Cyril Xaba

Born on 14 February 1967,{{Cite web |date=10 April 2024 |title=Final Candidate Lists for 2024 National and Provincial Elections: National Candidates |url=https://www.elections.org.za/pw/Documents/Candidates-List-NPE2024/National%20Candidates%20List.pdf |access-date=2024-03-26 |website=Electoral Commission of South Africa}} Xaba was born and raised in Clermont in the former Natal Province.{{Cite web |last=Tsinde |first=Sanelisiwe |date=2024-07-17 |title=Mayor makes mother proud |url=https://www.citizen.co.za/highway-mail/news-headlines/local-news/2024/07/17/mayor-makes-mother-proud/ |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=Highway Mail |language=en-US}} He was the second-born of five siblings. He attended Ziphathele High School in Clermont,{{Cite web |title=Councillor Vusumuzi Cyril Xaba |url=https://www.kznworks.gov.za/index.php/councillor-vusumuzi-cyril-xaba |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=KwaZulu-Natal Department of Public Works}} where he was active in the local leadership of the anti-apartheid Natal Students Congress and Congress of South African Students.{{cite web |title=Personal Profile: Mr Vusumuzi Cyril Xaba |url=http://www.kzndae.gov.za/Portals/0/Management/MEC%20Cyril%20Xaba_PERSONAL%20PROFILE.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150726131841/http://www.kzndae.gov.za/Portals/0/Management/MEC%20Cyril%20Xaba_PERSONAL%20PROFILE.pdf |archive-date=2015-07-26 |access-date=11 May 2021 |website=KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture}}

After matriculating in 1986, he enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Durban-Westville, majoring in law, but he dropped out for political reasons. Instead, he transferred to the University of Natal, where he completed a community service training certificate in 1988 and a Baccalaureus Procurationis in 1992. Thereafter he enrolled in a Bachelor of Laws at the same university.

He was active in the South African Students Congress as a student, and he was deputy president of the university's Black Students Society during his first year as a law student. In addition, he joined the African National Congress (ANC): between 1990 and 1993, he was regional deputy chairperson and then regional chairperson of the ANC Youth League's branch in Southern Natal, and in 1993 he was elected to the regional executive committee of the mainstream ANC in Southern Natal.

Xaba did not complete his Bachelor of Laws, dropping out when he became a full-time politician in 1994. However, while working as a politician, he completed a Master of Laws at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2014. He also studied towards, but did not complete, a diploma in economic principles at the University of London.

In South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in April 1994, Xaba was elected to represent the ANC as a member of the newly established KwaZulu-Natal Legislature. From 1994 to 1999, he was the ANC's spokesperson on education. Then, from 1999 to 2009, he held a series of committee chairmanships in the legislature, leading the public works portfolio committee, the finance committee, and an ad-hoc constitutional affairs committee tasked with drafting the provincial constitution. He also served a stint as the ANC's chief whip in the legislature.

During the same period, he rose in the ranks of the provincial ANC; he was regional secretary of the party's branch in Durban West from 1995 to 2001, deputy chairperson of its regional branch in eThekwini from 2002 to 2007, and an elected member of the party's Provincial Executive Committee from 2004 to 2012.

After the April 2009 general election, having served three consecutive terms in the legislature, Xaba took a hiatus from legislative politics to serve as special adviser to the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal. He held that position until 2014 under Premier Zweli Mkhize and his successor Senzo Mchunu. Simultaneously, from 2010 to 2014, he was chairperson of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Planning Commission.

In the May 2014 provincial election, Xaba was elected to return to the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature. Announcing his new Executive Council, Premier Mchunu appointed Xaba to replace Meshack Radebe as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Agriculture and Rural Development.{{Cite web |date=26 May 2014 |title=The new KZN cabinet – Senzo Mchunu |url=https://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/the-new-kzn-cabinet--senzo-mchunu |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=Politicsweb |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Hans |first=Bongani |date=27 May 2014 |title=No place in KZN cabinet for Ina Cronjé |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/no-place-in-kzn-cabinet-for-ina-cronje-1694610 |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=IOL |language=en}} He oversaw a foot-and-mouth disease prevention campaign in the province.{{Cite web |date=1 January 2015 |title=More needed to stop cattle disease – MEC |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/more-needed-to-stop-cattle-disease-mec-20150101 |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}

However, Premier Mchunu was unceremoniously ousted from the provincial leadership of the ANC in November 2015, losing an internal election to Sihle Zikalala, and in May 2016 the ANC removed Mchunu from the premier's office. On 6 June 2016, newly elected Premier Willies Mchunu sacked Xaba from the Executive Council, replacing him with Themba Mthembu; he was fired alongside three other MECs who had also been viewed as political allies of Senzo Mchunu.{{Cite web |last=Harper |first=Paddy |date=6 June 2016 |title=4 MECs gone in KZN cabinet ‘purge’ |url=https://www.news24.com/citypress/news/4-mecs-gone-in-kzn-cabinet-purge-20160606 |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=City Press |language=en-US}}

Xaba served the rest of the legislative term as an ordinary Member of the Provincial Legislature.{{Cite web |title=Vusumuzi Cyril Xaba |url=https://www.pa.org.za/person/vusumuzi-cyril-xaba/ |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=People's Assembly |language=en}} In June 2017 he attended a CR17 campaign event in Dambuza, fuelling rumors that he had joined Senzo Mchunu in supporting Cyril Ramaphosa's bid to be elected as ANC president.{{Cite web |date=2017-06-16 |title=Dambuza wants Cyril |url=https://witness.co.za/news/2017/06/16/dambuza-wants-cyril-20170615/ |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=The Witness |language=en-US}}

In the May 2019 general election, Xaba was elected to a seat in the National Assembly, the lower house of the South African Parliament; he represented the ANC in the assembly's KwaZulu-Natal caucus.{{cite news |date=15 May 2019 |title=These are the people who will represent you in Parliament, provincial legislatures |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/Elections/News/see-these-are-the-people-who-will-represent-you-in-parliament-provincial-legislatures-20190515 |access-date=11 May 2021 |work=News24 |agency=}} In the aftermath of the election, the ANC announced that it would nominate him to chair the National Assembly's Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans.{{Cite web |last=Gerber |first=Jan |date=19 June 2019 |title=Ace Magashule denies committee chairpersons elected on 'factional basis' – here is the list |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/ace-magashule-denies-committee-chairpersons-elected-on-factional-basis-here-is-the-list-20190619 |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=News24 |language=en-US}} At the committee's first meeting on 2 July 2019, he was duly elected, unopposed, as chairperson.{{cite web |date=2 July 2019 |title=Election of Chairperson |url=https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/28445/ |access-date=11 May 2021 |website=Parliamentary Monitoring Group}}{{Cite web |date=2019-07-24 |title=New Defence Portfolio Committee chair |url=https://www.defenceweb.co.za/featured/new-defence-portfolio-committee-chair/ |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=defenceWeb |language=en-ZA}} On 25 July 2019, he was additionally elected as co-chairperson of Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Defence, serving alongside Elleck Nchabeleng of the National Council of Provinces.{{cite web |date=25 July 2019 |title=Election of Co-Chairpersons; Deployment of SANDF members to Western Cape |url=https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/28649/ |access-date=11 May 2021 |website=Parliamentary Monitoring Group}} He held both positions during two major domestic deployments of the South African National Defence Force, first during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and then during the civil unrest of 2021.{{Cite web |date=14 April 2020 |title=Lockdown: SANDF must act responsibly – Parliament |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/lockdown-sandf-must-act-responsibly-parliament-20200414 |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=McCain |first=Nicole |date=20 July 2021 |title=Oversight visits planned to assess SAPS, SANDF response to unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/oversight-visits-planned-to-assess-saps-sandf-response-to-unrest-in-kwazulu-natal-and-gauteng-20210720 |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}

Alongside his defence portfolios, Xaba was a member of other high-profile portfolios. Between 2020 and 2021, he was a member of the ad hoc committee tasked with considering legislation to amend Section 25 of the Constitution to address land expropriation; he served as the ANC's whip in that committee.{{Cite news |last=Paton |first=Carol |date=29 June 2021 |title=Prospects of ANC-EFF truce over land fade but problems remain |url=https://www.dispatchlive.co.za/news/opinion/2021-06-29-prospects-of-anc-eff-truce-over-land-fade-but-problems-remain/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20220128044501/https://www.dispatchlive.co.za/news/opinion/2021-06-29-prospects-of-anc-eff-truce-over-land-fade-but-problems-remain/ |archive-date=2022-01-28 |access-date=2025-01-02 |work=Dispatch |language=en-ZA}}{{Cite web |last=Merten |first=Marianne |date=2021-06-27 |title=The politics and numbers of land expropriation without compensation — the slow and winding road to… nowhere in particular |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-06-27-the-politics-and-numbers-of-land-expropriation-without-compensation-the-slow-and-winding-road-to-nowhere-in-particular/ |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=Daily Maverick |language=en}} And in 2023 he was elected as chairperson of the ad hoc committee that selected Kholeka Gcaleka to succeed Busisiwe Mkhwebane as Public Protector.{{Cite web |last=Gerber |first=Jan |date=8 June 2023 |title=Process to select Mkhwebane's successor underway |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/politics/parliament/process-to-select-mkhwebanes-successor-underway-20230608 |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Gerber |first=Jan |date=30 August 2023 |title=Gcaleka set to be appointed Public Protector, as IFP backs ANC |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/politics/parliament/gcaleka-set-to-be-appointed-public-protector-as-ifp-backs-anc-20230830 |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=News24 |language=en-US}} He also represented the National Assembly at the Judicial Service Commission.{{Cite web |last=Gerber |first=Jan |date=27 June 2019 |title=Frolick elected chair of chairs after failed DA bid to oust him |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/frolick-elected-chair-of-chairs-after-failed-da-bid-to-oust-him-20190627 |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Thamm |first=Marianne |date=2020-02-17 |title=Ramaphosa announces four replacements for Judicial Service Commission |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-02-17-ramaphosa-announces-four-replacements-for-judicial-service-commission/ |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=Daily Maverick |language=en}}

Meanwhile, in December 2022, Xaba attended the ANC's 55th National Conference, which elected him to his first five-year term as a member of the party's National Executive Committee. He received 1,128 votes across roughly 4,000 ballots, making him the 50th-most popular member of the 80-member committee.{{Cite web |date=22 December 2022 |title=Full list: ANC NEC members |url=https://www.enca.com/news/full-list-anc-nec-members |access-date=2023-08-02 |website=eNCA |language=en}} At the new committee's first meeting in February 2023, he was appointed as chairperson of the committee's subcommittee on legal and constitutional affairs, with Faith Muthambi as his deputy.{{Cite web |date=26 February 2023 |title=Members of deployment committee and other committees appointed – ANC NEC |url=https://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/members-of-deployment-committee-and-other-committe |access-date=2023-08-02 |website=Politicsweb |language=en}} However, in September 2023, he was moved to a new portfolio, replacing Mdu Manana as chairperson of the party's National Dispute Resolution Committee; Justice Minister Ronald Lamola replaced him in his former subcommittee position.{{Cite web |last=Masuabi |first=Queenin |date=2023-09-22 |title=ANC NEC musical chairs sees Cyril Xaba step up for NDRC |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-09-22-anc-nec-musical-chairs-sees-cyril-xaba-step-up-for-ndrc-ronald-lamola-deployed-to-legal-affairs-sub-committee/ |access-date=2023-09-26 |website=Daily Maverick |language=en}}

In the May 2024 general election, Xaba stood for re-election to the National Assembly, now ranked 82nd on the ANC's national party list. Because of the ANC's poor electoral performance, he narrowly failed to win a seat.{{Cite web |last=Merten |first=Marianne |date=2024-06-05 |title=The ANC haemorrhaging continues — Cele, Modise, Zulu and Pandor won’t return as MPs |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-06-05-the-anc-haemorrhaging-continues-cele-modise-zulu-and-pandor-wont-return-as-mps/ |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Daily Maverick |language=en}}

In the aftermath of the May 2024 election, the incumbent Mayor of eThekwini, Mxolisi Kaunda, was asked by the ANC to resign his mayoral office in order to take up a parliamentary seat. Xaba, in turn, was sworn in to an ANC council seat in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.{{Cite web |last=Maliti |first=Soyiso |date=25 June 2024 |title=eThekwini mayoral squabbles: ANC dismisses speculations Cyril Xaba will be sworn in as 'rumours' |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/ethekwini-mayoral-squabbles-anc-dismisses-speculations-cyril-xaba-will-be-sworn-in-as-rumours-20240625 |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=News24 |language=en-US}} He was immediately regarded as a possible candidate to succeed Kaunda, though there were reports that his ascension would face resistance both from inside the local ANC and from the ANC's coalition partners in the council, the Democratic Alliance and Inkatha Freedom Party.{{Cite web |last=Erasmus |first=Des |date=2024-06-20 |title=Cyril Xaba tipped for eThekwini mayor, but ANC in the city opposes appointment |url=https://mg.co.za/politics/2024-06-20-cyril-xaba-tipped-for-ethekwini-mayor-but-anc-in-the-city-opposes-appointment/ |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}{{Cite news |date=10 July 2024 |title=eThekwini elects Cyril Xaba as mayor after DA turnabout |url=https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2024-07-10-ethekwini-elects-cyril-xaba-as-mayor-after-da-turnabout/#google_vignette |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240718103741/https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2024-07-10-ethekwini-elects-cyril-xaba-as-mayor-after-da-turnabout/ |archive-date=2024-07-18 |access-date=2025-01-02 |work=Business Day |language=en-ZA}} Nonetheless, on 10 July 2024, Xaba was elected unopposed as mayor of eThekwini.{{Cite news |last=Ardé |first=Greg |date=10 July 2024 |title=Cyril Xaba, ‘sober’ new mayor for the eThekwini circus |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-07-10-cyril-xaba-sober-new-mayor-for-the-ethekwini-circus/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240710185201/https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-07-10-cyril-xaba-sober-new-mayor-for-the-ethekwini-circus/ |archive-date=10 July 2024 |access-date=31 August 2024 |work=Daily Maverick}}{{Cite web |last=Khoza |first=Amanda |date=10 July 2024 |title=New eThekwini Mayor, Cyril Xaba vows to 'make the City work for its residents' |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/politics/new-ethekwini-mayor-cyril-xaba-vows-to-make-the-city-work-for-its-residents-20240710 |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{People's Assembly (South Africa)|vusumuzi-cyril-xaba|Vusumuzi Cyril Xaba}}
• [https://www.parliament.gov.za/person-details/382 Mr Vusumuzi Cyril Xaba] at Parliament of South Africa

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xaba, Cyril}}

Category:Living people

Category:1967 births

Category:African National Congress politicians

Category:Mayors of places in South Africa

Category:Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 2019–2024

Category:Members of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature

Category:People from Clermont, KwaZulu-Natal

Category:University of KwaZulu-Natal alumni

Category:University of Natal alumni

Category:Zulu people