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Pemmy Majodina

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The Honourable
Pemmy Majodina
MP
Majodina in June 2023
Minister of Water and Sanitation
Incumbent
Assumed office
3 July 2024[1]
PresidentCyril Ramaphosa
DeputyDavid Mahlobo
Isaac Seitlholo
Preceded bySenzo Mchunu
Chief Whip of the Majority Party
In office
22 May 2019 – 14 June 2024
DeputyDoris Dlakude
Preceded byJackson Mthembu
Succeeded byMdumiseni Ntuli
Member of the National Assembly of South Africa
Incumbent
Assumed office
22 May 2019
Personal details
Born (1968-12-24) 24 December 1968 (age 55)
Sterkspruit, Cape Province, South Africa
Political partyAfrican National Congress
Children9
OccupationMember of Parliament
Military service
AllegianceUmkhonto We Sizwe

Pemmy Castelina Pamela Majodina (born 24 December 1968) is a South African politician from the Eastern Cape. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), she has been the Minister of Water and Sanitation since July 2024. Between May 2019 and June 2024, she was the Chief Whip of the Majority Party in the National Assembly of South Africa.

Majodina entered government in 1999 as a member of the National Council of Provinces, and between 2004 and 2019 she represented the ANC in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature. Between 2008 and 2019 she held a series of five portfolios in the Executive Council of the Eastern Cape. She joined the National Assembly in the 2019 general election.

Early life and education

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Majodina was born on 24 December 1968 in Sterkspruit, Cape Province. She studied Bachelors of Education at the National University of Lesotho (NUL) obtaining her degree in 1996 and enrolled for a Honours degree which she completed in 1998.[2]

Political career

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Majodina served on the regional executives, the provincial executives and the national executives of the South African Student Congress, the African National Congress Youth League, the African National Congress Women's League, the South African Communist Party and the African National Congress. She was also an underground operative of uMkhonto we Sizwe.[2]

National Council of Provinces: 1999–2004

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After the June 1999 elections, Majodina was sworn in to Parliament as a delegate to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). She represented the ANC as a member of the NCOP's Eastern Cape caucus.[3]

Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature: 2004–2019

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In the April 2004 provincial election, Majodina was elected to an ANC seat in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature.[4] After her swearing-in she was elected as chairperson of the legislature's Portfolio Committee on Roads and Public Works.[2] She continued her extra-parliamentary work with the ANC, and in December 2006 she was elected to a three-year term as Deputy Provincial Secretary of the Eastern Cape ANC.[5]

She was promoted to the Executive Council of the Eastern Cape in August 2008, when Mbulelo Sogoni took office as Premier of the Eastern Cape; he named Majodina as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Health.[6] After the April 2009 provincial election, Noxolo Kiviet became Premier and appointed Majodina as MEC for Roads and Public Works. In November 2010, Kiviet moved Majodina to the Social Development and Special Programmes portfolio.[7]

Phumulo Masualle was elected Premier after the May 2014 election. He appointed Majodina as MEC for Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture.[8] While she was in that office, she was investigated by the Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, on charges of misappropriating public funds during an official visit to New York in September 2012. Madonsela's report, completed in April 2015, found that Majodina had accepted an inappropriately large spending allowance during the visit and recommended that Masualle should take disciplinary steps against Majodina.[9] She later paid back the funds.[10]

In December 2017 Majodina attended the ANC's 54th National Conference, where she was elected to the party's National Executive Committee. By number of votes received, she was ranked 74th of the committee's 80 ordinary members.[11]

In May 2018, Masualle appointed her MEC for Public Works.[12]

National Assembly: 2019–present

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Majodina during a parliamentary debate in November 2019

After the May 2019 elections, Majodina was elected to return to Parliament as a Member of the National Assembly. The National Executive Committee of the African National Congress named her the party's chief whip in the National Assembly, and she assumed the position upon her inauguration. She was the second woman to hold the post, with Doris Dlakude as her deputy.[13][14][15] She was the first woman to hold the office,[16] and she warned the ANC caucus to "move faster and better because we don't have time to play around".[17]

In June 2023, Public Protector at the time, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, laid a complaint against three ANC MPs, Majodina, Richard Dyantyi and Tina Joemat-Pettersson with Parliament's Joint Committee on Ethics and Members' Interests. This came after Mkhwebane's husband alleged that Joemat-Pettersson approached him for a R600 000 bribe for the three to influence the outcome of the Section 194 Enquiry into the fitness of Mkhwebane to hold office; he also laid a complaint with the police.[18] The Committee cleared Dyantyi and Majodina, saying the claim was unfounded.[19]

Awards and honours

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Majodina was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in community development from the Arlington University of Australia in 2010. The next year, the Methodist Church of Southern Africa gave her their Reverend Baartman Award. In 2015, Reverend Jesse Jackson awarded her with a Global Humanitarian Award.[2]

Personal life

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Majodina has nine children, of which seven are adopted and two are biological. She is estranged from her husband. Majodina is a Christian.[2]

References

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  1. ^ "Historic day for SA as government of national unity ministers take oath of office". Daily Maverick. 3 July 2024. Archived from the original on 3 July 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Political Profile of MEC Hon Pemmy Majodina". Eastern Cape Provincial Government. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  3. ^ Cele, S’thembile (27 May 2019). "New chief whip Pemmy Majodina plans to sebenza all the way". City Press. Retrieved 27 June 2020. The chief whip will be making a comeback to Parliament, having served in the National Council of Provinces from 1999 to 2004 before making her way to the Eastern Cape government, where she was deployed in five different departments.
  4. ^ "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.
  5. ^ "Head vows to unite Eastern Cape ANC". The Sowetan. 4 December 2006. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
  6. ^ "Mbeki set to hold the E Cape". Pressreader (M&G). 1 August 2008. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  7. ^ "Cabinet reshuffle for E Cape". IOL. 27 November 2010. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  8. ^ "Statement by Mr Phumulo Masualle, Premier of the Eastern Cape, on the occasion of the appointment and swearing-in of Members of the Executive Council". Government of South Africa. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  9. ^ "Public protector slams MEC Majodina". HeraldLIVE. 2 April 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  10. ^ Fuzile, Bongani (6 June 2015). "Guilty MEC pays back travel funds". SowetanLIVE. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  11. ^ "ANC NEC announced". eNCA. 21 December 2017. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  12. ^ De Kock, Rochelle (10 May 2018). "Masualle reshuffles cabinet". HeraldLIVE. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  13. ^ Makinana, Andisiwe (21 May 2019). "Bhisho's Pemmy Majodina new chief whip in parliament". HeraldLIVE. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  14. ^ Kiewit, Lester (20 May 2019). "Meet the ANC's new team for Parliament". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  15. ^ Head, Tom (21 May 2019). "Pemmy Majodina: ANC's new chief whip is as colourful as her wardrobe [photos]". The South African. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  16. ^ Ndenze, Babalo (21 May 2019). "For the first time, ANC caucus in Parliament to be led by women". EWN. Cape Town. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  17. ^ Makinana, Andisiwe (21 May 2019). "'I won't allow ANC MPs to be lameducks,' warns party chief whip Pemmy Majodina". SowetanLIVE. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  18. ^ Gerber, Karyn Maughan and Jan. "Police open inquest docket after Joemat-Pettersson's death". News24. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  19. ^ "Parliament committee clears Dyantyi, Majodina over Mkhwebane bribery claims".
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