Mangisi Cephas Zitha is a South African politician and businessman who served as the last Chief Minister of KaNgwane. He briefly represented 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) 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 ...

after 1994 and subsequently served as South African High Commissioner to Mozambique until 1999.

Political career

During

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 ...

, Zitha was the last Chief Minister of the KaNgwane

bantustan A Bantustan (also known as Bantu homeland, black homeland, black state or simply homeland; ) was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (now N ...

, serving until the bantustan was reintegrated into the republic in April 1994. In the general election of that month, he was elected to an ANC seat in the National Assembly, but he left his seat during the legislative term in order to accept appointment as South African High Commissioner to Mozambique. He was recalled from that post in February 1999.

Business career

In July 2001, Zitha was arrested at Sun City during a

sting operation In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a role a ...

; he had allegedly tried to purchase 1.5 kilograms of unrefined

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

dust from undercover police officers, using R65,000 in R20 notes. He accused the police of unconstitutional entrapment, saying that the deal had been set up over two months of harassment by the officers and that he was "cunningly lured... into committing an offence I would otherwise never have considered". He said that the officers had assured him that the transaction was lawful and that he had not known that a special permit was required to trade in platform. The following month, it was reported that the Land Bank would auction Zitha's home and farm after he failed to honour loans with the bank. His attorney said that he had "run into financial trouble" since leaving his ambassadorial post and embarking upon a full-time career in business.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zitha, Mangisi Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century South African politicians African National Congress politicians Members of the National Assembly of South Africa South African diplomats