Fikile Mbalula: ANC Secretary-General, Ex-Minister and Career Controversies

South African politics has a handful of figures who are recognisable by their first names, their nicknames and their social media accounts all at once. Fikile Mbalula, the African National Congress’s secretary-general, is one of them. He has been an ANC Youth League president, a cabinet minister under two presidents, and a self-styled “Mr Fix”. This week his name led South African searches after the Constitutional Court ruled in a case involving the ANC and the municipal ballot. This profile is a record of his public career, including the parts that were criticised.

Early life and the Youth League

Fikile April Mbalula was born on 8 April 1971 on a farm near Botshabelo, outside Bloemfontein in the former Orange Free State. He grew up in the township and entered politics as a teenager through the Botshabelo Youth Congress, which he led between 1986 and 1987, then joined the local United Democratic Front in 1989. After the ANC was unbanned in 1990 he became active in its youth structures and rose through the re-established ANC Youth League as regional secretary in 1991 and provincial secretary in 1994. He also trained as a counsellor in psychotherapy (Wikipedia).

At national level he became the league’s secretary for political education in 1996 and its secretary-general in 1998, serving under Malusi Gigaba. In August 2004 he succeeded Gigaba as president of the league, unopposed, and in the same year was president of the International Union of Socialist Youth.

His term was loud. Critics said he eroded authority and decorum in the organisation. He was close to the businessman and political donor Brett Kebble and was a pallbearer at his funeral in 2005. In 2008 the Mail & Guardian accused him of plagiarising an article published in the ANC newsletter Umrambulo from a 2002 Oxfam report; Mbalula said he had never read or seen the Oxfam report.

Polokwane and the Zuma years

By early 2005 he had moved from supporting Thabo Mbeki to backing Jacob Zuma, and during Zuma’s corruption and rape trials the league, with Mbalula as its figurehead, staged demonstrations outside the court. At the ANC’s 2007 Polokwane conference, where Zuma defeated Mbeki, Mbalula was elected to the National Executive Committee for the first time, winning 2,116 votes from about 4,000 delegates, and was given charge of organisation and campaigns. He ran the party’s 2009 general election campaign, widely regarded as effective, especially with young voters.

After Zuma became president, Mbalula was appointed Deputy Minister of Police in 2009. In 2010 he was promoted to Minister of Sport and Recreation, a post he held until 2017. In that role he pushed compulsory school sport and transformation targets, appointed an inquiry into Cricket South Africa, and drew headlines for calling Bafana Bafana “a bunch of losers” after the team’s elimination from the 2014 African Nations Championship.

The Mangaung defeat

He wanted the secretary-general post at the ANC’s 2012 Mangaung conference but was not on the winning side. Gwede Mantashe retained it by 3,058 votes to 908 for Mbalula, who also lost his place on the NEC, though he returned by co-option in March 2015. In an October 2012 interview with The Star he said, of Zuma, “I have no time for Zuma”, and Zuma’s supporters rebuked him.

State capture questions

Two episodes from his time as sport minister attracted formal scrutiny. The first concerned a phone call from Ajay Gupta, which Mbalula received before his 2010 appointment. Trevor Manuel described it to the Zondo Commission, Mbalula confirmed it was broadly correct and Ajay Gupta submitted an affidavit saying the call took place. Mbalula told the commission that he had raised the matter with the NEC as a matter of “political conscience”. The Zondo report noted that in 2016 he had denied to then Public Protector Thuli Madonsela that the Guptas had contacted him about his appointment, and found it likely that he had been shielding Zuma.

The second was a 2018 finding by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane that he had violated the Constitution and the Executive Ethics Act in how a 2016 family holiday in Dubai was funded. As he was no longer in cabinet she recommended no remedial action. Mbalula called her conclusions “unsubstantiated and prejudicial”.

Police minister and the Ramaphosa era

Zuma appointed him Minister of Police on 31 March 2017. He promised to be tough on crime, tried to remove Hawks head Berning Ntlemeza and dismissed acting police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane. At the 2017 Nasrec conference he was re-elected to the NEC but backed Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who lost to Cyril Ramaphosa. When Ramaphosa announced his cabinet in February 2018, Mbalula was left out and returned to Luthuli House to run the ANC’s elections work.

He came back into government in May 2019 as Minister of Transport, focusing on road and rail infrastructure and on a target of moving 10% of road freight to rail. In 2022 the Makhanda High Court, in a case brought by Intercape after attacks on long-distance buses, ordered him to ensure reasonable and effective measures to protect drivers and passengers in the Eastern Cape.

Secretary-general

At the ANC’s 55th National Conference in December 2022, Mbalula was elected secretary-general with 1,692 votes (38.79%), ahead of Phumulo Masualle on 1,590 and Mdumiseni Ntuli on 1,080. He succeeded Ace Magashule, who had been suspended from the position in May 2021, and left the cabinet in March 2023 to take up the full-time job.

The post has had its disputes. Early on he was accused of interfering in the ANC Youth League’s election process, an allegation he denied. In December 2023, as secretary-general, he hosted representatives of Fatah and Hamas at Luthuli House, and reaffirmed the ANC’s support for the Palestinian cause.

This week’s court ruling

On 15 October 2026 South African searches for “constitutional court” spiked. EWN reported that the Constitutional Court ruled the Electoral Commission must include ANC candidates on municipal ballots, and that other parties demanded fair treatment afterwards. News24 ran an analysis under the headline “Mbalula gets a reprieve”. We have not reproduced details of the judgment here; readers should read the court’s own published ruling and the outlets above.

Public persona

Observers describe a “colourful” public persona. He was the most-followed South African cabinet minister on Twitter in 2022 and has branded himself “Razzmatazz”, “Mr Fearfokol” and “Mr Fix”. Analysts have described his politics as populist, but also called him a talented organiser, campaigner and strategist. His record includes both: repeated roles running the ANC’s election campaigns and a series of public controversies, several of which he has disputed.

Sources

• Wikipedia
• EWN
• News24
• Google Trends