Webster Mfebe

Born on 14 July 1959,[1] Mfebe rose to political prominence during apartheid through the trade union movement and Mass Democratic Movement.[2]

In South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994, Mfebe was elected to an ANC seat in the National Assembly.[3] He remained in the seat until 1996, when he resigned in order to join the Free State Provincial Legislature; he was sworn in on 18 December.[4] He was also appointed to Premier Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri's Executive Council as MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture, Science and Technology.[5] During his first year in the portfolio, his department held the inaugural Mangaung African Cultural Festival (Macufe), an arts festival that thereafter became an annual event.[6]

In the 1999 general election, Mfebe was elected to a full term in the provincial legislature,[1] and newly elected Premier Winkie Direko retained him in his position as MEC.[5] He left the provincial government after the next general election in 2004.

From 2005 to 2009, Mfebe worked at the SABC, where, among other positions, he was head of sport. From 2009 to 2012, he was executive director for stakeholder relations at Basil Read, a construction company. He also had his own consulting company, Phendula Consulting, as well as non-executive directorships in other companies.[2][5]

On 1 January 2013, he took office as chief executive officer of the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors (SAFCEC; since renamed the South African Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors), a not-for-profit employers' organisation in the civil engineering sector.[2] In this capacity, Mfebe has occasionally attracted media attention as a critic of government policies,[7] for example through a 2019 open letter he wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa about the power of extortion rackets targeting the construction sector.[8][9]