Fikile April Mbalula (born 8 April 1971) is a South African politician and current secretary-general of the African National Congress (ANC) since December 2022. He was a cabinet minister between 2010 and 2023, most proximately as Minister of Transport from 2019 to 2023.
Mbalula rose to national political prominence as the President of the ANC Youth League between 2004 and 2008. During this period, he became an outspoken supporter of Jacob Zuma, whom he supported at the ANC's 2007 Polokwane conference. At the same conference, he was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee for the first time and became the party's head of elections and organisation, in which capacity he coordinated its campaign in the 2009 general election. He continued to play a central role in the ANC's subsequent election campaigns.
After Mbalula joined the National Assembly in May 2009, he was appointed as Deputy Minister of Police by Zuma, who was newly elected as President of South Africa. He went on to serve in Zuma's cabinet as Minister of Sport and Recreation from 2010 to 2017 and as Minister of Police from 2017 to 2018. He maintained a prominent public profile in both positions, even as his standing in the ANC suffered due to his falling out with Zuma and his unsuccessful bid to be elected as ANC Secretary-General in 2012.
Although he was initially excluded from the cabinet of Zuma's successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, Mbalula returned as Minister of Transport from May 2019 to March 2023. He left government in order to take up his full-time position as ANC Secretary-General, which he won at the ANC's 55th National Conference in December 2022.
Early life and career Mbalula was born on 8 April 1971 on a farm near Botshabelo, a township outside Bloemfontein in the former Orange Free State. He grew up in the township and entered politics through the Botshabelo Youth Congress, which he led between 1986 and 1987. He also joined the local United Democratic Front in 1989.
He was still a teenager when the African National Congress (ANC) was unbanned by the apartheid government in 1990, and later the same year he became active in the ANC's youth structures. When the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) was re-established inside South Africa, he rose through its ranks, becoming Regional Secretary in 1991 and Provincial Secretary in 1994. At the same time, he trained in psychotherapy as a counsellor.
Early political career National ANCYL: 1996–2004 In 1996, Mbalula ascended to national office in the ANCYL as the league's secretary for political education. He held that office until 1998, when he was elected as national Secretary-General of the league, serving under ANCYL President Malusi Gigaba. He and Gigaba were both re-elected – in Mbalula's case unopposed – in April 2001. The pair were apparently close confidantes: by 2002, they discussed their political ambitions with other ANCYL members, identifying Mbalula as an ideal future ANC Secretary-General and Gigaba as an ANC President.
ANCYL President: 2004–2008 Reportedly in line with Mbalula and Gigaba's plans, Mbalula succeeded Gigaba as ANCYL President at the league's next elective conference, held in Johannesburg in August 2004. His candidacy was unopposed, and he was viewed as an attractive candidate because he could straddle the league's "old guard" and its new generation of younger students. During his single term as ANCYL President, Mbalula was also President of the International Union of Socialist Youth in 2004.
Mbalula's presidency elevated him to national prominence and his tenure was controversial. His politics have been described as populist, and he attracted media attention for his public statements. His critics accused him of "eroding authority and decorum" in the ANC in a manner that "changed the culture of the league" and set a precedent for his successors. Also controversial was his close relationship with Brett Kebble, a businessman and prolific political donor. Mbalula was a pallbearer at Kebble's funeral in 2005, and Kebble's biographer, Mandy Wiener, claimed that Kebble had been Mbalula's political mentor, frequently hosting him – and even coaching him – over Johnnie Walker Blue Label at his home in Atholl, Johannesburg. Mbalula personally was a member of a trust that co-owned Lembede Investment Holdings, an ANCYL-linked investment company that did business with Kebble.
In April 2008, the Mail & Guardian accused Mbalula of plagiarising an article he wrote for the November 2007 issue of Umrambulo, the ANC newsletter. The article, entitled "A Hurdle Race Rigged Against the Poor", apparently bore remarkable similarity to a 2002 report by Oxfam. Mbalula said that he had never read or seen the Oxfam report.
Polokwane conference
Mbalula was formerly viewed as a supporter of incumbent President Thabo Mbeki – he was a former protegé of the late ANCYL stalwart Peter Mokaba, who was an Mbeki loyalist – but by early 2005 he had "switched sides" to support Mbeki's deputy and foremost rival, Deputy President Jacob Zuma. In February 2005, for example, he said publicly that the ANC Women's League was "a bunch of holy cows" whose opposition to Zuma's rise would be judged by "the march of history". During 2005 and 2006, Mbalula was the figurehead of the ANCYL's support for Zuma during Zuma's corruption trial and rape trial; in particular, he was reportedly the key figure in "orchestrating" the ANCYL's energetic demonstrations outside the courthouse, and he sometimes addressed the crowd there. An American diplomatic cable, leaked later during Cablegate, claimed that Mbalula had not initially wanted to defend Zuma during his criminal trials but had faced pressure to do so from within the ANCYL.
In any case, Mbalula became "an important 'dog of war'" in Zuma's campaign to be elected as ANC president. Under Mbalula, the national ANCYL opposed Mbeki's bid for a third term in the ANC presidency; Mbalula said Mbeki had "played his role". He also said that the league would continue to support Zuma even if he faced further criminal charges. Indeed, when the ANC's 52nd National Conference opened in Polokwane in December 2007, Mbalula addressed a rally – an unprecedented display at an ANC conference – of Zuma supporters.
In the party elections, where Zuma triumphed, Mbalula was himself elected to the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC), of which he had formerly been an ex officio member in his ANCYL capacity. He received 2,116 votes from the roughly 4,000 delegates, making him the 15th-most popular candidate of the 80 ordinary members elected. He was also elected to the ANC's influential 20-member National Working Committee and was appointed to head the NEC's newly established subcommittee on organisation-building and campaigns.
Succession By the time of the Polokwane conference, Mbalula was over the age of 35 and therefore technically ineligible for membership in the ANCYL. His successor, firebrand Zuma supporter Julius Malema, was elected at a league conference at the University of the Free State in April 2008. Malema's ascension had Mbalula's support, while the other contender, Saki Mofokeng, was reportedly supported by Sihle Zikalala, the outgoing ANCYL Secretary-General.
Luthuli House: 2008–2009 After leaving the ANCYL, Mbalula worked full-time in organising and campaigns from the ANC's headquarters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg. He ran the ANC's campaign in the 2009 general election, with Zuma as the party's presidential candidate; the campaign was considered highly successful, especially in its appeal to young voters. Indeed, his organisational prowess has often been admired, with Mbalula described as "a talented fixer, spin doctor, organiser and campaigner" and as a "keen strategist" and moderniser.
During this period, Mbalula remained in the public eye, including as a persistent critic of former President Mbeki. He called Mbeki "aggrieved" and "bitter" in a February 2009 interview with the Mail & Guardian, and in April that year he published an open letter in which he held Mbeki responsible for the establishment of the Congress of the People, a recent ANC breakaway. In his letter, Mbalula wrote to Mbeki:Mandela handed you a vibrant and united ANC, yet at the twilight of your presidency, you chose to betray everything that Mandela and those that came before him stood for, struggled for, and laid down their lives for. In a moment of intoxication with power, you forgot Madiba's wise counsel and allowed our glorious movement to stumble on the edge of an abyss. When your cabal was finally defeated in Polokwane because of its actions and underhanded tactics at securing a third term for you as a president of the ANC, they went into an elaborate conspiratorial mode, famously dubbed 'the fight-back strategy' which clearly carried your blessing... It is a sad reality that the phenomenon we are dealing with today is a result of your actions of conniving, manipulating people and advancing politics of patronage. Despite the fact that you were a democratically elected president, you chose to run both the organisation and the country with a cabal which sought to commandeer everyone along your thinking and vision, which at times ran contrary to what the ANC stood for.Mbalula defended his words after President Motlanthe called the letter "unbecoming".
Career in government Deputy Minister of Police: 2009–2010 In the April 2009 election, Mbalula himself was elected to an ANC seat in the National Assembly, the lower house of the South African Parliament. He was believed to be in line for a cabinet post, and newly elected President Zuma appointed him as Deputy Minister of Police under Minister Nathi Mthethwa. He was one of the youngest deputy ministers in the government, and he quickly gained a public profile, sometimes appearing even to overshadow Mthethwa.
Focusing on visible policing, Mbalula announced several high-profile initiatives, including the community-led Operation Wanya Totsi and a ministerial effort to amend Section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act to allow police to use lethal force even when not strictly necessary. In the latter case, Mbalula garnered political attention for encouraging police to "Shoot the bastards". He also spearheaded a project to re-introduce military ranks and discipline in the post-apartheid South African Police Service, inviting harsh criticism from ANC stalwart Kader Asmal, who said:The new administration is referring to the militarisation of the police. I have this former head of the youth league [Mbalula] who aspires to be secretary general of the ANC. Ha, really, I hope I won't be alive. He said we must militarise the police. We spent days and days in 1991 to get away from the idea of a militarised police force. Extraordinary. This is a kind of craziness all of us have to take into account.Within months of Mbalula's appointment, the media observed tensions between him and his minister, with Mthethwa resenting Mbalula's popularity and Mbalula resenting Mthethwa's promotion ahead of him – Mthethwa had been junior to Mbalula in the ANCYL, serving as national organiser while Mbalula was President. The Sunday Times also suggested that Mbalula had become disillusioned with President Zuma when Zuma failed to give him a full ministerial post after the election. Asked about his relationship with the minister, Mbalula conceded that they sometimes disagreed, saying that he was nobody's "ball boy" and that, "I’m a deputy minister, but a deputy with substance."
Minister of Sport and Recreation: 2010–2017