Zweli Mkhize

Zwelini Lawrence Mkhize (born 2 February 1956) is a South African medical doctor and politician who served as the Minister of Health from May 2019 until his resignation on 5 August 2021. He previously served as the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs from 2018 to 2019. Before that, he was the fifth Premier of KwaZulu-Natal from 2009 to 2013.

A former anti-apartheid activist in Umkhonto we Sizwe, Mkhize was formerly a provincial politician in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal, with particular influence in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands. He was a Member of the Executive Council in the provincial government between 1994 and 2004 and was elected provincial chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC) in 2008. He rose to national prominence in 2012 when he was elected national Treasurer-General of the ANC at the party's 53rd National Conference. He also campaigned unsuccessfully for the ANC presidency ahead of the 54th National Conference in 2017.

As Minister of Health under President Cyril Ramaphosa, Mkhize played a central role in South Africa's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he resigned in 2021 amid allegations that he and his family had benefitted improperly from a state contract awarded by the Department of Health to a communications company called Digital Vibes.

Early life and career

Zweli Lawrence Mkhize was born on 2 February 1956 in Willowfontein on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg in what is now KwaZulu-Natal province. He was the fifth of seven children. He belongs to the Zulu Mkhize clan, formerly of the Nkandla region, but, by the time of the advent of apartheid in 1948, his family was bound to farm labour by a labour tenancy agreement. His father later worked for the parks department of the Pietermaritzburg Corporation while his elder brothers worked as farm hands, but Mkhize continued his formal education. He attended secondary school at Dlangezwa boarding school in Zululand, where he was a strong student. He later said that the anti-apartheid protests of a local "eccentric", David Cecil Oxford Matiwane, sparked his interest in politics.

In 1976, the year of the Soweto uprising, Mkhize began medical school at the University of Natal, where he was a member of the students' representative council. He graduated with an MBChB in 1982, completed his internship at McCord Hospital in Durban in 1983, and began work at Edendale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg in 1984.

Anti-apartheid activism

By the mid-1980s, Mkhize was a member of Umkhonto weSizwe (MK), the underground armed wing of the anti-apartheid African National Congress (ANC), and was connected to other ANC figures in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, including Harry Gwala. He went into exile in Swaziland in 1986. According to the ''Daily Maverick'', his departure from South Africa was related to police attention to Operation Butterfly, the codename for an MK plan to bomb important infrastructure in KwaZulu-Natal; eleven other people involved in the plan had been arrested in late 1985, during a government state of emergency. In exile in Swaziland and then in Zimbabwe, Mkhize continued to practice medicine; he often treated wounded MK combatants. He also continued his work with MK and by 1987 he was a commander in charge of underground cells which operated in KwaZulu-Natal.

He returned to South Africa in 1991 after the ANC had been unbanned by the South African government. He initially worked at Themba Hospital in what was then the Eastern Transvaal, but opened a private medical practice in Pietermaritzburg in late 1991. He, along with his MK colleague Jacob Zuma, became an ANC peace broker in the ongoing political violence in KwaZulu-Natal: ANC-aligned groups and Inkatha-aligned groups fought each other in the region throughout the negotiations to end apartheid. From 1991 to 1994, he was also a member of the ANC National Heath Secretariat, which was tasked with formulating health policy for a post-apartheid South Africa.

Post-apartheid political career

Provincial government

Executive Council

After South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, Mkhize was appointed Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Health in the provincial government of KwaZulu-Natal, one of two provinces where the ANC did not win a majority in 1994. He held the post for a decade, becoming the longest-serving health MEC in the country. His tenure coincided with the peak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa, which was particularly severe in KwaZulu-Natal. Under President Thabo Mbeki, the government response to the epidemic was criticised as unscientific and influenced by HIV/AIDS denialism; in the summation of Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism, Mkhize was at times "both hero and villain" in this context. Mkhize deviated from national government policy in allowing the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research to conduct antiretroviral treatment trials in public clinics in KwaZulu-Natal. However, in 2001, when the Treatment Action Campaign sued the government for its failure to provide services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, Mkhize backed Mbeki in opposing the lawsuit. This was attributed to Mkhize's apparent unwillingness to "break ranks" with Mbeki publicly. Later, in 2016, Mkhize wrote a lengthy open letter to Mbeki about his HIV/AIDS policy, describing himself as having been "caught in the middle" of the 2001 legal battle. He said that, at the time, he had disagreed with Mbeki's opposition to antiretrovirals and had lobbied for the government to fast-track nevirapine trials.

In November 2004, Mkhize was appointed MEC for Finance and Economic Development, also in KwaZulu-Natal. Under his leadership, the provincial department implemented austerity measures, which were considered successful. He was also appointed Leader of Government Business in KwaZulu-Natal in 2004 and held both positions simultaneously until 2009. In addition, from 2006, he chaired the political oversight committee for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Rise in the ANC

While an MEC, Mkhize reportedly formed a close political alliance with Jacob Zuma, who became national Deputy President. He was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee, the party's top executive organ, at the ANC's 50th National Conference in December 1997, and he was re-elected to the ANC National Executive Committee in 2002 and in 2007. He was considered "one of the main architects" of Zuma's rise to the ANC presidency over that period, having helped engineer an influx of pro-ANC members to the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal. He also served as chairperson of the ANC National Executive Committee's subcommittee on education and health and was a member of the ANC task team on national health insurance.

However, his most prominent role in the ANC was at the provincial level in KwaZulu-Natal. Having served as the ANC provincial Treasurer-General, he was elected ANC deputy provincial Chairperson by 1999. Before and during his term as finance MEC, he was at the centre of a political battle with S'bu Ndebele, then the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal and the provincial Chairperson of the ANC. At the ANC's provincial elective conference in June 2008, Mkhize prevailed and was elected ANC provincial Chairperson.

Premiership

In his capacity as provincial Chairperson, Mkhize became the ANC's candidate to replace Ndebele as KwaZulu-Natal Premier in the 2009 general election. The ANC won control of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in the 2009 election and Mkhize was indirectly elected Premier, beating John Steenhuisen of the opposition Democratic Alliance by 68 votes to seven. In the same month, May 2009, he was appointed Chancellor of his alma mater, which had been relaunched as the University of KwaZulu-Natal; he ultimately served in that post until 2017.

In May 2010, five men were arrested in Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal, on the basis of a criminal intelligence tip-off, while allegedly on their way to Mkhize's home in Pietermaritzburg; illegal firearms and ammunition were found in their vehicle. They appeared in court in Durban on weapons charges and the charge of conspiracy to commit murder; the alleged target of the conspiracy was later identified as Mkhize. In addition, one of the men, Sizwe Mkhize (of no relation), had in his possession a document which appeared to implicate provincial leaders of the Tripartite Alliance – the ANC and its partners the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions – in a plot to overthrow Mkhize. The Hawks investigated the case, and the KwaZulu-Natal structures of the Tripartite Alliance conducted their own investigation through a joint task team, on which the ANC was represented by Willies Mchunu; the findings of the task team were kept confidential. The court case against the men was struck off the court roll in November when the state failed to send a prosecutor to trial. Mkhize had also encountered Sizwe Mkhize in 2007, when he claimed that he and another hitman had been hired by Mkhize's provincial rivals to assassinate him.

In May 2012, the KwaZulu-Natal ANC unanimously re-elected him as ANC provincial Chairperson. His re-election followed a minor political scandal concerning a leaked intelligence report compiled by Richard Mdluli; the report said that Mkhize, along with other ANC leaders, were plotting to depose Zuma as ANC President. Although Mkhize said there had not been any such plot, the ''Mail & Guardian'' said that the report had damaged Mkhize's relationship with Zuma, as well as his popularity in KwaZulu-Natal.

ANC Treasurer-General

Mkhize was elected national Treasurer-General of ANC at the party's 53rd National Conference in December 2012. In the election, he beat Paul Mashatile with 2,988 votes to Mashatile's 961. Mkhize ran on an informal slate aligned to incumbent national President Zuma, who was re-elected ANC President at the conference. He was also rumoured to have been involved in recruiting businessman Cyril Ramaphosa to run for the deputy presidency on that slate. Sources told the ''Mail & Guardian'' that other leaders in KwaZulu-Natal had pushed for Mkhize to advance to a national position not because they supported him but because they sought to have him leave provincial politics; Mkhize and his colleagues denied the claim.

Although Mkhize's constitutional term as KwaZulu-Natal Premier would not end until the 2014 general election, he resigned from the office in August 2013 to attend full-time to his duties as ANC Treasurer-General, a job based out of the ANC's headquarters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg. Mkhize's tenure coincided with several scandals which appeared to implicate Zuma's administration in state capture. Notably, despite his longstanding alliance with Zuma, in December 2015 he was critical of Zuma's decision to dismiss Nhlanhla Nene as Minister of Finance and reportedly was part of a group of ANC leaders which met with Zuma to persuade him to reconsider. In April 2017, he joined other ANC leaders in publicly criticising Zuma's subsequent decision to reshuffle his cabinet again and dismiss Pravin Gordhan as Minister of Finance. Between those two interventions, in November 2016, the ''Sunday Times'' reported that the Hawks were investigating Mkhize, Gwede Mantashe, and Mcebisi Jonas in connection with Jonas's claim that the Gupta family had offered him a bribe and a cabinet post; the investigation reportedly concerned the failure of Mkhize, Mantashe, and Jonas to report the bribe earlier. However, the Hawks said that there was no such investigation.

2017 presidential bid

Ahead of the end of his term as Treasurer-General in 2017, Mkhize campaigned to succeed Zuma as ANC President, with a social media campaign under the slogan #AbantuBathi ( Zulu for, literally, "people say"). He first announced that he would be willing to accept nominations to the position in early September 2017. Mkhize had reputedly been an active participant in "provincial patronage politics", and he admitted to his own role in mobilising support for the Zuma-aligned faction in 2007, but, during the campaign, he argued publicly that maintaining the unity of the ANC required eschewing factionalism and slate-based campaigning.

Although the frontrunners in the presidential race were clearly Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Mkhize was viewed as a possible "compromise choice", an alternative who might be viewed as acceptable by the respective supporters of each frontrunner. The ''Business Day'' reported that Mkhize's candidacy might be endorsed by David Mabuza, an influential ANC powerbroker in Mpumalanga who was pushing for a "unity ticket" to replace Zuma. It was also reported that Ramaphosa had considered Mkhize as a possible running mate but had decided to select a woman (Lindiwe Sisulu) instead. Mkhize's presidential campaign earned some support at the level of local and regional branches, especially in the Eastern Cape and his home province KwaZulu-Natal, but he ultimately failed to earn the nomination of any of the organisation's nine provinces, and he abandoned his presidential bid. Instead, he took up the nominations he had received – from 193 local branches and one province – to stand for the ANC deputy presidency.

However, when the ANC's 54th National Conference began in December 2017, Mkhize unexpectedly announced that he had decided "after much consideration" to withdraw from the deputy presidential race and therefore would not be in the running for election to any of the ANC's so-called "Top Six" leadership positions. Sources told the ''Mail & Guardian'' and the ''Sunday Times'' that Mkhize had withdrawn following discussions with Mabuza, on the basis that Mkhize would not oppose Mabuza's candidacy for Deputy President if Mkhize received backing – from Mabuza's and Dlamini-Zuma's supporters – for a senior cabinet position, possibly the Ministry of Finance, and for the top-ranked position on the incoming National Executive Committee. Mabuza was ultimately elected ANC Deputy President and Mkhize was indeed re-elected to the National Executive Committee with the most votes of any candidate, 2,550 across a total of 4,283 ballots. Mkhize denied that he had engaged in deal-making or horse-trading, saying that he had withdrawn in order to build unity in and strengthen the ANC. He was replaced as ANC Treasurer-General by Paul Mashatile, who had run against him unsuccessfully in 2012.

National government

In late February 2018, Zuma resigned from the national Presidency; Ramaphosa succeeded him and appointed Mkhize to his cabinet as Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. Mkhize was sworn into the National Assembly to take up the position. In late May 2019, after Ramaphosa had been elected to a full term following the 2019 general election, Mkhize was made Minister of Health in the new cabinet. He remained in that position until August 2021. His initial priority in the portfolio was the finalisation of a proposal to establish a new system of national health insurance: he promised to release the draft National Health Insurance Bill within his first 100 days in office, and he did so, following consultations with civil society

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