Paul Mashatile

Analysis - South Africa is set to have a new deputy president in Paul Shipokosa Mashatile, the deputy president of the governing African National Congress ...

[outbursts](https://theconversation.com/rule-of-law-in-south-africa-protects-even-those-who-scorn-it-175533) of ANC tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu, nor the [over-the-top](https://www.news24.com/citypress/trending/mbalulas-tweet-is-it-funny-or-foul-20230214) [internet flamboyance](https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/news/fikile-mbalula-rules-twitter-streets-for-second-year-in-a-row-ac65a2fd-39d4-4670-9e24-6cc49e081d26) of party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula. [serious problem in the ANC](https://www.news24.com/news24/opinions/voices/cyril-ramaphosa-the-anc-is-accused-number-one-for-corruption-20200823). Thabo Mbeki functioned as de facto prime minister during Nelson Mandela's presidency, [seeing to the day-to-day running of government](https://theconversation.com/south-africa-needs-strategic-leadership-to-weather-its-storms-its-presidents-have-not-been-up-to-the-task-194296). Critics are fond of loose talk that he was a member of the ["Alex mafia"](https://mg.co.za/article/2007-08-31-mashatile-and-the-alex-mafia/), an informal network of political activists and business people from [Alexandra](https://web.mit.edu/urbanupgrading/upgrading/case-examples/overview-africa/alexandra-township.html), north of Johannesburg. After the [1990 unbanning](https://theconversation.com/fw-de-klerk-made-a-speech-31-years-ago-that-ended-apartheid-why-he-did-it-130803) of the ANC, the South African Communist Party ( [SACP](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Communist-Party-of-South-Africa)), the [Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania](https://pac.org.za/) and other liberation movements, Mashatile helped reestablish both the ANC and the SACP [in the Johannesburg region](https://www.anc1912.org.za/paul-mashatile/). So Paul Mashatile is in pole position to be appointed as the next deputy president of South Africa. [a postgraduate diploma](https://www.vukuzenzele.gov.za/book/export/html/734) in Economic Principles from the University of London. At the ANC's 2022 national elective congress, he was elected by a sizeable majority as deputy president of the ANC. He represented the organisation at the launch in 1983 of the [United Democratic Front](https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/united-democratic-front-udf), which provided a political home for "Charterists" while the ANC was still banned. The term refers to exponents of the [Freedom Charter](https://www.anc1912.org.za/the-freedom-charter-2/), the blueprint for free, democratic South Africa adopted by the ANC and allies in 1955. [Congress of South African Students](https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/congress-south-african-students-cosas), an ANC-allied organisation for high school pupils. He has occupied a dizzying array of posts and portfolios during his climb to the top.