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Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula

Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa-Nqakula (born 13 November 1956) is a South African politician who served as the Speaker of the National Assembly from August 2021 until her resignation on 3 April 2024. She was a cabinet minister from 2004 to 2021, including as Minister of Defence and Military Veterans between June 2012 and August 2021. She was an elected member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC) between 2002 and 2022 and is a former president of the ANC Women's League.

Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula

Jacob Zuma
Cyril Ramaphosa

Jacob Zuma
Cyril Ramaphosa

Thandi Modise

Jacob Zuma

Thabo Mbeki

Mangosuthu Buthelezi

Malusi Gigaba

Thabo Mbeki

Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa

(1956-11-13) 13 November 1956
Cape Town, Western Cape
Union of South Africa

Raised in the Eastern Cape, Mapisa-Nqakula trained as a teacher and worked in youth development until 1984, when she left South Africa to join Umkhonto we Sizwe in exile. She returned to the country in 1990 and became a national organiser for the newly relaunched ANC Women's League; she was later its secretary-general from 1993 to 1997 under league president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. She joined the National Assembly as a backbencher in the April 1994 general election and chaired Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence from 1996 to 2001.


Her political rise accelerated during the presidency of Thabo Mbeki, with whom she was close. In December 2001, she was appointed as Chief Whip of the Majority Party, and merely six months later she became Deputy Minister of Home Affairs under Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi. She served as deputy minister until the April 2004 general election, after which she joined Mbeki's cabinet as minister in the same portfolio. Concurrently, she was the president of the ANC Women's League from August 2003 to July 2008.


After the April 2009 general election, President Jacob Zuma moved her to a new portfolio as Minister of Correctional Services, where she served until she was appointed as Minister of Defence and Military Veterans in June 2012. She was retained in the latter position by Zuma's successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, and remained in the ministry for almost nine years. During that period, in September 2020, Mapisa-Nqakula was reprimanded by the president for using a South African Air Force jet to transport an ANC delegation to a party-political meeting in Harare. She was sacked from Ramaphosa's cabinet on 5 August 2021 in the aftermath of severe civil unrest, and she was elected as Speaker on 19 August 2021.


After less than three years as Speaker, Mapisa-Nqakula resigned from the National Assembly on 3 April 2024 amid revelations that she was under investigation by the Investigating Directorate. The following day, she was charged with corruption and money laundering, accused of having accepted bribes while serving as Minister of Defence. She has since been released on bail and is awaiting trial.

Early life and career[edit]

Born on 13 November 1956 in Cape Town,[1] Mapisa-Nqakula grew up in the Eastern Cape in what she later described as a conservative family.[2] She matriculated at Mount Arthur High School in Lady Frere and completed a primary teaching diploma at Bensonvale Teachers' College.[1] Her first job was as a teacher, and she later worked in youth development; she was also a founding member of the East London Domestic Workers Association in 1982.[3]

Anti-apartheid activism[edit]

In 1984, with her husband Charles Nqakula,[4] Mapisa-Nqakula left South Africa to enter exile with the anti-apartheid movement, undergoing military training with Umkhonto we Sizwe in Angola and the Soviet Union. She spent the next six years in exile in the political and military structures of the African National Congress (ANC), beginning with a post in the Soviet Union in 1985 and later representing the ANC Women's Section, the interim exile equivalent of the ANC Women's League (ANCWL), at the Pan-African Women's Organisation from 1988 to 1990.[1][2]


In 1990, after the ANC was unbanned by the apartheid government to facilitate the negotiations to end apartheid, Mapisa-Nqakula returned to South Africa on the party's instructions to help rebuild its internal organisation.[1] She worked for the newly relaunched ANCWL as a national organiser and was also elected as a member's of the league's National Executive Committee in 1990.[2][3] In December 1993, at the ANCWL's second national conference since its relaunch, she was elected to succeed Baleka Mbete as secretary-general of the ANCWL, serving under league president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.[5] She held that office until she was succeeded by Bathabile Dlamini in 1997,[6] although she was a member of the group of 11 league leaders who resigned from their offices in February 1995 in protest of Madikizela-Mandela's leadership.[7][8]

National Assembly: 1994–2002[edit]

While still serving as ANCWL secretary-general, Mapisa-Nqakula stood as an ANC candidate in the April 1994 general election and was elected to a seat in the National Assembly, the lower house of the South African Parliament.[9] After two years as a backbencher, she succeeded Lindiwe Sisulu as chairperson of Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence in September 1996.[10] While she was still in that position, in August 2001, she was appointed as deputy chairperson of the ANC's new 22-member political committee in Parliament, chaired by Deputy President Jacob Zuma.[11]


In December 2001, the ANC announced that it would appoint Mapisa-Nqakula to succeed fraud-accused Tony Yengeni as Chief Whip of the Majority Party.[12] The Mail & Guardian reported that she had "lobbied long and hard" for the promotion.[4] She soon oversaw a major reshuffle of the ANC's parliamentary caucus,[4] and she was praised "for her energy and efficiency".[13][14] In addition, both she and her husband were known to be close to, and highly loyal to, President Thabo Mbeki.[6][4][13] During this period, she was labelled a "rising star" in politics.[14][15][16]

Correctional Services: 2009–2012[edit]

Pursuant to the next general election in April 2009, newly elected President Jacob Zuma appointed Mapisa-Nqakula to his cabinet as Minister of Correctional Services, initially with Hlengiwe Mkhize as her deputy.[43][44] Mapisa-Nqakula was one of only a few Mbeki supporters who outlasted the change of government,[45] but observers noted that she was "handed a department left in a dire state by outgoing minister, Ngconde Balfour".[46][47]


She took office amid ongoing public controversy about Schabir Shaik's release from prison,[48][49] and she conceded in December 2009 that the country's medical parole framework required improvement.[50] Her ministry subsequently introduced the Correctional Matters Amendment Act to reform the framework.[51] During her brief three-year tenure in the correctional services portfolio, the Mail & Guardian said that she remained popular with her colleagues; the same newspaper also commended her for appointing Tom Moyane as National Commissioner for Correctional Services.[47]

Corruption prosecution[edit]

In early March 2024, while Mapisa-Nqakula was concluding her term as Speaker, the Sunday Times reported that she was the subject of a bribery investigation in connection with her tenure as Minister of Defence.[137] According to the newspaper, a SANDF logistics contractor, Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu, had told law enforcement agencies that Mapisa-Nqakula had solicited and received up to R2.3 million in cash bribes. Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu was identified as the unnamed whistleblower who had come forward with similar allegations in 2021 (see above).[102] As in 2021, Mapisa-Nqakula denied any wrongdoing.[138]


On 19 March, Mapisa-Nqakula's Johannesburg home was raided and searched by the Investigating Directorate of the National Prosecuting Authority, leading to rumours that her arrest was imminent.[139][140] She approached the Pretoria High Court on an urgent basis, seeking an interdict against her arrest on any corruption charges, but her application was dismissed on 2 April.[141] Two days later, on 4 April, she handed herself in at a police station in Lyttelton, where she was arrested and charged with 12 counts of corruption and one count of money laundering. The Pretoria Magistrate's Court granted her R50,000 bail.[142] She made her second court appearance on 4 June, when the case was postponed to 9 July.[143][144]

Personal life[edit]

She is married to politician Charles Nqakula,[145] with whom she has four sons.[2] One of their sons was convicted of drunk driving in March 2008 after he fell asleep behind the wheel of his mother's car in Cape Town, causing an accident.[146] Another died by stabbing at his home in Johannesburg on 31 October 2015.[147]


Mapisa-Nqakula's brother is Siviwe Mapisa, who was the business partner of Valence Watson;[148][149] Mapisa-Nqakula, in turn, had a business relationship with Valence's brother, Gavin Watson, insofar as he was the chief executive officer of Dyambu Holdings, which Mapisa-Nqakula co-founded.[150][151] During Mapisa-Nqakula's time at the company, Dyambu's interests reportedly included the Lindela Repatriation Centre and the consortium that built the Gautrain.[152][153]


According to Mapisa-Nqakula, she is psychic and a traditional healer.[2] Both she and her husband contracted COVID-19 in July 2020.[154]

at People's Assembly

Ms Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula

at Parliament of South Africa

Ms Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa-Nqakula