What you need to know about Paul Mashatile

Paul Shipokosa Mashatile, born 21, October 1961, is a South African politician and currently the deputy president of the ruling ANC.

The son of a domestic worker and lay priest had served as the ANC’s treasurer-general since December 2017 and acting ANC secretary-general from January 2022.

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He was an anti-apartheid activist in the United Democratic Front and a member of former president Jacob Zuma’s first Cabinet as minister of arts and culture from 2010 to 2014. In 2008 and 2009, he was premier of Gauteng. From 1996 to 2008, then 2014 to 2018, he held portfolios in the Gauteng provincial government.

Political career

Mashatile’s activism and political career started as a student in Alexandra and member of the Congress of South African Students. He was cofounder and first president of the Alexandra Youth Congress in 1983.

During the state of emergency in 1985 to ’89, Mashatile was detained without trial and went on an 18-day hunger strike.

Following the unbanning of the ANC and South African Communist Party in 1990, Mashatile assisted in their re-establishment and continued to organise new legal structures in the country.

However, he was a controversial figure and was once dubbed the “don of the Alex mafia” for his involvement in scandals concerning restaurant expenses totalling R250 000 in 2006, and the Alexandra Renewal Project.

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Mashatile was alleged to be a leading member of the so-called “Alex mafia”, a network of politicians and influential business people with ties to Alexandra township’s anti-apartheid movement.

It was reported such ties might have led Mashatile to acquire shares in a software company with state contracts. But the late Gauteng integrity commissioner, Jules Browde, cleared Mashatile of any wrong doing.

Mashatile vs EFF

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, there were claims the Gauteng government or its politicians had misused R1.3 billion in funds meant for the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP), a welfare scheme coordinated by Mashatile’s human settlements department from 1999 to 2004.

In the course of a joint inquiry by the public protector and SA Human Rights Commission, Mashatile and other officials denied any such amount had gone missing, or been allocated.

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Mashatile filed a R2 million defamation lawsuit against the Economic Freedom Fighters, its commander-in-chief Julius Malema and then-Gauteng leader Mandisa Mashego after they implied his involvement in corruption and administering the ARP.