Stanley Mathabatha

After South Africa's first democratic election in 1994, Limpopo province (initially called Northern province) was formed in a merger of the governments of three former bantustans – Lebowa, Venda, and Gazankulu – with part of the government of the former Transvaal. Mathabatha entered the public administration sector, working in 1994 as the technical advisor to Limpopo's Member of the Executive Council for Finance and Economic Development.[3] In subsequent years he remained in the Limpopo provincial Department of Finance and Economic Development, becoming General Manager of the Small, Medium and Micro-Enterprise Directorate by 2003.[3] In March 2003, he was appointed chief operations officer of the Limpopo Economic Development Enterprise (LimDev), a state-owned development agency whose primary mandate was to provide development finance to small businesses in Limpopo. He became the agency's managing director in 2005.[3]

Mathabatha left Limdev in 2010 to prepare to take up an ambassadorship. The Mail & Guardian reported in 2011 that he was undergoing diplomatic training and would be nominated to head South Africa's mission to Guinea-Conakry,[7] but in 2012 President Jacob Zuma appointed him ambassador to Ukraine, in which capacity he was also non-resident ambassador to Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova.[3]

In July 2013, the ANC asked Cassel Mathale to resign as Premier of Limpopo, and the ANC-controlled Limpopo Provincial Legislature elected Mathabatha to replace him. He was sworn in as Premier on 18 July.[8] In the Citizen's account, Mathabatha returned to South Africa after being "head-hunted" by President Zuma as a successor to Mathale.[9] The Business Day said that Mathabatha was seen as "neutral" in the factional battles in the Limpopo ANC, and the provincial branch of the Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomed his appointment.[10] The day after he took office, Mathabatha announced a major reshuffle in his Executive Council: he fired eight of Mathale's ten Members of the Executive Council (MECs).[11]

Mathabatha was re-elected Premier after the 2014 and 2019 general elections. His second full term as Premier, the last he is constitutionally permitted to serve, will end in 2024 when the next general election is called.[12]

In February 2014, several months after his appointment as Premier, Mathabatha was elected Provincial Chairperson of the ANC in Limpopo. Jerry Ndou was elected as his deputy.[13] He was re-elected unopposed in June 2018; Florence Radzilani replaced Ndou as Deputy Provincial Chairperson.[14] At the provincial party's next elective conference in June 2022, Dickson Masemola, who had formerly been Deputy Provincial Chairperson under Cassel Mathale, launched a challenge to Mathabatha's incumbency.[9] In the election, however, Mathabatha easily secured a third term as Provincial Chairperson, winning 781 votes to Masemola's 389.[12] All the top leadership positions were won by candidates who had run on a Mathabatha-aligned slate – including Radzilani, who was re-elected his deputy.[12]

While Provincial Chairperson, Mathabatha was perceived as a strong supporter of Cyril Ramaphosa, who also grew up in Limpopo. He was a key ally of Ramaphosa's successful campaign for election to the ANC presidency at the ANC's 54th National Conference in 2017,[4][15] and was among the first ANC leaders publicly to pronounce support for Ramaphosa's re-election to a second term at the 55th National Conference in 2022:[12] in January of that year, he praised Ramaphosa as a "son of the soil" and for having "brought the new dawn into the organisation [the ANC]".[16]

Mathabatha is also a member of the ANC's Tripartite Alliance partner, the South African Communist Party (SACP). In July 2022, he was elected to a second five-year term as a member of the SACP Central Committee.[17]

Also in the run-up to the 55th National Conference, Mathabatha emerged as a serious competitor to incumbent ANC National Chairperson, Gwede Mantashe, who sought re-election to the post. When the national ANC released the list of nominations in November 2022, Mathabatha appeared to be the frontrunner for the National Chairperson position, having secured the support of a majority of local ANC branches in the provinces of Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, and the North West.[18] An anonymous source told the Business Day that Mathabatha had sought re-election to the Provincial Chairperson position partly in order to bolster his campaign to gain a leadership position in the national ANC.[19]