Tebogo Josephine Mokwele is a South African politician who served in 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 ...

from May to August 2019 as a member of the

Economic Freedom Fighters The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is a South African left-wing to far-left pan-Africanist and Marxist–Leninist political party. It was founded by expelled former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) President Julius Malema, and hi ...

party. Prior to serving in the National Assembly, Mokwele had been a permanent delegate to the

National Council of Provinces The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) is the upper house of the Parliament of South Africa under the (post-apartheid) constitution which came into full effect in 1997. It replaced the former Senate, but is very similar to that body, and to ma ...

from the North West from 2014 to 2019.

Early life

Mokwele was born in

Swartruggens Swartruggens is a small farming town in North West Province, South Africa that was established in 1875. Location The town is located by the Elands River, 69 km from the town of Zeerust, 56 km west of the city of Rustenburg and 34 ...

in the present-day North West. Her mother worked at a clinic, while her father was an artist. She started her political career at 14.

Political career

Mokwele joined the

and was named to the party's central command team, the party's highest decision-making structure in 2013.

Parliamentary career

Mokwele stood for 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 ...

in the 2014 national and provincial elections and was elected to the lower house of parliament as the EFF won 25 seats. Mokwele was, however, elected by the

North West Provincial Legislature The North West Provincial Legislature is the primary legislative body of the South African province of North West (South Africa), North West. It is unicameral in its composition, and elects the premier and the provincial cabinet from among the memb ...

as an EFF permanent delegate to the

, the upper house of parliament. She was then appointed Whip of the EFF caucus in the NCOP. In August 2015, Mokwele was forcefully removed from the NCOP by security after she refused to leave the chamber following an instruction from the sergeant-at-arms. She was the first MP to be removed using the new parliamentary rules. Mokwele continued serving in the NCOP until the May 2019 general election when she was elected to the National Assembly. She was appointed to the Portfolio Committee on Labour and Employment and the Joint Standing Committee on the Financial Management of Parliament.

Resignation

On 18 August 2019, the EFF revealed that Mokwele had received R40,000 from ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa's CR17 presidential campaign account. It later emerged that Mokwele had received R80,000 and not just R40,000 from Ramaphosa. She had received money from Ramaphosa on two occasions: in 2017 when she was part of a parliamentary project and in 2019 when she received money for a personal bereavement. The following day, she and fellow EFF MP Nkagisang Mokgosi, who had also received money from Ramaphosa, submitted their resignation from Parliament and the EFF Central Command Team. Mokwele said in her resignation letter that she did not inform the EFF leadership but later said in an interview with journalist Stephen Grootes that she did inform the EFF leadership, contradicting her resignation statement.

Personal life

In 2019, it was revealed that Mokwele had suffered a miscarriage in 2016 after having been removed by parliamentary security for saying that president

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan name Msholozi, and was a former anti-aparth ...

was not fit to address NCOP members.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mokwele, Tebogo Living people Tswana people Economic Freedom Fighters politicians Members of the National Assembly of South Africa Women members of the National Assembly of South Africa Members of the National Council of Provinces Women members of the National Council of Provinces Year of birth missing (living people)