Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) Mapisa-Nqakula in 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7thSpeaker of the National Assembly | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 19 August 2021 – 3 April 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| President | Cyril Ramaphosa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Lechesa Tsenoli | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Thandi Modise | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Lechesa Tsenoli(acting) Thoko Didiza | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| President of the African National Congress Women's League | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 29 August 2003 – 6 July 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Mavivi Manzini | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Winnie Madikizela-Mandela | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Angie Motshekga | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa (1956-11-13)13 November 1956 (age 69) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | African National Congress | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Charles Nqakula | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa-Nqakula (née Mapisa; born 13 November 1956) is aSouth African politician of theAfrican National Congress (ANC). She was acabinet minister from 2004 to 2021 and theSpeaker of the National Assembly from 2021 to 2024. A former president of theANC Women's League, she was an elected member of the ANCNational Executive Committee between 2002 and 2022.
Raised in theEastern Cape, Mapisa-Nqakula trained as a teacher and worked in youth development until 1984, when she left South Africa to joinUmkhonto we Sizwe in exile. She returned to the country in 1990 and became a national organiser for the newly relaunched ANC Women's League; she was later its secretary-general from 1993 to 1997 under league presidentWinnie Madikizela-Mandela. She joined theNational Assembly as a backbencher in theApril 1994 general election and chairedParliament'sJoint Standing Committee on Intelligence from 1996 to 2001.
Her political rise accelerated during the presidency ofThabo Mbeki, with whom she was close. In December 2001, she was appointed asChief Whip of the Majority Party, and merely six months later she becameDeputy Minister of Home Affairs under MinisterMangosuthu Buthelezi. She served as deputy minister until theApril 2004 general election, after which she joined Mbeki'scabinet as minister in the same portfolio. Concurrently, she was the president of the ANC Women's League from August 2003 to July 2008.
After theApril 2009 general election, PresidentJacob Zuma moved her to a new portfolio asMinister of Correctional Services, where she served until she was appointed asMinister of Defence and Military Veterans in June 2012. She was retained in the latter position by Zuma's successor, PresidentCyril Ramaphosa, and remained in the ministry for almost nine years. She was sacked from Ramaphosa'scabinet on 5 August 2021 in the aftermath ofsevere civil unrest, and she was elected as Speaker on 19 August 2021.
After less than three years as Speaker, Mapisa-Nqakula resigned from the National Assembly on 3 April 2024 amid revelations that she was under investigation by theInvestigating Directorate. The following day, she was charged withcorruption and money laundering, accused of having accepted bribes while serving as Minister of Defence. She has since been released on bail and is awaiting trial.
Born on 13 November 1956 inCape Town,[1] Mapisa-Nqakula grew up in theEastern Cape in what she later described as a conservative family.[2] She matriculated at Mount Arthur High School inLady Frere and completed a primary teaching diploma at Bensonvale Teachers' College.[1] Her first job was as a teacher, and she later worked in youth development; she was also a founding member of the East London Domestic Workers Association in 1982.[3]
In 1984, with her husbandCharles Nqakula,[4] Mapisa-Nqakula left South Africa to enter exile with theanti-apartheid movement, undergoing military training withUmkhonto we Sizwe in Angola and theSoviet Union. She spent the next six years in exile in the political and military structures of theAfrican National Congress (ANC), beginning with a post in the Soviet Union in 1985 and later representing theANC Women's Section at thePan-African Women's Organisation from 1988 to 1990.[1][2]
In 1990, after the ANC was unbanned by the apartheid government to facilitate thenegotiations to end apartheid, Mapisa-Nqakula returned to South Africa on the party's instructions to help rebuild its internal organisation.[1] She worked for the newly relaunchedANC Women's League (ANCWL) as a national organiser and was also elected as a member's of the league's National Executive Committee in 1990.[2][3] In December 1993, at the ANCWL's second national conference since its relaunch, she was elected to succeedBaleka Mbete as secretary-general of the ANCWL, serving under league presidentWinnie Madikizela-Mandela.[5] She held that office until she was succeeded byBathabile Dlamini in 1997,[6] although she was a member of the group of 11 league leaders who resigned from their offices in February 1995 in protest of Madikizela-Mandela's leadership.[7][8]
While still serving as ANCWL secretary-general, Mapisa-Nqakula stood as an ANC candidate in theApril 1994 general election and was elected to a seat in theNational Assembly, the lower house of theSouth African Parliament.[9] After two years as a backbencher, she succeededLindiwe Sisulu as chairperson of Parliament'sJoint Standing Committee on Intelligence in September 1996.[10] In August 2001, she was additionally appointed as deputy chairperson of the ANC's new 22-member political committee in Parliament, chaired by Deputy PresidentJacob Zuma.[11]
In December 2001, the ANC announced that it would appoint Mapisa-Nqakula to succeed fraud-accusedTony Yengeni asChief Whip of the Majority Party.[12] TheMail & Guardian reported that she had "lobbied long and hard" for the promotion.[4] She soon oversaw a major reshuffle of the ANC's parliamentary caucus,[4] and she was praised "for her energy and efficiency".[13][14] During this period, she was labelled a "rising star" in politics,[14][15][16] in part because both she and her husband were known to be close to, and highly loyal to, PresidentThabo Mbeki.[6][4][13]
On 6 May 2002, President Mbeki announced that Mapisa-Nqakula would succeed her husband asDeputy Minister of Home Affairs in acabinet reshuffle occasioned by the death ofSteve Tshwete.[17][14] She deputised MinisterMangosuthu Buthelezi of the oppositionInkatha Freedom Party, and she was viewed as a likely candidate to succeed him as minister if his party withdrew from the government.[13] Indeed, after the2004 general election, Mbeki appointed her as Minister of Home Affairs in hissecond-term cabinet, withMalusi Gigaba serving as her deputy.[18]
Her ministry introduced the landmarkCivil Unions Act of 2006, which legalisedsame-sex marriage.[19][20] However, theDepartment of Home Affairs was a notoriously troubled portfolio.[21] In January 2008,Patrick Chauke, the chairperson of thePortfolio Committee on Home Affairs, complained about the lack of improvement in the department's management. Chauke said that despite various interventions by Mapisa-Nqakula, including the recruitment of a team ofturnaround experts, "For the past few years there had been this chaos we had to deal with in the department. We are sick and tired of having to deal with the same problems time and again."[22]
Later the same year, Chauke's committee drafted a report for theSpeaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, that asked Mbete or Mapisa-Nqakula to intervene in his extremely tense relationship withMavuso Msimang, who was appointed as Mapisa-Nqakula'sdirector-general in 2008. Mapisa-Nqakula's deputy, Gigaba, reportedly backed Chauke in this conflict; unlike Mapisa-Nqakula and Msimang, Gigaba and Chauke were political supporters of Jacob Zuma, Mbeki's principal political rival.[23]
Under Mapisa-Nqakula, the home affairs portfolio confronted a major increase inimmigration to South Africa from neighbouring countries, especially due toongoing political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe. Shortly after becoming minister, in September 2004, Mapisa-Nqakula appeared before theSouth African Human Rights Commission during hearings onxenophobia in South Africa; she acknowledged administrative problems in theasylum system and treatment of refugees, but said that she had set up an anti-xenophobia unit and was working to address other challenges.[24] However, by March 2008, observers reported that her department was "in constant violation of the laws regulating processing of asylum-seekers" and that asylum-processing systems had "just about collapsed and are spinning out of control".[25] At that time, a task team appointed by Mapisa-Nqakula to clear the backlog in asylum applications warned in its exit report that "we see the same chaos we first experienced when joining home affairs in September 2005, with a new backlog larger than the one that has just been effectively cleared... Whatever work we have done is being ignored or is already becoming undone."[25]
Shortly after this assessment was published, amajor wave of xenophobic violence broke out inGauteng in May 2008. Blaming criminals for the violence, Mapisa-Nqakula committed at an early stage to protect foreign residents and promised that those affected would not bedeported.[26] She repeated this assurance on later occasions.[27][28] However, the oppositionDemocratic Alliance (DA) was critical of Mapisa-Nqakula's role; its chief whip,Ian Davidson, urged her to "pull her head out of the sand" and acknowledge the true causes and extent of the violence.[29] According to Davidson, Mapisa-Nqakula had a "long history of denial" about the extent ofillegal immigration to South Africa; he held the government responsible for the crisis insofar as it had presided over "one of the largest human migrations of the last quarter-century, without any comprehensive plans on how to cope with the influx".[29]
In December 2008, Mapisa-Nqakula said that she did not support strongerborder control measures, explaining that, in her ministry, "Our emphasis is onfacilitation of movement rather than tighter border control... then you know who is in the country and what they are doing."[30] On 2 April 2009, in a move welcomed byhuman rights groups, she announced that the government would exempt all Zimbabwean citizens from visa requirements and grant them special residency permits allowing them to work inside South Africa;[31] this policy was retained and expanded under the next administration.
During her tenure as deputy minister and minister in the home affairs portfolio, Mapisa-Nqakula continued to rise through the ranks of the ANC, joining the party'sNational Executive Committee. Having formerly served as an ex officio and co-opted member of the committee,[32] she was directly elected at the ANC's51st National Conference in 2002; by number of votes received, she was ranked 37th of the 60 members elected to the committee.[33] She was also elected to the influentialNational Working Committee.[34]
The following year, at the ANCWL's fourth national conference atNasrec inJohannesburg on 29 August 2003, Mapisa-Nqakula was elected as president of the ANCWL. She received 1,454 votes across 2,030 ballots, beating the other contender – league deputy president and acting presidentThandi Modise – by 528 votes.[15] Health ministerManto Tshabalala-Msimang had also been nominated for the position but declined to stand on the ballot.[35] Mapisa-Nqakula was believed to be the preferred candidate of the national ANC leadership under Mbeki,[36] as well as the preferred candidate of Bathabile Dlamini, who was re-elected as secretary-general at the same conference.[6] However, she denied rumours that there had been a fierce contest between her and Modise, saying that they were "good comrades".[37]
In her maiden speech as ANCWL president, Mapisa-Nqakula demanded 50 per cent representation forwomen in all spheres of government, but declined to support calls for South Africa to elect its first woman president, saying, "We believe in rallying behind the president we have. It's a tradition we grew up with in the ANC. We have a capable leader."[37] Indeed, she went on to support Mbeki's bid to win a third term as ANC president in 2007.[38][39]
At the party's hotly contested52nd National Conference inPolokwane in December 2007, Mbeki lost to his former deputy, Jacob Zuma, but Mapisa-Nqakula was re-elected to the newly enlarged National Executive Committee, ranked 68th of 80.[40] She was not re-elected to the National Working Committee.[41] She stepped down as ANCWL president when her term ended on 6 July 2008, ceding the office toAngie Motshekga.[42]
Pursuant tothe next general election in April 2009, newlyelected President Jacob Zuma appointed Mapisa-Nqakula tohis cabinet asMinister of Correctional Services, initially withHlengiwe Mkhize as her deputy.[43][44] Mapisa-Nqakula was one of only a few Mbeki supporters who outlasted the change of government,[45] but observers noted that she was "handeda department left in a dire state by outgoing minister,Ngconde Balfour".[46][47]
She took office amid ongoing public controversy aboutSchabir Shaik's release from prison,[48][49] and she conceded in December 2009 that the country'smedical parole framework required improvement.[50] Her ministry subsequently introduced the Correctional Matters Amendment Act to reform the framework.[51] During her brief three-year tenure in the correctional services portfolio, theMail & Guardian said that she remained popular with her colleagues; the same newspaper also commended her for appointingTom Moyane asNational Commissioner for Correctional Services.[47]
On 12 June 2012, President Zuma announced a cabinet reshuffle in which Mapisa-Nqakula was appointed asMinister of Defence and Military Veterans.[52] She remained in that office for almost nine years, serving through the remainder ofZuma's presidency and gaining reappointment in thefirst andsecond cabinets of PresidentCyril Ramaphosa, whosucceeded Zuma in 2018. Throughout this period, she remained a member of the ANC National Executive Committee: at the party's53rd National Conference in December 2012, she was re-elected ranked 17th and returned to the National Working Committee;[53][54] and at the54th National Conference in December 2017, she was re-elected ranked 53rd.[53]
At an early stage in her tenure, Mapisa-Nqakula attracted media attention for reversing plans put in place by her predecessor, Lindiwe Sisulu, to lease new aircraft for use by governmentVVIPs, including the president and deputy president. A preliminary agreement withBoeing was allowed to expire, with Mapisa-Nqakula suggesting that the expiry might be fortuitous because "the aircraft being negotiated was not necessarily what the defence force would have advised us to buy";[55] and she went to court to challenge another contract with AdoAir, claiming that the award process had not complied with thePublic Finance Management Act.[56][57]
During the same period, she was involved with a public row with her predecessor over a related matter: in October 2012, in response to a parliamentary question fromDavid Maynier, she reported that Sisulu had taken 203 private flights, at a cost of overR40 million to theSouth African Air Force, between 2009 and 2012.[58] Sisulu strongly denied this claim, leading to a series of mutual public recriminations that continued as late as March 2014; Sisulu threatened to sue Mapisa-Nqakula and ultimately laid a formal complaint against her with Parliament.[58][59]
At the end of Mapisa-Nqakula's first six months in office, theMail & Guardian admired her approach, saying that she had "inherited a desk that must have been groaning under the weight of unresolved issues left behind by Lindiwe Sisulu" and that her "willingness to feed Sisulu to the parliamentary wolves" on her use of military aircraft had established her as "tough enough for the job" and as willing to be responsive to Parliament.[60] However, new plans to lease aircraft for VVIPs caused intermittent controversy over the next few years.[61] TheMail & Guardian complained in 2015 that "Mapisa-Nqakula seemed to be mostly in the business of justifying which planes the president and his deputy use to fly around the world, while considering the purchase of newer and shinier VVIP planes in her spare time", thus detracting attention from the substantive issues under her portfolio.[62]
Mapisa-Nqakula was Minister of Defence on 30 April 2013, when, in a serious security breach, the controversialGupta family landed a private plane at theWaterkloof Air Force Base, apparently delivering their acquaintances to a family wedding atSun City. South African law suggested that a plane could not have landed at the base without Mapisa-Nqakula's permission. In the days after the landing, theMail & Guardian reported that Mapisa-Nqakula was under serious political pressure, including from inside the ANC, and that President Zuma had ordered her to return from a working trip inAddis Ababa, Ethiopia to attend urgent meetings on the matter.[63] The oppositionFreedom Front Plus (FF+) demanded that Mapisa-Nqakula should "provide answers" about the incident,[64] and the ANC agreed: ANC spokespersonJackson Mthembu called for an explanation from theSouth African National Defence Force (SANDF),[65] while ANC secretary-generalGwede Mantashe said onRadio 702 that, "We will be speaking to the Minister directly to get answers of the logic behind this. To us it doesn't make sense."[66]
In a statement, SANDF said that it had denied a request by a Gupta associate for authorisation to use the air base.[67] According to Justice MinisterJeff Radebe, a subsequent ministerial investigation confirmed that neither SANDF nor Mapisa-Nqakula had authorised the landing, finding instead that it had come about by "name dropping": Gupta associates had apparently "dropped" Mapisa-Nqakula's name, along with that of the president and of transport ministerBen Martins.[68] In July 2017, on the basis of theGupta Leaks, theSunday Times reported that Gupta associates had received access to confidential military charts, including maps of the base and information on its radio and navigation frequencies, in advance of the landing.[69] The DA said that it would insist that "Mapisa-Nqakula must come before Parliament to explain this outrageous access the Guptas has had to our country's military services".[70]
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On 31 December 2012, President Zuma sent Mapisa-Nqakula to assess the situation in theCentral African Republic (CAR), where South African troops werestationed under a bilateral agreement and wherea civil war had broken out.[71] The following week, he announced a major SANDF deployment to the CAR as part of a campaign to support stability there. Press questioned the motives behind the deployment, suggesting that the government sought to protect ANC-linked business interests and the regime ofFrançois Bozizé.[72] Mapisa-Nqakula was adamant that the deployment served the South African national interest,[73] and she accused opposition parties of exploiting South African deaths – 13 died at theBattle of Bangui – for political gain ahead of the2014 general election.[74] She later defended SANDF against reports that South African troops had killedchild soldiers in the CAR, saying, "If our soldiers were attacked by children they were correct to defend themselves. If a child shoots at you, are you going to wave your hands, give him a sweetie, blow kisses?"[75] She announced in April 2013 that South African troops would withdraw.[76]
Two years later, SANDF troops were deployed inside South Africa followingrenewed xenophobic violence in Gauteng andKwaZulu-Natal in April 2015.[77] Announcing the deployment, Mapisa-Nqakula suggested that the instability might be fostered by external forces, warning of "people who have their own agendas of destroying the state and the government of the republic of SA".[78] Afteranother spate of xenophobic riots in Johannesburg in September 2019, Mapisa-Nqakula argued in a parliamentary debate that the incidents were "mostly acts of criminality irrespective of the nationality of those involved", rather than acts of xenophobia; she argued for responding by reviving "the voice of the moral regeneration movement".[79] Such remarks were criticised as fuelling xenophobia denialism.[80]
SANDF troops were also deployed to assistthe police with public-order policing during theCOVID-19 pandemic: 2,820 troops were deployed at the outset of thelockdown in March 2020 and all available personnel – including reserve and auxiliary forces – were put on standby with authorisation to deploy as of April 2020.[81] Although the deployment was welcomed by politicians across the political spectrum,[82] theMail & Guardian said at the end of the year that it had been "disastrous".[83] 214 misconduct complaints were laid against SANDF members during the lockdown, including one pertaining to the killing of Collins Khosa inAlexandra.[83]
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On several occasions, Mapisa-Nqakula attracted controversy for her use of military aircraft. First, in July 2013, she travelled in an air force helicopter toTlokwe, North West to meet with local ANC members on the president's behalf; she accepted their memorandum to Zuma, which demanded political action be taken against their former mayor. The DA accused Mapisa-Nqakula of abusing state resources to conduct party-political business, thus contravening the ministerial handbook and appearing to "treat the South African Air Force as the ANC's own airborne taxi service".[84] TheSouth African National Defence Union also strongly condemned the trip, calling it a "poor show of leadership and outright lawlessness".[85] Mapisa-Nqakula's spokesperson said that the trip qualified as government business, pertaining to "governance issues" and "the ability of government to function" in Tlokwe, and that she had taken the helicopter because her arrival was urgent in resolving a "potentially explosive situation".[84][86]
In a separate incident, in May 2016, theSunday Times reported that Mapisa-Nqakula had used an air force jet to "smuggle" a youngBurundian woman into South Africa in 2014.[87] The woman, Michelle Wege, was a friend of Mapisa-Nqakula's family who had been arrested atKinshasa International Airport for attempting to travel using fraudulent documents.[87] Mapisa-Nqakula's sister, Nosithembele Mapisa, was the deputy ambassador in Burundi at the time and was suspended by the ambassador,Oupa Monareng, on suspicion of having arranged the false passport under which Wege was arrested.[87] After the arrest, Mapisa-Nqakula had intervened, writing to theSouth African Ambassador in the Congo and then, on 28 January 2014, flying from the Waterkloof Air Force Base to the Congo to fetch Wege. Mapisa-Nqakula denied having abused state resources, pointing out that she had flown with Wege from the Congo to Addis Ababa, where she was in any case scheduled to appear on a working visit to anAfrican Union conference. She also said that she had rescued Wege from an abusive father, who had confiscated her passport, and that "I'd do it again if I had to."[87] Wege's father denied that he had been abusive and said that his daughter had been in a romantic relationship with Mapisa-Nqakula's deceased son.[88] The DA said that it would lay criminal charges against Mapisa-Nqakula, alleging that she had breached the Immigration Act by bringing Wege into the country,[89] and theMail & Guardian criticised Mapisa-Nqakula for having been "defiantly unapologetic" about an incident "which gave every appearance of having been a flagrant breaking of the law".[90]
Finally, and perhaps most controversially, on 8 and 9 September 2020, Mapisa-Nqakula transported an ANC delegation to and fromHarare, Zimbabwe, for a meeting with leaders of the Zimbabwean ruling party,Zanu-PF. They travelled on ZS-NAN, aDassault Falcon-900B owned by the air force and allocated for VIPs, and the delegation included ANC secretary-generalAce Magashule as well asLindiwe Zulu,Nomvula Mokonyane,Enoch Godongwana,Tony Yengeni, andDakota Legoete.[91] The DA accused the ANC of "gross abuse of government resources" for party-political purposes,[92] and theOrganisation Undoing Tax Abuse called for "stern corrective action".[93] A spokesperson for theDepartment of Defence explained that the ANC's visit to Zimbabwe coincided with a working visit by Mapisa-Nqakula in her capacity as minister; she had apparently been scheduled to meet her Zimbabwean counterpart to discussSADC matters.[91] President Ramaphosa confirmed that he had authorised Mapisa-Nqakula's ministerial visit to Harare, but asked her to provide him with a report setting out the circumstances of the flight.[94]
Two weeks later, Ramaphosa said that he had concluded that Mapisa-Nqakula had contravened the executive members ethics code and had "failed to adhere to legal prescripts warranting care in use of state resources", in an "error of judgment... not in keeping with the responsibilities of a minister of Cabinet".[95] He issued her with a formal reprimand, docked her ministerial salary for three months, and instructed her to ensure that the ANC reimbursed the state for the costs of the flight.[95] The actingPublic Protector,Kholeka Gcaleka, agreed with Ramaphosa's assessment, reporting in September 2022 that Mapisa-Nqakula's conduct "constituted an improper advantage and or unlawful enrichment to the ANC".[96] Mapisa-Nqakula sent the ANC an invoice for R105,000 to cover the party's share of the flight costs.[97]
In April 2021,Bantu Holomisa of the oppositionUnited Democratic Movement asked theJoint Standing Committee on Defence to investigate allegations, emanating from an unidentifiedwhistleblower, that Mapisa-Nqakula had received cash and gifts to the value of R5 million from an unnamed SANDF contractor between 2017 and 2019. Mapisa-Nqakula denied the allegation and challenged Holomisa to approach law enforcement agencies to pursue the case.[98]
The parliamentary committee agreed to probe Holomisa's allegation and established a subcommittee that was tasked with doing so.[99][100] However, Holomisa's whistleblower declined to submit an affidavit to the committee, and the subcommittee unanimously agreed to drop the inquiry when its mandate expired on 31 August 2021.[101] Holomisa referred the matter to law enforcement – as Mapisa-Nqakula had encouraged him to – and Mapisa-Nqakula ultimately faced related criminal charges in 2024(seebelow).[102]
In July 2021,serious civil unrest broke out in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Although Mapisa-Nqakula said on 10 July that "I don't think we have reached a point where SANDF should be dragged into what is happening",[103] troops were deployed within two days of her statement.[104][105] In the aftermath, Mapisa-Nqakula contradicted Ramaphosa's characterisation of the unrest as aninsurrection, telling the Joint Standing Committee on Defence that it was in fact "a wave of crime".[106][107] The actingMinister in the Presidency,Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, publicly criticised Mapisa-Nqakula, saying that "the facts do not support Mapisa-Nqakula's comment", and Mapisa-Nqakula backtracked and agreed that "it was indeed an attempted insurrection".[108]
The defence ministry and other security cluster bodies were criticised for their slow response to the unrest, including for the slow progress of troop deployments. Appearing at the Human Rights Commission's inquiry into the events, Mapisa-Nqakula said that the military response was obstructed by a lack of cooperation and intelligence-sharing from officials in KwaZulu-Natal, including the provincial police commissioner, lieutenant generalNhlanhla Mkhwanazi.[109] Mkhwanazi strongly denied this allegation in his own testimony, saying that he had called for military intervention at an early stage and strongly implying that Mapisa-Nqakula had perjured herself before the commission. He also said that she had lied to the public about the number of soldiers on the ground on 15 July, inflating the number nearly two-fold.[110]
On 5 August 2021, President Ramaphosa announced a cabinet reshuffle that included the sacking of Mapisa-Nqakula and herstate security counterpart,Ayanda Dlodlo. He said in his cabinet announcement that "our security services were found wanting in several respects" during the unrest.[111] Thandi Modise, until then the Speaker of the National Assembly, was appointed to succeed Mapisa-Nqakula, who Ramaphosa said would be appointed to a new position elsewhere.[112]
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Shortly after the reshuffle, the ANC announced that Mapisa-Nqakula was its preferred candidate to succeed Modise as Speaker of the National Assembly.[113] On 19 August 2021, she was elected to that office, receiving 199 votes against the 82 votes for the opposition candidate,Annelie Lotriet of the DA.[114] TheEconomic Freedom Fighters (EFF) boycotted the vote,[114] and the FF+ andAfrican Christian Democratic Party both expressed disappointment in the ANC's choice.[115] The DA'sNatasha Mazzone said her nomination made "a complete mockery of parliament and theconstitution" and was "just an example of the ANC recycling an underperforming minister".[116]
During her tenure as speaker, Mapisa-Nqakula presided over several historic events in thesixth democratic Parliament, including moves toimpeach Ramaphosa over thePhala Phala scandal, which failed after Mapisa-Nqakula denied opposition petitions to allow asecret ballot,[117] and theJanuary 2022 fire at theHouses of Parliament.[118][119] She also presided over the National Assembly's response to the findings of theZondo Commission, which implicated several members of the executive and legislature in serious misconduct andcorruption;[120][121]Siviwe Gwarube, the deputy chief whip of the DA, accused Mapisa-Nqakula of evasiveness and undue delay in formulating the parliamentary response.[122]
In March 2023, during theRussian invasion of Ukraine, she led a delegation to a parliamentary conference inMoscow.[123]
On 9 February 2023, during President Ramaphosa's annualState of the Nation Address atCape Town City Hall, Mapisa-Nqakula ordered several Members of Parliament to leave the chamber for disrupting the president's speech by heckling him and raising a series ofpoints of order.Vuyo Zungula, the leader of theAfrican Transformation Movement, was the first to be told to leave; several minutes later, in an escalation, Mapisa-Nqakula asked armed security forces to enter the chamber to remove members of the EFF, who appeared to be approaching the stage where the president stood.[124] Mapisa-Nqakula later explained, "rules or no rules here was a situation my common sense tells me that a president is sitting here... I asked people politely to leave the house and instead of leaving the house they climbed the stage. It immediately threatens the security of the president."[125]
The following week, EFF leaderJulius Malema announced that his party had lodged amotion of no confidence in Mapisa-Nqakula as speaker. He argued that her conduct during the State of the Nation Address
has disqualified her as a legitimate Speaker of Parliament. The Speaker referred to members of this house as animals and violated the Constitution and the Rules of the National Assembly when she allowed armed police to invade Parliament... The police must never be allowed inside the chamber because that is where the executive is held accountable and those who are in power, if they do not have answers, may be tempted to use the security forces to intimidate those who are holding them accountable.[126]
Amos Masondo, the chairperson of theNational Council of Provinces, disputed that Mapisa-Nqakula had indeed called EFF members "animals"; the unrevised Hansard recorded her as using the wordphumani, meaning "get out".[127] The EFF's motion was debated on 22 March 2023 and was defeated in a landslide, with 234 votes against the motion, 42 in favour, and 73 abstaining.[128][129] All members of the ANC majority opposed the motion, while the DA, the largest opposition party, abstained; the DA's Siviwe Gwarube explained that the party did not support the motion because it "does not even scratch the surface of why you [Mapisa-Nqakula] are ill-suited for this role".[130]
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Mapisa-Nqakula was nominated to stand for re-election to the ANC National Executive Committee ahead of the party's55th National Conference in December 2022. However, although just a year earlier theBusiness Day had labelled her a "political heavyweight" and an "integral cog in the ANC's internal dynamics",[131] she did not receive enough votes to be re-elected to the 80-member committee.[132]
When Parliament opened for its final session of the term in early 2024, Mapisa-Nqakula told the press that she hoped to retire after theMay 2024 general election, saying, "I think that it is time for me to hand over the baton to the younger ones... Some of us now look like part of the furniture of Parliament."[133]
Before she could retire, in the final weeks of the parliamentary term, she was subject to renewed corruption allegations(seebelow), which the DA referred to Parliament'sJoint Committee on Ethics and Members Interests.[134] She took special leave on 21 March 2024, following a raid at her home, in order to "protect the integrity of Parliament" while the investigation continued.[102] Her deputy,Lech Tsenoli, served as acting speaker in her stead. On 3 April, after she failed to interdict her impending arrest, she announced that she had resigned from the National Assembly with immediate effect in order to focus on fighting the allegations.[135] President Ramaphosa said that her resignation showed integrity and respect for democracy, and that it should be commended.[136]
In early March 2024, while Mapisa-Nqakula was concluding her term as speaker, theSunday Times reported that she was under criminal investigation for bribery during her tenure as Minister of Defence.[137] According to the newspaper, a SANDF logistics contractor, Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu, had told law enforcement agencies that Mapisa-Nqakula had solicited and received up to R2.3 million in cash bribes. Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu was identified as the unnamed whistleblower who had come forward with similar allegations in 2021(seeabove).[102] As in 2021, Mapisa-Nqakula denied any wrongdoing.[138]
On 19 March 2024, Mapisa-Nqakula's Johannesburg home was raided and searched by theInvestigating Directorate of theNational Prosecuting Authority, leading to rumours that her arrest was imminent.[139][140] She approached thePretoria High Court on an urgent basis, seeking an interdict against her arrest on any corruption charges, but her application was dismissed on 2 April.[141] Two days later, on 4 April, she handed herself in at a police station inLyttelton, where she was arrested and charged with 12 counts of corruption and one count ofmoney laundering. The PretoriaMagistrate's Court granted her R50,000 bail.[142] She made her second court appearance on 4 June, when the case was postponed to 9 July.[143][144] Pre-trial hearings were still ongoing in early 2025.[145] Nosiviwe's case has been postponed for consultation.[146]Nosiviwe's case has been postponed to july 2026.[147]
She is married to politician Charles Nqakula,[148] with whom she has four sons.[2] One of their sons was convicted ofdrunk driving in March 2008 after he fell asleep behind the wheel of his mother's car inCape Town, causing an accident.[149] Another died by stabbing at his home in Johannesburg on 31 October 2015.[150]
Mapisa-Nqakula's brother is Siviwe Mapisa, who was the business partner of Valence Watson;[151][152] Mapisa-Nqakula, in turn, had a business relationship with Valence's brother,Gavin Watson, who was the chief executive officer of Dyambu Holdings, a company which Mapisa-Nqakula co-founded with ANCWL colleagues.[153][154] During Mapisa-Nqakula's time at the company, Dyambu's interests reportedly included theLindela Repatriation Centre and the consortium that built theGautrain.[155][156]
According to Mapisa-Nqakula, she ispsychic and atraditional healer.[2] Both she and her husband contractedCOVID-19 in July 2020.[157]
