, Zweli Mkhize began medical school at the University of Natal, where he was a member of the students' representative council.

Zweli Mkhize graduated with an MBChB in 1982, completed his internship at McCord Hospital in Durban in 1983, and began work at Edendale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg in 1984.

In exile in Swaziland and then in Zimbabwe, Zweli Mkhize continued to practice medicine; he often treated wounded MK combatants.

Zweli Mkhize continued his work with MK and by 1987 he was a commander in charge of underground cells which operated in KwaZulu-Natal.

Zweli Mkhize returned to South Africa in 1991 after the ANC had been unbanned by the South African government.

Zweli Mkhize initially worked at Themba Hospital in what was then the Eastern Transvaal, but opened a private medical practice in Pietermaritzburg in late 1991.

Zweli Mkhize held the post for a decade, becoming the longest-serving health MEC in the country.

Zweli Mkhize deviated from national government policy in allowing the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research to conduct antiretroviral treatment trials in public clinics in KwaZulu-Natal.

However, in 2001, when the Treatment Action Campaign sued the government for its failure to provide services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, Zweli Mkhize backed Mbeki in opposing the lawsuit.

Zweli Mkhize said that, at the time, he had disagreed with Mbeki's opposition to antiretrovirals and had lobbied for the government to fast-track nevirapine trials.

In November 2004, Zweli Mkhize was appointed MEC for Finance and Economic Development, in KwaZulu-Natal.

Zweli Mkhize was appointed Leader of Government Business in KwaZulu-Natal in 2004 and held both positions simultaneously until 2009.

Zweli Mkhize was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee, the party's top executive organ, at the ANC's 50th National Conference in December 1997, and he was re-elected to the ANC National Executive Committee in 2002 and in 2007.

Zweli Mkhize was considered "one of the main architects" of Zuma's rise to the ANC presidency over that period, having helped engineer an influx of pro-ANC members to the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal.

Zweli Mkhize served as chairperson of the ANC National Executive Committee's subcommittee on education and health and was a member of the ANC task team on national health insurance.

At the ANC's provincial elective conference in June 2008, Zweli Mkhize prevailed and was elected ANC provincial Chairperson.

The ANC won control of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in the 2009 election and Zweli Mkhize was indirectly elected Premier, beating John Steenhuisen of the opposition Democratic Alliance by 68 votes to seven.

Zweli Mkhize's re-election followed a minor political scandal concerning a leaked intelligence report compiled by Richard Mdluli; the report said that Mkhize, along with other ANC leaders, were plotting to depose Zuma as ANC President.

Zweli Mkhize was elected national Treasurer-General of ANC at the party's 53rd National Conference in December 2012.

Zweli Mkhize ran on an informal slate aligned to incumbent national President Zuma, who was re-elected ANC President at the conference.

Zweli Mkhize was rumoured to have been involved in recruiting businessman Cyril Ramaphosa to run for the deputy presidency on that slate.

Zweli Mkhize's tenure coincided with several scandals which appeared to implicate Zuma's administration in state capture.

Zweli Mkhize first announced that he would be willing to accept nominations to the position in early September 2017.

Zweli Mkhize had reputedly been an active participant in "provincial patronage politics", and he admitted to his own role in mobilising support for the Zuma-aligned faction in 2007, but, during the campaign, he argued publicly that maintaining the unity of the ANC required eschewing factionalism and slate-based campaigning.

However, when the ANC's 54th National Conference began in December 2017, Zweli Mkhize unexpectedly announced that he had decided "after much consideration" to withdraw from the deputy presidential race and therefore would not be in the running for election to any of the ANC's so-called "Top Six" leadership positions.

Mabuza was ultimately elected ANC Deputy President and Zweli Mkhize was indeed re-elected to the National Executive Committee with the most votes of any candidate, 2,550 across a total of 4,283 ballots.

Zweli Mkhize denied that he had engaged in deal-making or horse-trading, saying that he had withdrawn in order to build unity in and strengthen the ANC.

Zweli Mkhize was replaced as ANC Treasurer-General by Paul Mashatile, who had run against him unsuccessfully in 2012.

Zweli Mkhize was sworn into the National Assembly to take up the position.

In late May 2019, after Ramaphosa had been elected to a full term following the 2019 general election, Zweli Mkhize was made Minister of Health in the new cabinet.

Zweli Mkhize had received R150 million from the department between January 2020 and February 2021 for work on campaigns for the national health insurance roll-out and COVID-19 response.

Zweli Mkhize later claimed that Ramaphosa's associates had influenced the investigation in an attempt to "clip my wings".

In May 2022, ahead of the ANC's 55th National Conference in December, Zweli Mkhize announced he would seek the ANC Presidency for a second time.

Zweli Mkhize said that, if elected, he would prioritise the party and government's response to political corruption, including by implementing the recommendations of the Zondo Commission.

Zweli Mkhize identified South Africa's rolling blackouts as a priority issue; he said in that regard that "coal must and will remain the country's main source of electricity and other sources like wind, sun and water and other renewable energy sources will only play a secondary role".

Ahead of the 1999 general election, Inkatha, by then rebranded as Inkatha Freedom Party, claimed publicly that Zweli Mkhize used underhanded methods to promote ANC recruitment in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, even going so far as to promise IFP defectors weapons or amnesty from prosecution.

The incumbent Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Lionel Mtshali of the IFP, responded with a proposal to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate the allegations against Zweli Mkhize, but failed to do so after Zweli Mkhize successfully applied to the high court to interdict the move.

In November 2003, Zweli Mkhize said that he had laid a complaint with the Public Protector in connection with the April 1999 Sunday Tribune report.

Zweli Mkhize implied that Bulelani Ngcuka, the National Director of Public Prosecutions, had leaked word of the investigation to the media in order to tarnish Mkhize's reputation.

Later that week, apparently in retaliation, Zweli Mkhize was ambushed by gunmen while travelling in an ANC convoy with Bheki Cele.

In one of those trials, in 2000, Zweli Mkhize was implicated in the assassination by one of the accused, Sibusiso Bruce Mhlongo, who was formerly Zweli Mkhize's bodyguard.

Mhlongo said that Zweli Mkhize had been involved in planning the murder and had offered a R200,000 reward for its execution.

However, under cross-examination, he admitted that his testimony was hearsay, because he had not directly spoken with Zweli Mkhize but had only heard of his involvement from his associates.

Zweli Mkhize was asked to testify in court in March 2001, but outlined his account in an affidavit instead.

Zweli Mkhize denied any involvement in the murder and said he had not conspired to kill Nkabinde or offered a reward to his killers.

Zweli Mkhize said that he had only been approached about Nkabinde's killing after it had occurred, when the perpetrators had approached him asking for payment.

In 2008, Zweli Mkhize successfully sued Media24 for defamation after one of its titles, City Press, reported in a 2007 article that Mhlongo had "told the court that Zweli Mkhize had promised him thousands of rands in exchange for Nkabinde's assassination".

Zweli Mkhize said, and the high court agreed, that this was misleading, since Mhlongo's claim had been hearsay.

In 2021, Zweli Mkhize was implicated in the high-profile murder of Babita Deokaran by one of the suspects charged with committing the killing.

Later that week, the prosecutor in the case indicated that Zweli Mkhize might be a suspect or witness in the case, but the authorities had not reported any further investigation into his alleged role as of April 2022.

In 2006, Zweli Mkhize's wife was granted an R11.8 million loan by the state-owned Ithala Development Finance Corporation, which at the time was under the political custodianship of Zweli Mkhize as finance MEC.

Zweli Mkhize used the loan to buy a farm near Pietermaritzburg.

Zweli Mkhize denied allegations that he had improperly influenced the decision to grant the loan, saying that his wife was a "professional and a businesswoman in her own right who has dealings with other financial institutions".

Zweli Mkhize was finance MEC at the time the deal was signed, which Noseweek suggested implied a conflict of interest.

In November 2013, there was a minor scandal, stoked by the opposition Democratic Alliance, when it emerged that Zweli Mkhize had chartered 45 planes and helicopters between 2010 and 2013, at a cost of R1.2 million in state funds.

Zweli Mkhize ultimately said that he would repay the costs of the flights if asked to do so by the incumbent Premier, a response which the Business Day described as having "disarmed" his critics.

Second, in 2019, the former head of the PIC, testifying to a public inquiry about political interference in the PIC, claimed that Zweli Mkhize had pressured him into asking PIC beneficiaries to contribute donations towards an ANC political event.

Zweli Mkhize denied both reports, and they were not tested in court.

Zweli Mkhize attended medical school with Mkhize and is a medical doctor and businesswoman.

Zweli Mkhize maintains a homestead in Willowfontein, his birthplace in KwaZulu-Natal, and has said that in his retirement he would like to pursue his passion for cattle farming.