Kiki Rwexana

Last updated

Kiki Rwexana
Member of the National Assembly
In office
6 May 2009 –1 November 2013

Sindiswa Patricia "Kiki" Rwexana (born 22 December 1952) is a South African politician who served two non-consecutive terms in the National Assembly from 2004 to 2008 and from 2009 to 2013. She represented the African National Congress (ANC) until October 2008, when she became the first sitting MP to resign from the party and from Parliament to join the breakaway Congress of the People (COPE), which she represented during her second term. She was active in the women's wings of both parties.

Contents

Early life

Rwexana was born on 22 December 1952. [1]

Legislative career

African National Congress: 2004–2008

She was first elected to the National Assembly in 2004, standing as a candidate on the ANC's national party list. [1] For part of the legislative term that followed, she chaired the ANC's women's caucus in the assembly. [2] [3] In December 2007, she was nominated to stand for election to the ANC National Executive Committee, [4] but she was not elected. In addition, she was the national deputy secretary of the ANC Women's League [5] until July 2008, when she was succeeded by Mpai Mogori. [6]

Later that year, on 28 October 2008, Rwexana and Phillip Dexter announced that they were resigning from the ANC. [3] Rwexana said:

Today the ANC is very cold... It depends on which side you are supporting. The ANC we used to know is no more. The ANC that taught democracy in South Africa is no more... that taught respect to each, respect to the elderly, is no more. There’s hatred and anger in the ANC [now]. If you have a different view, you are no longer regarded as a member of the ANC. You are regarded as someone who is anti-ANC. [2]

She became the first sitting ANC MP to announce that she would join former ANC leaders Sam Shilowa and Mosiuoa Lekota at a national convention to consider political alternatives to the ANC. [2] [3] Because she resigned from the ANC, she lost her legislative seat the same day. [7]

Congress of the People: 2008–2013

Shilowa and Lekota's political alternative took shape as COPE, a new opposition party, and Rwexana was appointed to its interim steering committee as the party's convenor for women. [8] [9] After the party was formally launched, she became head of its Women's Forum. [10] In the next general election in 2009, she was elected to represent COPE in the National Assembly, but she again did not complete her term, resigning on 1 November 2013. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mosiuoa Lekota</span> South African politician

Mosiuoa Gerard Patrick Lekota is a South African politician, who currently serves as the President and Leader of the Congress of the People since 16 December 2008.

Mbhazima Samuel (Sam) Shilowa, correct Tsonga spelling "Xilowa" is a South African politician. A former Premier of Gauteng province while a member of the African National Congress, Shilowa left the party to help form the opposition Congress of the People, with whom he was briefly the Deputy President. In the 2009 general election, Shilowa was elected to parliament with COPE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2009 South African general election</span>

General elections were held in South Africa on 22 April 2009 to elect members of the National Assembly and provincial legislatures. These were the fourth general elections held since the end of the apartheid era.

The 52nd National Conference of the African National Congress (ANC) was held in Polokwane, Limpopo, from 16 to 20 December 2007. At the conference, Jacob Zuma and his supporters were elected to the party's top leadership and National Executive Committee (NEC), dealing a significant defeat to national President Thabo Mbeki, who had sought a third term in the ANC presidency. The conference was a precursor to the general election of 2009, which the ANC was extremely likely to win and which did indeed lead to Zuma's ascension to the presidency of South Africa. Mbeki was prohibited from serving a third term as national President but, if re-elected ANC President, could likely have leveraged that office to select his successor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congress of the People (South African political party)</span> Political party in South Africa

The Congress of the People (COPE) is a South African political party formed in 2008 by former members of the African National Congress (ANC). The party was founded by former ANC members Mosiuoa Lekota, Mbhazima Shilowa and Mluleki George to contest the 2009 general election. The party was announced following a national convention held in Sandton on 1 November 2008, and was founded at a congress held in Bloemfontein on 16 December 2008. The name echoes the 1955 Congress of the People at which the Freedom Charter was adopted by the ANC and other parties, a name strongly contested by the ANC in a legal move dismissed by the Pretoria High Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angie Motshekga</span> Minister of Basic Education in South Africa

Matsie Angelina "Angie" Motshekga is a South African politician and educator, serving as the Minister of Basic Education since May 2009. She was also appointed as an acting president of the Republic of South Africa on 2 July 2021, as President Cyril Ramaphosa attended the state funeral of Kenneth Kaunda in Zambia. She was previously a Member of the Executive Council in the Gauteng provincial government. Motshekga is a member of the African National Congress. She is a former president of the party's women's league.

Mathole Serofo Motshekga is a South African lawyer and politician who was elected to his third consecutive term as a Member of Parliament in the 2019 general election. He formerly represented his political party, the African National Congress (ANC), as the second Premier of Gauteng.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 South African general election</span>

General elections were held in South Africa on 8 May 2019 to elect a new President, National Assembly and provincial legislatures in each province. These were the sixth elections held since the end of apartheid in 1994 and determined who would become the next President of South Africa.

The Provincial Executive Committees (PECs) of the African National Congress (ANC) are the chief executive organs of the party's nine provincial branches. Comprising the so-called “Top Five” provincial officials and up to 30 additional elected members, each is structured similarly to the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) and is elected every four years at party provincial conferences.

The Executive Council of Gauteng is the cabinet of the executive branch of the provincial government in the South African province of Gauteng. The Members of the Executive Council (MECs) are appointed from among the members of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature by the Premier of Gauteng, an office held since October 2022 by Panyaza Lesufi.

Bob Mabaso is a South African politician who was Gauteng's Member of the Executive Council for Social Development from 2004 to 2006. He represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature for ten years before that. He is also a former leader of the South African Communist Party (SACP) in Gauteng.

Modise Casalis "Casca" Mokitlane is a former politician and diplomat from South Africa who served in the Free State Provincial Legislature from 1999 until 2014. He is a former Deputy Provincial Chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC) and is known for his short-lived defection to the opposition Congress of the People (COPE) between 2009 and 2014.

Madiepetsane Charlotte Lobe is a South African politician, diplomat and public servant who represented the African National Congress (ANC) in Parliament from 1999 to 2004 and in the Free State Provincial Legislature from 2004 to 2008. In October 2008, she defected to the Congress of the People (COPE), a newly formed breakaway party. Lobe served as General-Secretary of COPE until she was removed from that office in October 2010. She has since rejoined the ANC. After several years of employment in public administration, in July 2022 she embarked on a posting as South African High Commissioner to Singapore. She is also a former Provincial Secretary of the ANC's Free State branch and a former member of the ANC's National Executive Committee.

Nikiwe Julia Num, also known as Nikiwe Mangqo, is a South African politician who has served as Mayor of the North West's Dr Kenneth Kaundra District Municipality since 2021. She formerly served in the North West Provincial Legislature, representing the African National Congress (ANC) from 2004 to 2008 and then the Congress of the People (Cope) from 2009 to 2014. She has since rejoined the ANC, which nominated her to her current office during the 2021 local elections.

Dennis Victor Bloem is a South African politician who is currently serving as the national spokesperson of the Congress of the People (COPE). He represented COPE in the National Council of Provinces from 2009 to 2014 and before that he represented the African National Congress (ANC) in Parliament from 1994 to 2009. A former United Democratic Front activist in the Free State, Bloem defected from the ANC to COPE ahead of the 2009 general election.

Cecilia Mampe Papadi Kotsi, formerly known as Mampe Ramotsamai, is a South African politician who served in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2008 and from 2009 to 2014. During her first term, she represented the African National Congress (ANC), which she had also formerly represented in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament. However, in December 2008, she resigned and defected to the opposition Congress of the People (COPE), which she went on to represent until 2014; in the 2014 general election, she disowned the party and campaigned for the ANC.

Jonathan Mlungisi Hlongwane is a South African politician who served as president of the South African National Civics Organisation (SANCO) from 1995 to 2008. He also represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly in 1999 and as Executive Mayor of Gauteng's Sedibeng District Municipality from 2005 to 2008.

Lyndall Fanisa Shope-Mafole is a South African politician and former civil servant who was the general secretary of the Congress of the People (COPE) from 2014 to 2019. She led COPE's caucus in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature from 2009 until 2014, when she failed to gain re-election.

Luzelle Henrietta Adams is a South African lawyer and politician who represented the Congress of the People (COPE) in the National Assembly from 2009 until 2014, when she failed to gain re-election. She is an advocate of the High Court and served as COPE's spokesperson on justice and constitutional development.

Makhosazana Abigail Alicia "Makho" Njobe is a South African politician who served in the National Assembly from 1994 to 2014, excepting a brief hiatus in 2009. She represented the African National Congress (ANC) until January 2009, when she defected to the breakaway Congress of the People (COPE). She represented COPE for her final term from 2014 to 2019. From 2009 onwards, she served the Eastern Cape constituency.

References

  1. 1 2 "General Notice: Notice 717 of 2004 - Electoral Commission – List of Names of Representatives in the National Assembly and the Nine Provincial Legislatures in Respect of the Elections Held on 14 April 2004" (PDF). Government Gazette of South Africa . Vol. 466, no. 2677. Pretoria, South Africa: Government of South Africa. 20 April 2004. pp. 4–95. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 "Dexter, Rwexana throw lot in with Shikota party". The Mail & Guardian. 28 October 2008. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 "More ANC members quit party". News24. 28 October 2008. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  4. ↑ "ANC releases consolidated nominations list". The Mail & Guardian. 6 December 2007. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  5. ↑ "Ehrenreich slams ANC for slow land reform". IOL. 15 January 2007. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  6. ↑ "Women's League president elected". IOL. 6 July 2008. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
  7. ↑ "National Assembly Members". Parliamentary Monitoring Group. 15 January 2009. Archived from the original on 14 May 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  8. ↑ "COPE announces its 'steering committee'". IOL. 12 November 2008. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  9. ↑ "Can Shikota Cope?". The Mail & Guardian. 14 November 2008. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  10. ↑ "Dirty start to election campaign". IOL. 26 January 2009. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  11. ↑ "Sindiswa Patricia Rwexana". People's Assembly. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.