Phumelele Stone Sizani (born 2 March 1954) is a South African politician who was, until his resignation on 2 March 2016, a Member of the

National Assembly of South Africa The National Assembly is the directly elected house of the Parliament of South Africa, located in Cape Town, Western Cape. It consists of four hundred members who are elected every five years using a party-list proportional representation syste ...

and 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 ...

Chief Whip. It has been reported that upon leaving Parliament his next post will be

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n Ambassador to Germany.

Early life

At the age of 18 he was arrested and sent to

Robben Island Robben Island ( af, Robbeneiland) is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the Dutch word for seals (''robben''), hence the Dutch/Afrik ...

as a political prisoner, where he remained incarcerated from 1978–1980. He graduated with an MA in Development Studies from the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

in 1995, where he was a

Chevening Scholar The Chevening Scholarship is an international scholarship, funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, that lets foreign students with leadership qualities study at universities in the United Kingdom. History The Chevening Scholarship ...

References

1954 births Living people Alumni of the University of East Anglia Members of the National Assembly of South Africa African National Congress politicians Inmates of Robben Island Chevening Scholars {{SouthAfrica-politician-stub