Xolani Ngwezi is a South African politician of the Inkatha Freedom Party who has since been serving as the Mayor of the

uMhlathuze Local Municipality uMhlathuze Local Municipality is an administrative area in the King Cetshwayo District Municipality of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The municipality is named after the Mhlatuze River. The municipality was enlarged at the time of the South Afric ...

since December 2021. He was a

Member of 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 rep ...

from June 2017 until January 2021 and served as a permanent delegate to the National Council of Provinces from

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 ...

from February 2021 until December 2021.

Political career

Ngwezi was ranked 15th on the Inkatha Freedom Party's list of candidates for the 2014 KwaZulu-Natal Legislature election. He was not elected as the party won nine seats. On 15 June 2017, Ngwezi entered the National Assembly as a replacement for Albert Mncwango. He was assigned to serve on the following portfolio committees: basic education, cooperative governance and traditional affairs and labour. Prior to the 8 May 2019 general election, Ngwezi was placed 3rd on the IFP's regional-to-national list. He was elected to a full term that commenced on 22 May 2019. In June 2019, he was named to the employment and labour, human settlements, water and sanitation portfolio committees. Ngwezi resigned from the National Assembly on 11 January 2021. He was then elected to the National Council of Provinces as the IFP's sole permanent delegate from KwaZulu-Natal. On 8 December 2021, the newly elected IFP Mayor of the

Dr Nkonzoyakhe Donda resigned to make way for Ngwezi. The IFP leadership had initially wanted Ngwezi to become mayor but Ngwezi was not on the party's PR candidate list and because the IEC did not allow PR lists to be changed during the period of the creation of municipal councils after the local government elections on November 1, 2021, Dr Donda was chosen to be the caretaker mayor until PR lists could be amended so that Ngwezi could become a councillor. In early-December, the IEC officially allowed parties' PR lists to be amended. Ngwezi resigned from the NCOP on 8 December 2021. On 10 December 2021, Ngwezi was sworn in as a councillor of the uMhlathuze municipality. He was then elected as an Executive Committee (EXCO) member before he was elected mayor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ngwezi, Xolani Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Zulu people Politicians from KwaZulu-Natal Members of the National Assembly of South Africa Inkatha Freedom Party politicians Mayors of places in South Africa Members of the National Council of Provinces