Mduduzi Manana

On 12 June 2012, President Zuma announced a cabinet reshuffle in which Manana was appointed as Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training.[14] He deputised Blade Nzimande and, aged 28, became the youngest deputy minister in the post-apartheid period.[15] The promotion was rumoured to be a reward for defending Zuma's moves against Malema.[15]

The South African Students Congress professed itself "utterly dismayed, taken aback, angry, flabbergasted, disappointed and annoyed" by Manana's appointment, saying in a statement, "We do not have any reason to believe that Mr. Manana is up to the task of being a deputy minister of such a complex and strategic department."[16] Manana defended himself, pointing to his "energy" and personal experience in institutions of higher education, and argued that students ought not to "undermine the president and question his capacity to appoint members of the executive".[17]

In the early hours of Sunday morning on 6 August 2017, Manana was involved in the assault of three women at a nightclub, Cubana, in Fourways in northern Johannesburg. The story broke in the media later on Sunday.[18] One of the women, Mandisa Duma, told City Press that the altercation had begun inside the club with a heated political debate about whether Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma or Cyril Ramaphosa should be chosen to succeed Zuma as ANC president. When the argument became hostile, Duma and her friends had left the club, one of them making a comment about Manana being gay, which apparently triggered the assault. In Duma's account, Manana had slapped one of the women and pulled her hair and then had slapped another outside the club, as Manana's friends attacked the others.[19] In addition to video footage of part of the assault, which went viral on social media,[20] press released an audio recording in which Manana appeared to confess to the assault.[21][22] In the clip, Manana says in Zulu, "My brother, when she swore at me and called me gay, I slapped her".[23]

On 7 August, Manana posted an apology to Twitter,[19] writing, "Regardless of the extreme provocation, I should have exercised restraint. That shameful incident should not have happened."[24] The opposition Economic Freedom Fighters called on Manana to resign and hand himself over to the police, and the police said that an arrest was imminent.[25] He made his first court appearance in the Randburg Magistrate's Court on 10 August and was released on R5,000 bail.[26] Journalists were not allowed inside the courtroom, leading to allegations that Manana was receiving preferential treatment, but Police Minister Fikile Mbalula said that he "will not be treated with special kid gloves but will face the full wrath of the law".[27]

On 13 September 2017, Manana was convicted on three counts of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, having pled guilty to assaulting the women.[28] In November, he was sentenced to pay a R100,000 fine in lieu of serving 12 months' imprisonment. He was also required to complete anger-management classes and 500 hours of community service, and to compensate the victims for their medical expenses (about R26,500 in total), and he was declared unfit to possess a firearm.[29][30] Two other men pled guilty to involvement in the assault.[31]

On 19 August 2017, a week after Manana's first court appearance, the Presidency announced that Zuma had accepted Manana's resignation as Deputy Minister.[32] Manana also released his own lengthy statement, admitting that his behaviour at Cubana was "shameful" and inexcusable.[33] The ANC welcomed his resignation and thanked him for his service.[33]

Reportedly granted political leeway as a loyalist of President Zuma, Manana retained his seat as an ordinary member of the National Assembly.[34] As a backbencher, he served on the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements.[8] In addition, in December 2017, the ANC's 54th National Conference elected him to his first five-year term as a member of the ANC National Executive Committee. By number of votes received, he was the 27th-most popular candidate of the 80 ordinary members elected to the committee.[35]

In early May 2018, media reported that Manana's domestic worker, Christine Wiro, had laid a complaint against him with the police, alleging that he had tried to push her down the stairs in his home in Fourways. Wiro later withdrew the complaint, but the Sunday Times reported that she did so after Manana offered her R100,000 as a "consolation". The newspaper said that it had an audio recording of Manana making the offer.[36] Manana said that the recording in fact captured an attempt by Wiro and her family to blackmail him.[36] He said that he would sue her for extortion and denied that he had assaulted her, conceding that there had been an "altercation" but saying that it had ended with him asking her to leave his house.[37] The saga intensified calls for Manana to resign from Parliament,[38] but the National Prosecuting Authority announced on 23 July that it would not prosecute Manana in relation to the incident.[39]

However, also on 23 July, Parliament's Joint Committee on Ethics and Members' Interests announced that Manana would face a disciplinary inquiry to determine Parliament's response to his 2017 assault conviction.[40] The following day – the day before his first scheduled appearance before the inquiry – Manana pre-empted the inquiry by announcing his resignation from Parliament. He said that he felt "totally exonerated" of Wiro's complaints against him, which he viewed as "rooted in a politically-motivated smear campaign against me by my political opponents", but he said that he had nonetheless decided to "focus my renewed energies on the work of my political organisation ahead of the 2019 general elections, my academic commitments and my business interests".[41]

Announcing his commitment to "eliminating gender-based violence", Manana said that he would donate R1 million to Khuluma Ndoda, a new men's social movement against gender-based violence, and R500,000 to a campaign to distribute sanitary packs to African girls.[41] ANC Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu said that Manana's voluntary resignation was "indicative of someone who has taken full responsibility and has shown remorse for his actions".[42]