David Masondo
Early life and education[edit]
Masondo was born on 11 November 1974[1] in Elim, a village near Makhado in the former Northern Transvaal.[2] He matriculated at Marimane High School in Makhado.[3] After high school, he attended Giyani College of Education, where he joined the South African Students Congress, becoming its provincial chairperson in 1996 and its national deputy president in 1997.[4]
He went on to the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was president of the student representative council in 1998[4] and where he graduated with a BA, Honours, and MA.[1][3] In 2001, he was reportedly injured in a clash with campus security forces during a student protest against a visit by Colin Powell, the United States Secretary of State.[5]
In 2014, he completed a PhD in sociology under the supervision of Vivek Chibber at New York University.[6] His dissertation, about post-apartheid automotive industrial policy in South Africa, was published in the Review of African Political Economy.[7] His PhD research was supported by a Ford Foundation International Fellowship.[2]
Public and party administration: 2014–2019[edit]
After departing the legislature, Masondo served a brief stint in the Gauteng Provincial Government as a chief director in the provincial Department of Economic Development.[3] In April 2015, he joined the Automotive Industry Development Centre, an agency of the Gauteng Provincial Government, as acting chief executive officer; he was appointed permanently to that position in November.[33]
At the ANC's 54th National Conference in December 2017, Masondo was elected to the party's National Executive Committee. He was the fourth-most popular candidate in the 80-member committee, behind only Zweli Mkhize, Lindiwe Zulu, and Reginah Mhaule.[34] In a committee meeting shortly after the conference, it was reportedly Masondo who first raised the prospect of removing Jacob Zuma from office as president, a motion which came to fruition in February.[35][36] Also in the aftermath of the conference, Masondo was appointed as deputy chairperson of the ANC's subcommittee on political education, deputising Nathi Mthethwa.[37] He was subsequently appointed as the inaugural principal of the O. R. Tambo School of Leadership, the party's political school, which was launched in Midrand in April 2019.[38][39]
Meanwhile, at the SACP's 14th national congress in July 2017, Masondo was not elected to return to the Central Committee, despite lobbying by some of his supporters.[26] However, in June 2019, he returned to the committee by co-option.[40]
Personal life[edit]
Masondo is married and has two children.[3] He is the founding chairperson of Topisa Trust, a youth development fund in Limpopo which he established in honour of his mother, Topisa Evelyn Maluleke.[1][3]
On 16 July 2008, while Masondo was YCL chairperson, he was arrested at a roadblock in Johannesburg; according to police, he had been jogging in Sandringham when he was stopped at the roadblock, but he had refused to submit to a search and then had assaulted a police officer. He was charged with assault and interference with police duty.[66] The SACP, however, said that it was Masondo who had been assaulted in the altercation and that it would lay a complaint with the Independent Complaints Directorate and South African Human Rights Commission.[67]