Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele

Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele (born 23 March 1951), formerly known as Sankie Mthembi-Nkondo or Sankie Nkondo, is a South African politician and diplomat who was the Minister of Housing from 1995 to 2003. She also served as Deputy Secretary-General of the African National Congress (ANC) from 2002 to 2007.

Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele
Personal details
Born
Sankie Dolly Mthembi

(1951-03-23) 23 March 1951
CitizenshipSouth Africa
Political partyAfrican National Congress
ChildrenNare
Occupation
  • Politician
  • anti-apartheid activist

Biography

Mthembi-Mahanyele was born Sankie Dolly Mthembi on 23 March 1951.[1] During apartheid, she lived in exile with the African National Congress (ANC), which was then based in Lusaka, Zambia. She was a journalist on Radio Freedom and worked under Thabo Mbeki in the ANC's department of international affairs.[2] During this period (and thereafter),[3] she wrote literature under the pseudonym Rebecca Matlou.[4][2]

After the end of apartheid in 1994, she was appointed Deputy Minister of Welfare in the South African government, under President Nelson Mandela.[2] She stood for election as the ANC's Deputy Secretary-General at the ANC's 49th National Conference in December 1994, but – although she was believed to have the support of Mandela, Mbeki, and Jacob Zuma – lost "decisively" to the more left-wing candidate, Cheryl Carolus.[2]

Following the death of Joe Slovo, she was Minister of Housing from early 1995 to early 2003, serving under both Mandela and his successor, Mbeki.[5] In 1999, she sued the Mail & Guardian for defamation, in connection to the newspaper's claim in December 1998 that Mthembi-Mahanyele had awarded a housing contract to a friend; the Supreme Court of Appeal ultimately agreed with the Johannesburg High Court that the report did not amount to defamation.[6][7] In 2003, she won an award from United Nations Habitat for her work in the housing portfolio.[8]

Her resignation from the cabinet coincided with her election as Deputy Secretary-General of the ANC at the party's 51st National Conference in December 2002.[9] She served in that position until the 52nd National Conference in December 2007, when she did not stand for re-election. In later years, she served as chairman of South Africa's Central Energy Fund from February 2012 until her resignation in 2015.[10][11] She was South Africa's Ambassador to Switzerland from 2018 until 2022,[12] when she was appointed Ambassador to Spain.

Personal life

While in exile, Mthembi-Mahanyele was married to Zinjiva Winston Nkondo, and was known as Sankie Mthembi-Nkondo. Nkondo was also an ANC activist and writer (under the pseudonym Victor Matlou);[4] they divorced.[2] In 1996, Mthembi-Mahanyele married Mohale Mahanyele (b. 1939, d. 2012), a businessman.[13] They had one daughter, Nare, together.[14]

References
  1. "Sankie Dolly Mthembi-Mahanyele, Ms". South African Government. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  2. Gevisser, Mark (20 January 1995). "The poet with a politician's instincts". The Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  3. "Healing from the armed struggle through poetry and prose". Rhodes University. 21 July 2011. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  4. Narismulu, Gayatri Priyadarshini (1998). Locating the popular-democratic in South African resistance literature in English, 1970-1990 (PhD thesis). University of KwaZulu-Natal.
  5. "A Tearful Exit for Outgoing Housing Minister". allAfrica. 24 February 2003. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  6. Milo, Dario (1 January 2005). "The cabinet minister, the Mail & Guardian, and the report card : the Supreme Court of Appeal's decision in the Mthembi-Mahanyele case : notes". South African Law Journal. 122 (1): 28–43. doi:10.10520/EJC53619.
  7. "It's an F, Sankie, and that's final". The Mail & Guardian. 2 August 2004. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  8. "UN awards ANC's leader". News24. 5 October 2003. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  9. "51st National Conference: National Executive Committee as elected". African National Congress. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  10. "New PetroSA CEO welcomed". South African Government News Agency. 19 November 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  11. "Sankie Storms Out The Door". Africa Oil+Gas Report. 10 September 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  12. "Refugees, xenophobia in SA top agenda for Western Govts - Ambassador Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele". BizNews. 22 January 2020. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  13. Barron, Chris (16 September 2012). "Mohale Mahanyele: pioneer of BEE ended career under a cloud". Sunday Times. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  14. Monama, Tebogo (12 September 2012). "Mahanyele is no more". Sowetan. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
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