Defence and Security Ministers

Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa-Nqakula served as minister of home affairs for five years before her appointment as minister of correctional services in May 2009. She was deputy minister of home affairs between 2002 and 2004 and also served as the ANC’s chief parliamentary whip. Chairman of parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence and a member of the joint standing committee on defence since 1994, Mapisa-Nqakula has served on the ANC’s national executive committee and as national organiser, secretary general and president of the ANC Women’s League. While in exile with Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) between 1984 and 1990, she underwent military training in Angola and the former Soviet Union. Before that, Mapisa-Nqakula worked closely with youth and women’s organisations in what was then the Transkei. She is a teacher by profession.

Prior to her appointment as minister of defence and military veterans in May 2009, Lindiwe Nonceba Sisulu served as minister of housing and, before that, as minister of intelligence and deputy minister of home affairs. A member of parliament in the National Assembly since 1994, Sisulu is the daughter of ANC veterans Walter and Albertina Sisulu. In exile between 1976 and 1990, she received training in military intelligence in Swaziland as a member of Umkhonto weSiswe (MK). On returning to South Africa, Sisulu served as personal assistant to Jacob Zuma in his capacity as head of ANC intelligence. She holds a BA Honours from the University of Swaziland, where she taught for several years. Sisulu also has an MA in history from the University of New York and an MA in philiosophy from the same institution.

Appointed as minister of intelligence in 2008 and minister of state security in May 2009, Siyabonga Cyprian Cwele has been a member of parliament since 1994. He served in the former Senate for five years before being re-deployed to the National Assembly. Prior to becoming a member of cabinet, Cwele chaired Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence. He has also served as chairman of the select committee on social services in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). A medical doctor by profession, Cwele also holds a M Phil in economic policy from the University of Stellenbosch. He was active in the ANC’s underground structures between 1984 and 1990.

Nathi Mthethwa was appointed minister of police in May 2009, before which he served for nine months as minister of safety and security. Having become a member of parliament in the National Assembly in 2002, he chaired the parliamentary portfolio committee on minerals and energy in 2004 and has also served as the ANC’s chief parliamentary whip. Active in youth organisations and trade unions from an early age, in 1988 Mthethwa was recruited to the ANC’s underground movement as part of Operation Vula. The following year he was elected regional secretary of the South African Youth Congress in southern Natal and chairman of the Unemployed People’s Union, a regional initiative of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). Between 1994 and 2004, Mthwethwa served on the national executive committee of the ANC Youth League and also on its national working committee.