Lindumusa Bekizitha Gabriel Ndabandaba (born 14 April 1935) is a retired South African politician and academic who served in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

and

KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature The KwaZulu-Natal Legislature is the primary legislative body of the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. It is unicameral in its composition and elects the premier and the provincial cabinet from among the leading party or coalition members ...

from 1999 to 2014. He represented the

Inkatha Freedom Party The Inkatha Freedom Party ( zu, IQembu leNkatha yeNkululeko, IFP) is a right-wing political party in South Africa. The party has been led by Velenkosini Hlabisa since the party's 2019 National General Conference. Mangosuthu Buthelezi founded t ...

(IFP) until 2003, when he

crossed the floor Crossed may refer to: * ''Crossed'' (comics), a 2008 comic book series by Garth Ennis * ''Crossed'' (novel), a 2010 young adult novel by Ally Condie * "Crossed" (''The Walking Dead''), an episode of the television series ''The Walking Dead'' S ...

to the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

(ANC). Formerly a

criminology Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...

professor in

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

, Ndabandaba joined the National Assembly in 1999 as a member of the IFP. He left the national Parliament in June 2001 to join the KwaZulu-Natal Executive Council, where he served under Premier

Lionel Mtshali Lionel Mtshali (7 November 1935 – 13 December 2015) was a South African politician who was Premier of KwaZulu-Natal from 1999 to 2004. He was known for unilaterally ordering the expansion of the province's antiretrovirals programme during the H ...

as KwaZulu-Natal's Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Education from 2001 to 2003. Citing his frustration with Mtshali, Ndabandaba crossed the floor to the ANC in March 2003. As a representative of the ANC, Ndabandaba served under Premier S'bu Ndebele as MEC for Agriculture and Environmental Affairs from 2004 to 2006 and as Deputy Speaker of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature from 2006 to 2009. In 2009, he concluded his eight-year service in the provincial legislature and returned to the National Assembly, where he served a single term for the ANC. He failed to gain re-election in the 2014 general election.

Early life and academic career

Ndabandaba was born on 14 April 1935. A former high school teacher, he was a lecturer in

at the

University of Zululand The University of Zululand or UniZulu is the only comprehensive tertiary educational institution north of the Tugela River in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Its new status is in accordance with South Africa's National Plan for Higher Education ...

before becoming vice-principal of student affairs at

Mangosuthu Technikon Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) is a university of technology situated in Umlazi near the city of Durban, South Africa, on a site overlooking the Indian Ocean. MUT is located in the academic hub in the eThekwini metropole. It is a resid ...

Legislative career

National Assembly: 1999–2001

In the 1999 general election, Ndabandaba was elected to represent the IFP in the

, the lower house of the South African Parliament; he served the KwaZulu-Natal constituency. However, just over two years into the legislative term, media reported that Ndabandaba was expected to leave Parliament for the

: KwaZulu-Natal Premier

was reportedly considering him as a candidate to replace Faith Gasa as Education MEC. Ndabandaba resigned from his parliamentary seat on 27 June 2001.

KwaZulu-Natal Legislature: 2001–2009

Education MEC: 2001–2003

On 6 July 2001, Ndabandaba was sworn in as KwaZulu-Natal's MEC for Education. He said that his priorities in the portfolio would be improving matriculation results, raising teachers' morale, and "restoring dignity to the department" after the controversies presided over by his predecessors. During the floor-crossing window of March 2003, Ndabandaba announced his defection from the IFP to the ANC, which at the time was in opposition in KwaZulu-Natal. Ndabandaba said that his departure was motivated in large part by the conduct of Premier Mtshali, whom he said had "humiliated me every step of the way", preventing him from making decisions about the education portfolio and even from hiring staff at his office. In a statement, he said:

It is with great relief that I announce that my body has joined my soul. I have decided to follow my conscience. I have joined the ranks of those who, when we were naked among the wolves, decided to stand up against the
apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
colonial tyranny... My humiliation, harassment and the stifling of all my creativity and initiatives by Mtshali were the final straw that broke the camel's back. I have taken such a decision not only because of my personal humiliation by Mtshali who has caused many people to lose political direction in the party – the IFP as a whole has lost political direction.

Later the same day, 24 March, Mtshali said that he had fired Ndabandaba as Education MEC, although he would continue to hold his seat in the legislature under the ANC banner. The ANC said that Mtshali's decision to fire him was "irresponsible" and demonstrated that "the IFP is handling education in a reckless manner in this province". At the end of the floor-crossing window, the ANC, newly wielding a plurality in the provincial legislature, said that it would table a motion of no-confidence in Mtshali if he did not reinstate Ndabandaba as Education MEC, as well as reinstate two other ANC ministers – Dumisani Makhaye and Mike Mabuyakhulu – who had been fired from the Executive Council in late 2003. Mtshali agreed to reappoint two ANC members to his Executive Council but said that he would not accept Ndabandaba back, given that Ndabandaba had crossed the floor "on account of his incapability or unwillingness to work with me".

Agriculture MEC: 2004–2006

A year later, in the 2004 general election, the ANC won control of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature and Ndabandaba was re-elected to his seat. The ANC's S'bu Ndebele, who succeeded Mtshali as Premier, appointed Ndabandaba to his Executive Council as MEC for Agriculture and Environmental Affairs. He served in the portfolio for just over two years before Ndebele sacked him in a cabinet reshuffle announced on 1 November 2006. He was replaced as MEC by Mtholephi Mthimkhulu and served the rest of the term as Deputy Speaker of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, deputising

Willies Mchunu Willies Mchunu (born 11 May 1948) was the 7th Premier of KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. He was previously a Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for the Department of Transport, Community Safety, and Liaison in the province. He is a memb ...

Return to Parliament: 2009–2014

In the 2009 general election, Ndabandaba returned to the National Assembly, again serving the KwaZulu-Natal constituency but now under the banner of the ANC. Mtholephi Mthimkhulu succeeded him as provincial deputy speaker. He stood for re-election to Parliament in the next general election in 2014, but he was ranked 197th on the ANC's national party list and did not secure a seat.

Personal life

Ndabandaba is married and had eight children. One of his sons, Gabriel Siyabonga Ndabandaba, was South Africa's first black aerobatics pilot, a former lieutenant in the South African Air Force, and a commercial pilot for

South African Airways South African Airways (SAA) is the flag carrier airline of South Africa. Founded in 1934, the airline is headquartered in Airways Park at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and operated a hub-and-spoke network, serving ten destin ...

. He died in September 2005 while performing a stunt at an airshow in

Vereeniging Vereeniging () is a town located in the south of Gauteng province, South Africa, situated where the Klip River empties into the northern loop of the Vaal River. It is also one of the constituent parts of the Vaal Triangle region and was formerly si ...

, in an accident that received wide media coverage. In 2009, the KwaZulu-Natal government sued Ndabandaba and two officials who worked under him at the agriculture department; the government claimed that the department had contravened the Public Finance Management Act by spending R126,500 in public funds on Ndabandaba's son's funeral at the

Durban International Convention Centre The Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre Complex often abbreviated as ICC Durban is a large events facility located in the city centre of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is named after 1960 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and f ...

in 2005. Ndabandaba said that the officials had offered him help securing a venue for the funeral but that he had not instructed the department to pay for the event.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ndabandaba, Gabriel Living people 1935 births African National Congress politicians 21st-century South African politicians 20th-century South African politicians Members of the National Assembly of South Africa Inkatha Freedom Party politicians Members of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature