Danny Msiza | |
---|---|
Provincial Treasurer of the Limpopo African National Congress | |
In office September 2015 –June 2022 | |
Chairperson | Stan Mathabatha |
Preceded by | Thembi Nwendamutswu |
Succeeded by | Nakedi Sibanda-Kekana |
Personal details | |
Political party | African National Congress |
Danny Msiza is a South African politician and businessman who served as Provincial Treasurer of the African National Congress (ANC) in Limpopo between 2015 and 2022. He is currently facing criminal charges for his alleged role in corruption at VBS Mutual Bank between 2015 and 2018.
After he was first implicated in corruption in 2018,Msiza's status in the ANC became a source of major internal controversy and a focal point for debate about the party's so-called step aside rule. As a result of the rule,Msiza was suspended from his party office from December 2018 to July 2020 and again from August 2021 until the end of his term. He was also barred from seeking re-election to the provincial party leadership in June 2022. Nonetheless,he remains an influential figure in the Limpopo ANC.
Msiza was the inaugural president of the Transvaal's anti-apartheid Motetema Youth Congress in the 1980s. [1] According to the ANC,he was recruited into the underground of Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1984,and he subsequently spent time in exile outside the country. He returned to South Africa in 1992,after the ANC had been unbanned,and subsequently was active in party structures in Sekhukhune in present-day Limpopo. [1] After the end of apartheid,he became a businessman [1] and had financial interests in sectors including mining,telecommunications,and construction. [2]
In September 2015,Msiza was elected as Provincial Treasurer of the ANC's Limpopo branch. He was elected at a special provincial general council held to fill the position after the former incumbent,Thembi Nwedamutswu,died. [1] At the party's next provincial elective conference in June 2018,he was re-elected to a full four-year term in the position,beating Seaparo Sekoati with 848 votes to Sekoati's 688. [3]
In October 2018, the South African Reserve Bank published the report of a forensic investigation it had commissioned into alleged fraud and corruption at VBS Mutual Bank, and Msiza was heavily implicated. According to the report, entitled The Great Bank Heist, Msiza was the "kingpin" [4] in a commissions scam at VBS, under which various agents had received sizeable commissions in exchange for encouraging municipalities and other public sector entities to invest deposits at the bank, often in contravention of public finance management laws. Msiza's role was allegedly to use his political influence as ANC Provincial Treasurer to encourage municipal officials to approve these deposits. [5] [6] In addition, the National Prosecuting Authority later alleged that Msiza had played a central role in directing agents to channel their commissions to various third parties, and that he had himself received kickbacks. [7] Msiza strongly denied the allegations, calling them "scandalous" and "baseless". [4]
After The Great Bank Heist was published, initiating a major public controversy, the ANC's internal Integrity Commission recommended that Msiza and Florence Radzilani, who was also implicated, should "step aside" from their party positions until their names had been cleared. [8] On 11 December 2018, Msiza formally stepped aside, saying that he did not admit guilt but nonetheless accepted the Integrity Commission's decision. [8] "Stepping aside" amounted effectively to voluntarily accepting a suspension from office. [9]
In July 2020, the ANC's National Executive Committee recommended that Msiza and Radzilani should be reinstated in their party positions unless and until they faced criminal charges in connection with the VBS saga. [10] [11] According to News24, the proposal to reinstate them emanated from Stan Mathabatha, then the Premier of Limpopo and the Provincial Chairperson of the ANC in the province. [9] On 8 September 2020, the Provincial Executive Committee of the Limpopo ANC announced that Msiza had officially returned to office as ANC Provincial Treasurer. [12] [13]
On 11 August 2020, portions of The Great Bank Heist which made findings against Msiza were set aside by the Gauteng High Court on procedural grounds: the court found that the investigators had not given Msiza sufficient opportunity to respond to the allegations against him, in contradiction to the requirements of administrative justice. [14] However, in March 2021, Msiza was arrested by the Hawks and formally indicted. He and his 13 co-accused faced charges of racketeering, theft, fraud and money laundering in the VBS saga. [7] His first court appearance was on 12 March at Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court. [15] His trial was due to begin in 2022. [16]
Msiza's indictment coincided with divisions in the ANC about the implementation of the party's step-aside policy, and, unlike in 2018, Msiza resisted calls to step aside. The Mail & Guardian reported that Msiza effectively controlled the Limpopo ANC even after his arrest. [17] In April 2021, the provincial party contracted external legal counsel, which advised the Provincial Executive Committee that it might be unlawful to compel Msiza to step aside. [18] However, in August 2021, the ANC National Executive Committee unambiguously ordered the provincial party to implement the step-aside rule against Msiza, which entailed suspending him if he did not step aside voluntarily. [17] Msiza agreed to step aside later the same week. [19]
Although he was never reinstated as Provincial Treasurer, Msiza was expected to seek re-election to high party office when his term ended in June 2022: he emerged as a likely challenger to incumbent Provincial Secretary Soviet Lekganyane. [16] However, in May 2022, the Provincial Executive Committee announced that the step-aside rule barred Msiza from contesting in party elections until his name was cleared. [20] When the party's provincial elective congress was held in June 2022, Msiza was nonetheless nominated for the position; ANC Treasurer-General Paul Mashatile personally took to the podium to explain to delegates why Msiza was not eligible to run. [21] The leadership corps elected at the conference was viewed as strongly allied to Msiza [22] – as was Reuben Madadzhe, who ultimately won election to the secretariat [23] – and, though excluded from party office, Msiza remained influential in ANC politics. [24] In the aftermath of the June party conference, he publicly argued for the step-aside rule to be amended. [25]
Msiza is married to Mmabogoshi Bellah Msiza. [2]
Chupu Stanley Mathabatha is a South African politician who is currently the Premier of Limpopo. He was elected to the position in July 2013 after the resignation of Cassel Mathale. He was previously a public servant in Limpopo province and from 2012 to 2013 completed a brief stint as a diplomat, serving as South African Ambassador to Ukraine under President Jacob Zuma.
Pinky Sharon Kekana is a South African politician who is currently serving as the Deputy Minister in the Presidency. She was first appointed to the national executive in February 2018 when President Cyril Ramaphosa named her as Deputy Minister of Communications, an office she held until she was appointed to her current position in August 2021.
VBS Mutual Bank was a South African mutual bank. In 2018 it was declared insolvent and bankrupt and placed under curatorship, with South African citizens and taxpayers defrauded out of roughly R2 billion.
Mavhungu Maureen Lerule-Ramakhanya is a South African politician. A member of the African National Congress, Lerule-Ramakhanya is a former mayor of the Vhembe District Municipality. She was elected as a Member of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature in May 2019. She was then elected as the speaker of the legislature. In March 2020, Lerule-Ramakhanya was appointed as the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Transport and Community Safety. She was moved to the Education portfolio of the executive council in June 2022.
The step-aside rule is an internal policy of the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party of South Africa, which requires members charged with corruption or other serious crimes voluntarily to "step aside" from participation in party and government activities, or face suspension. Since its adoption in 2017 at the ANC's 54th National Conference, it has led to the suspension of several ANC members, most prominently ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule. In 2022, it was applied to prohibit affected members from standing in internal leadership elections.
Thabo Andrew Mokone is a South African politician and businessman. As a member of the African National Congress, he was elected to the Limpopo Provincial Legislature in 2019. He was appointed Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Economic Development, Environment and Tourism shortly after his election. In October 2022, Mokone became MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development.
Fulufhelo Florence Radzilani is a South African politician who is currently serving as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Transport and Community Safety in Limpopo province. She was formerly the executive mayor of Vhembe District Municipality from 2011 to 2012 and from 2016 to 2018. She resigned as mayor in December 2018 after being implicated in the corruption scandal at VBS Mutual Bank.
Namane Dickson Masemola is a South African politician who has been a Delegate to the National Council of Provinces since October 2022. Between 2009 and 2022, he was a Member of the Provincial Legislature in the Limpopo provincial government, representing the African National Congress (ANC), and held a variety of positions in the Limpopo Executive Council.
Molapi Soviet Lekganyane is a South African politician from Limpopo province. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), he was Member of the Limpopo Executive Council for Local Government and Housing from 2009 to 2012 under Premier Cassel Mathale. He served two terms as Provincial Secretary of the ANC in Limpopo, from 2011 to 2013 under Mathale and from 2018 to 2022 under Stan Mathabatha. He was formerly the Provincial Secretary of the South African Communist Party in Limpopo from 2008 to 2011 and in 2022 he was elected to a five-year term on the ANC's National Executive Committee.
Thandi Moraka is a South African politician who is currently serving as a Member of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature. She was Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Sports, Arts and Culture in the Limpopo provincial government between July 2018 and October 2022. She is a member of the African National Congress (ANC) and in 2022 was elected to a five-year term on the party's National Executive Committee. She formerly served as Deputy Secretary-General of the ANC Youth League from 2015 to 2019 and as a member of the Limpopo ANC's Provincial Executive Committee from 2018 to 2022.
Azwindini Jeremiah Ndou, commonly known as Jerry Ndou, is a South African politician and diplomat who has served as a Delegate to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) since October 2022. Before that, he represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the Limpopo Provincial Legislature and Limpopo Executive Council.
Rodgers Basikopo Makamu is a South African politician who is currently serving as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs in the Limpopo provincial government. He was formerly MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development between 2018 and 2019. A teacher by training and a member of the African National Congress (ANC), Makamu was elected to a second term as Deputy Provincial Secretary of the ANC's Limpopo branch in June 2022.
Seaparo Charles Sekoati, sometimes mispelled Seaparo Sekwati, is a South African politician who is currently serving in the Limpopo provincial government as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Finance. He has been a Member of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature since 2004 and was previously MEC for Health and Social Development from 2004 to 2009 and, before his appointment to his current position, MEC for Economic Development, Environment and Tourism from 2013 to 2019. From 2013 to 2017, he was also Regional Chairperson of the Mopani branch of his political party, the African National Congress.
Nakedi Sibanda-Kekana is a South African politician who is currently serving as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Sports, Arts and Culture in the Limpopo provincial government. She was appointed to that position in October 2022, shortly after she was elected Provincial Treasurer of the Limpopo branch of her political party, the African National Congress (ANC). She was first elected as a Member of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature in the 2019 general election and before that was Mayor of Lepelle-Nkumpi Local Municipality from August 2016 until December 2018, when the ANC asked her to resign during the corruption scandal at VBS Mutual Bank.
Selelo Donald Selamolela is a South African politician who is currently serving as a Member of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature. In December 2022, he was elected to a five-year term on the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC), and he was formerly the spokesperson of the ANC's Limpopo branch from 2018 to 2022.
Jacob Boy Otto Marule is a South African politician who has represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the Limpopo Provincial Legislature since 2019. During an earlier period of service in the provincial legislature, he was Limpopo's Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Agriculture from March 2012 until July 2013. A former member of Umkhonto weSizwe (MK), he is active in the ANC Veterans' League.
Bonnie David "Che" Selane is a South African politician who has represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the Limpopo Provincial Legislature since 2019. He was formerly the Provincial Deputy Chairperson of the Limpopo branch of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) from 2015 to 2021.
Tshitereke Baldwin Matibe is a South African politician who has served as Deputy Speaker of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature since October 2022. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), he was sworn in to the provincial legislature in January 2022 after serving in the National Council of Provinces since 2019. Before that, he was the Executive Mayor of Vhembe District Municipality from June 2012 to August 2016, and he has chaired the ANC's regional branch in Vhembe since 2012.
Wisani Goodman Mitileni, sometimes also spelled Mtileni, is a South African politician who represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the Limpopo Provincial Legislature from 2014 to 2021. He resigned from the legislature after being elected Regional Secretary of the ANC's Mopani branch in June 2021. Less than a year later, in March 2022, he was elected as Provincial Chairperson of the Limpopo branch of the South African Communist Party (SACP).
Pule Josiah Shayi is a South African politician who has served as the Mayor of Mopani District Municipality since 2019. Before that, he was Mayor of Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality from 2016 to 2019. He is best known as the Regional Chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC) in the Mopani region, an office he has held since 2017.