| 6th Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Overview | |||
| Legislative body | Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature | ||
| Jurisdiction | Eastern Cape, South Africa | ||
| Term | 22 May 2019 – Present | ||
| Election | 8 May 2019 | ||
| Government | Executive Council of Oscar Mabuyane | ||
| Members | 63 | ||
| Speaker | Helen Sauls-August | ||
| Deputy Speaker | Mlibo Qoboshiyane | ||
| Premier | Oscar Mabuyane | ||
| Leader of the Opposition | Nqaba Bhanga (since 2021) | ||
| Party control | African National Congress | ||
This is a list of members of the sixth Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature as elected in the election of 8 May 2019 and taking into account changes in membership since the election. [1] Pursuant to the 2019 election, the African National Congress (ANC) retained its comfortable majority in the legislature, winning 44 of 63 seats. During the legislature's first sitting on 22 May 2019, Oscar Mabuyane of the ANC was elected as Premier of the Eastern Cape.
The Democratic Alliance (DA), with 10 seats, retained its status as the official opposition in the legislature. Also represented are the Economic Freedom Fighters, with five seats; the United Democratic Movement (UDM), with two seats; and the African Transformation Movement (ATM) and Freedom Front Plus (FF+) with one seat apiece. The Congress of the People and the African Independent Congress both lost their representation in the legislature, failing to win any seats in the 2019 election.
This is a graphical comparison of party strengths as they stand in the sixth Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature.
| Party | Seats | |
|---|---|---|
| African National Congress | 44 | |
| Democratic Alliance | 10 | |
| Economic Freedom Fighters | 5 | |
| United Democratic Movement | 2 | |
| African Transformation Movement | 1 | |
| Freedom Front Plus | 1 | |
| Total | 63 | |
There were several mid-term changes to the composition of the ANC caucus. Nomvula Ponco, ranked 45th on the ANC's party list, was sworn in shortly after the election in June 2019, [2] after initially failing to gain a seat. [3] In August 2019, Kesava Pillai Anilkumar filled the vacancy created by the death of Ncediwe Nobevu-Booi in July, [4] and in August 2022, Zolile Williams was sworn in to replace Babalo Madikizela, who resigned. [5]
On the opposition benches, Democratic Alliance provincial leader Nqaba Bhanga resigned from the legislature in March 2020 to serve as Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay; his seat was filled by Kobus Botha. [6] Bhanga returned to the legislature in December 2021, succeeding Botha. [7] In August 2022, Retief Odendaal resigned, also to serve as Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay and was replaced by Kobus Botha. [8] [9] [10] Edmund van Vuuren resigned from the provincial legislature in April 2023, and his seat was taken up by former Kouga mayor Horatio Hendricks. [11] The Freedom Front's sole representative in the legislature, Theo Coetzee, died in January 2023 [12] and was replaced by Jaco Burger the following month. [13] Also in February 2023, Simthembile Madikizela and Zilindile Vena were sworn in to the legislature to represent the Economic Freedom Fighters, filling vacancies occasioned by the resignations of Mlamli Makhetha and Yazini Tetyana. [13]
In December 2023, former DA provincial leader Nqaba Bhanga's party membership was terminated; Leander Kruger was appointed to take up his seat. [14]
Roland Athol Price Trollip is a South African politician and provincial chairman of ActionSA in the Eastern Cape. He was previously a member of the Democratic Alliance (DA), serving as the Federal Chairperson of the DA from 2015 to 2019 and the Executive Mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, serving from 2016 until he was unseated in a vote of no confidence in 2018.
Bonginkosi Success Madikizela is a South African politician.
Bennet Mzwenqaba Bhanga, known as Nqaba Bhanga, is a South African politician. He is the former Leader of the Official Opposition in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature, the former Provincial Leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Eastern Cape, a former Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, a former Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Human Settlements in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, a former member of Parliament, and the DA's former Shadow Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).
Babalo Madikizela is a South African urban planner and politician who served as the Eastern Cape MEC for Public Works from May 2019 to July 2022 and as a Member of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature from November 2018 to August 2022. Madikizela served as the provincial treasurer of the African National Congress (ANC) from October 2017 to May 2022.
Virginia Alice Camealio-Benjamin is a South African politician who has been a Member of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature since May 2019. She was a councillor of the Kouga Local Municipality before her election to provincial legislature. Camealio-Benjamin is a member of the African National Congress.
Retief Odendaal is a South African politician who served as the Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay from 21 September 2022 until his removal in a motion of no confidence on 26 May 2023. Before serving as mayor, he was a Member of the Provincial Legislature in the Eastern Cape for the Democratic Alliance and was the Shadow Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Finance, Rural Development and Agrarian Reform from May 2019 until August 2022.
Andrew Grant Whitfield is a South African politician who has been the Shadow Minister of Police since 2019 and a Member of the National Assembly for the Democratic Alliance since 2019 and previously from 2014 to 2016. Having served as the provincial chairman of the DA in the Eastern Cape from 2017 to 2023, he is currently the provincial leader of the party and the leader of the party's Tsitsi-Kouga Constituency. Whitfield had previously served on the Nelson Mandela Bay city council and in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature.
Veliswa Mvenya is a South African politician who is the founding leader of the Batho Pele Movement, a party she founded in June 2021 after leaving the African Transformation Movement.
Chantel King is a South African politician and educator. A member of the Democratic Alliance, she was sworn in as a Buffalo City councillor in July 2015. King became a Member of Parliament in November 2016. She then became Shadow Deputy Minister of Science and Technology in January 2017. In December 2020 King was appointed as Shadow Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology.
The 2019 Eastern Cape provincial election was held on 8 May 2019, concurrently with the 2019 South African general election, to elect the 63 members of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature. The election was won by the African National Congress, the incumbent governing party in the province.
Marshall Roberto von Buchenroder is a South African politician for the Democratic Alliance (DA). Von Buchenroder is currently a member of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature.
Eugene Johnson is a South African politician and businesswoman who has served as the speaker of the Nelson Mandela Bay Council since May 2023. She served as the Executive Mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality from 2021 until 2022. She had previously served as a councillor in Nelson Mandela Bay from 2005 to 2010. Johnson is a member of the African National Congress.
Nokuzola Gladys Tolashe, also known as Sisisi "Sisi" Tolashe, is a South African politician from the Eastern Cape. She was elected as president of the African National Congress (ANC) Women's League in July 2023. In government, Tolashe has been the Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities since March 2023.
Alice Nomvula Ponco is a South African politician who has represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature since 2009, excepting a fortnight's hiatus in 2019.
Bulelwa Tunyiswa is a South African politician who served as the Eastern Cape's Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture from May 2018 to May 2019. Before that, she was the Deputy Speaker of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature from 2010 to 2018. She lost her position on the Executive Council after the 2019 general election, when she failed to gain re-election to the provincial legislature. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), Tunyiswa has also been a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP) since 2012.
Simthembile Madikizela is a South African politician who has been a member of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature since 2023. He is the current provincial secretary of the Economic Freedom Fighters.
Mkhangeli Manford Matomela is a South African politician who represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature until August 2013, when he left the legislature and the party to found the breakaway Kingdom Governance Movement. He was formerly the Speaker of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature from 2004 to 2009 and the Eastern Cape's Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Education from 2004 to 2007. Matomela contested the 2014 general election as a candidate for the Kingdom Governance Movement, but the party did not win any seats.
Malcolm John Figg is a South African politician currently serving as a Nelson Mandela Bay councillor for the Democratic Alliance. He had previously served as the municipality's Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Budget and Treasury from 2020 to 2021. From 2014 to 2019, he was a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa. Figg served as the DA's shadow minister for public works from 2017 to 2019.
The Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, officially the Executive Mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, is the head of the local government of South Africa's Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, established in 2000.
Leander Kruger is a South African politician and lawyer who has served as a member of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature since 2023, representing the Democratic Alliance, the official opposition in the province. He had previously served as a councillor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality.