Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya | |
|---|---|
| Member of the National Assembly | |
| In office 2009 – 9 February 2011 | |
| Minister of Women, Youth, Children and People with Disabilities | |
| In office 11 May 2009 – 31 October 2010 | |
| President | Jacob Zuma |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Lulu Xingwana |
| President of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union | |
| In office 2004–2009 | |
| General Secretary | Fikile Majola |
| Preceded by | Vusi Nhlapo |
| Succeeded by | Mzwandile Makwayiba |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | African National Congress |
| Other political affiliations | South African Communist Party Congress of South African Trade Unions |
Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya is a South African politician and formertrade unionist who was the inauguralMinister of Women, Youth, Children and People with Disabilities from May 2009 to October 2010. Before that, she was the first woman president of theNational Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union from 2004 to 2009.
A nurse by profession, Mayende-Sibiya joined Nehawu inNatal in 1988. During her tenure as president of the union, she was also an influential figure in the broaderTripartite Alliance: from 2007 to 2012, she served onthe Central Committee of theSouth African Communist Party and on theNational Executive Committee of theAfrican National Congress (ANC).
Pursuant to the2009 general election, Mayende-Sibiya took up an ANC seat in theNational Assembly and was appointed to thecabinet by PresidentJacob Zuma. She was in office for less than two years before she was sacked at the end of October 2010. After that, she remained in the National Assembly for another three months, resigning in February 2011 when Zuma appointed her asSouth African Ambassador to Egypt.
Sibiya spent some years inSwaziland in her youth after her family went into exile there duringapartheid.[1] She trained as a nurse at theMcCord School of Nursing inDurban in 1983, and two years later she qualified as amidwife at King Edward Memorial Hospital.[2] From 1985 to 2007, she was a professional nurse at the Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital inUmlazi, rising to become chief professional nurse there in 2007.[2] In addition to her union involvement, Mayende-Sibiya was a member of theUnited Democratic Front, ananti-apartheid organisation, from the mid-1980s.[1][3]
In 1988, while working at Prince Mshiyeni, Mayende-Sibiya joined theNational Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu);[1] she was one of the first professionals to join the union at a time when it was dominated byblue-collar workers.[4]Sdumo Dlamini was a nurse and union member at the same hospital.[5] Mayende-Sibiya rose through the ranks to become second deputy president of the union from 1998 to 2004, during the presidency ofVusi Nhlapo.[2]
In July 2004, at Nehawu's national congress inPretoria, Mayende-Sibiya ousted Nhlapo from the presidency, winning 243 votes to Nhlapo's 136.[4] She was the first woman to hold the office,[1][3] and her election was viewed as a triumph for theleft wing of the union.[4]
During her presidency of Nehawu, Mayende-Sibiya was viewed as a political supporter ofZwelinzima Vavi, the controversial general secretary of theCongress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).[6] She also served in the top leadership structures of both of Cosatu'sTripartite Alliance partners, theSouth African Communist Party (SACP) and theAfrican National Congress (ANC). First, she was elected to a five-year term on theSACP Central Committee at the party's 12th National Congress,[7] held inPort Elizabeth in July 2007.[8]
Then, at the ANC's52nd National Conference in December 2007, she was narrowly elected to a concurrent five-year term as a member of the ANCNational Executive Committee;[9] her candidacy had been endorsed by Cosatu.[10][11] By number of votes received, she was ranked 79th of the 80 ordinary members elected to the committee, receiving 1,345 votes from the roughly 4,000 voting delegates.[9] She also served on the ANC's influentialNational Working Committee;[12] she was co-opted as a member afterNcumisa Kondlo died.[13]
In theApril 2009 general election, Mayende-Sibiya was elected to a seat in theNational Assembly, the lower house of theSouth African Parliament. She was one of three unionists – the others beingAlina Rantsolase andThulas Nxesi – who represented the ANC by way of the Tripartite Alliance.[14] She left her Nehawu office in order to take up the seat; the presidency was filled in an acting capacity by her former deputy, Lulamile Sotaka, untilMzwandile Makwayiba was elected as a permanent replacement in October 2010.[15]
On 10 May 2009, Mayende-Sibiya was appointed to thefirst-term cabinet of newly elected PresidentJacob Zuma.[16][17] She was named asMinister of Women, Youth, Children and People with Disabilities, a new portfolio whose establishment was inspired by a resolution of the ANC's 52nd National Conference.[18]
By November 2009,[19] media reports began to surface in which sources inside the ministry questioned Mayende-Sibiya's competence.[20][21][22] At the end of the year, theMail & Guardian reported that, though Mayende-Sibiya was influential in the ANC and SACP, her department lacked a clear programme and she had not yet consulted with women's groups in civil society.[23] A 2010 readers' poll by the same newspaper suggested that Mayende-Sibiya was one of the three least popular ministers in the cabinet.[24] TheANC Women's League was reportedly dissatisfied with her performance,[25][26] but ANC chairpersonBaleka Mbete defended her in September 2010, saying that she had been singled out "because she is a woman".[27]
On 31 October 2010, President Zuma announced a major cabinet reshuffle in which Mayende-Sibiya was sacked and replaced byLulu Xingwana.[28] The oppositionDemocratic Alliance welcomed her dismissal[29] and later said that she had been "a national embarrassment".[30] She remained in her legislative seat as an ordinary Member of Parliament.[31]
In February 2011, it was announced that Mayende-Sibiya had been designated as South African Ambassador to Egypt.[32] She therefore resigned from the National Assembly on 9 February, ceding her seat toJudith Tshabalala.[31] She arrived inCairo in April 2011.[33]
Mayende-Sibiya is married.[33] In August 2007, she spoke publicly about her experience withdomestic violence in a former marriage, saying that she left her ex-husband in 1991 after he doused her inbenzine and threatened toset her alight.[34]
| Trade union offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President of theNational Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union 2004–2010 | Succeeded by |
