Makho Njobe
{{Short description|South African politician (born 1930)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| party = Congress of the People (since January 2009)
| office1 = Member of the National Assembly
| termstart1 = 6 May 2009
| termend1 = 6 May 2014
| citizenship = South Africa
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1930|05|13|df=yes}}
| termstart2 = 9 May 1994
| termend2 = January 2009
| constituency1 = Eastern Cape
| alma_mater = University College of Fort Hare
| otherparty = African National Congress (until January 2009)
}}
Makhosazana Abigail Alicia "Makho" Njobe (born 13 May 1930) is a South African politician who served in the National Assembly from 1994 to 2014, excepting a brief hiatus in 2009. She represented the African National Congress (ANC) until January 2009, when she defected to the breakaway Congress of the People (COPE). She represented COPE for her final term from 2009 to 2014. From 2009 onwards, she served the Eastern Cape constituency.
A science teacher by profession, Njobe was a veteran of the ANC, which she joined while living in exile during apartheid. During her exile, she taught at schools in Ghana, Tanzania, and Zambia, among them the ANC's Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College. She was active in the women's section of the exiled ANC and later in the ANC Women's League.
Early life and career
Njobe was born on 13 May 1930.{{cite magazine |date=11 June 1999 |title=General Notice: Notice 1319 of 1999 – Electoral Commission: Representatives Elected to the Various Legislatures |url=https://gazettes.africa/archive/za/1999/za-government-gazette-dated-1999-06-11-no-20203.pdf |magazine=Government Gazette of South Africa |location=Pretoria, South Africa |publisher=Government of South Africa |volume=408 |issue=20203 |pages= |access-date=26 March 2021}} Her sister is Peggy Luswazi, who later became an academic.{{Cite book |last=Mfenyana |first=Sindiso |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1003191307 |title=Walking with giants |date=2017 |isbn=978-0-620-73053-2 |location=Cape Town, South Africa |pages=222–292 |oclc=1003191307}}
Njobe completed a bachelor of science and teaching diploma at the University College of Fort Hare, majoring in zoology and chemistry, and worked as a science teacher at a secondary school. Although she continued to teach after the advent of the Bantu Education Act in 1953, she and her husband emigrated in 1957 to Ghana, which had just become the first sub-Saharan African country to win its independence from colonial rule.
They went on to teach in Nigeria until interrupted by the Biafran war, and later in Tanzania and Zambia, where they came into contact with the African National Congress (ANC), then an anti-apartheid organisation operating in exile while banned inside South Africa. Njobe's husband, Makhunga Wintshi Njobe, became the inaugural principal of the secondary school at the ANC's Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College. Njobe herself joined the ANC and was a member of its women's section, the immediate predecessor of the present-day ANC Women's League.{{Citation |title=Black Women Writing 'New' South African Masculinities: Kagiso Lesego Molope and Zukiswa Wanner |date=2021 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/and-wrote-my-story-anyway/black-women-writing-new-south-african-masculinities-kagiso-lesego-molope-and-zukiswa-wanner/C5EEC94ED866A3A12CD3334DE6A043E2 |work=And Wrote My Story Anyway: Black South African Women's Novels as Feminism |pages=171–198 |editor-last=Boswell |editor-first=Barbara |access-date=2023-04-25 |publisher=Wits University Press |isbn=978-1-77614-619-2}}
Parliament: 1994–2014
= African National Congress: 1994–2009 =
In South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994, Njobe was elected to represent the ANC in the National Assembly, the lower house of the new South African Parliament. She represented the ANC in the assembly until 2009, gaining re-election in 1999 and 2004; from 2004 onwards, she represented the Eastern Cape constituency.{{cite magazine |date=20 April 2004 |title=General Notice: Notice 717 of 2004 - Electoral Commission – List of Names of Representatives in the National Assembly and the Nine Provincial Legislatures in Respect of the Elections Held on 14 April 2004 |url=https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/262770.pdf |magazine=Government Gazette of South Africa |location=Pretoria, South Africa |publisher=Government of South Africa |volume=466 |issue=2677 |pages=4–95 |access-date=26 March 2021}} From March 2004, she served concurrently as one of the assembly's five delegates to the newly established Pan-African Parliament.{{Cite web |date=2004-02-05 |title=Ginwala for Pan African Parliament? |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2004-02-06-ginwala-for-pan-african-parliament/ |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}
In a reshuffle of the ANC's caucus in April 2002, the party nominated Njobe to chair the Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture.{{Cite web |date=25 April 2002 |title=Major ANC Parly reshuffle |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/major-anc-parly-reshuffle-20020425 |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=News24 |language=en-US}} She was initially retained in that position after the 2004 election{{Cite web |date=2004-05-06 |title=ANC man to head key fiscal watchdog |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2004-05-06-anc-man-to-head-key-fiscal-watchdog/ |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} but was replaced by Lech Tsenoli in another reshuffle in June 2004.{{Cite news |date=23 June 2004 |title=ANC old guard reshuffled |work=IOL |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/anc-old-guard-reshuffled-215476 |access-date=19 April 2023}} She also remained active in the ANC Women's League: in 2003, she was the chief electoral commissioner in a fierce contest, between Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and Thandi Modise, over the league's presidency.{{Cite web |date=2003-08-22 |title=Knives out in women's league |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2003-08-22-knives-out-in-womens-league/ |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}{{Cite web |date=2003-08-30 |title=New Women's League leader announced |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2003-08-30-new-womens-league-leader-announced/ |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}
== Business interests ==
In 1997, the Mail & Guardian reported that Njobe and several other senior ANC members were joint owners of Dyambu Trust, created in April 1996 to pursue investments, particularly in mining, whose profits could be used for community development projects. The only two official trustees were Nomvula Mokonyane and Lindiwe Maseko; other women involved included Baleka Kgositsile, Lindiwe Sisulu, Adelaide Tambo, Lindiwe Zulu, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, and Nomatyala Hangana.{{Cite web |last=Marais |first=Hein |date=1997-02-07 |title=Deporting for cash |url=https://mg.co.za/article/1997-02-07-deporting-for-cash/ |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} According to the Mail & Guardian, Dyambu Trust owned the site of Lindela Repatriation Centre, a privately owned deportation camp on the West Rand. Two decades later, journalist Adriaan Basson reported that Gavin Watson had joined Dyambu Trust in 1997 and had ultimately taken control of it, turning it into Bosasa.{{Cite book |last=Basson |first=Adriaan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JsbnDwAAQBAJ&q=makho+njobe+ANC |title=Blessed by Bosasa: Inside Gavin Watson's State Capture Cult |date=2019-10-21 |publisher=Jonathan Ball Publishers |isbn=978-1-77619-003-4 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Khumalo |first=Juniour |date=21 October 2019 |title=How Gavin Watson stole Bosasa from ANC Women's League |url=https://www.news24.com/citypress/news/how-gavin-watson-stole-bosasa-from-anc-womens-league-20191021 |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=City Press |language=en-US}}
In September 2004, another Mail & Guardian exposé named Njobe as one of several MPs who had failed to disclose financial interests as required by parliamentary rules. The newspaper said that Njobe – along with her colleagues Lulu Xingwana, Nonkumbi Gxowa, and Makwena Ngwenya – had an interest in Malibongwe, a non-profit company that invested in charitable development interests, including as a participant in a recent R860-million black economic empowerment mining deal.{{Cite web |date=2004-09-03 |title=MPs who tried to cover their assets |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2004-09-03-mps-who-tried-to-cover-their-assets/ |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} In November, Parliament's ethics committee cleared Njobe of any wrongdoing, finding that she was not required to disclose a directorship in a non-profit.{{Cite web |date=2004-11-19 |title='Your business is our business' |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2004-11-19-your-business-is-our/ |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}
= Congress of the People: 2009–2014 =
In January 2009, Njobe resigned from the ANC to join the Congress of the People (COPE), a recently formed breakaway party. Her defection was announced at COPE's election manifesto launch in Port Elizabeth, several months ahead of the 2009 general election.{{Cite news |date=26 January 2009 |title=Dirty start to election campaign |work=IOL |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/dirty-start-to-election-campaign-432346 |access-date=26 April 2023}} She lost her seat in Parliament upon leaving the ANC.{{Cite web |date=29 January 2009 |title=New ANC MPs appointed |url=https://www.ancparliament.org.za/content/new-anc-mps-appointed |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=ANC Parliamentary Caucus}} However, she returned after the 2009 election, representing COPE in the Eastern Cape constituency.{{cite magazine |date=28 April 2009 |title=General Notice: Notice 408 of 2009 - Electoral Commission – List of Names of Representatives in the National Assembly and the Nine Provincial Legislatures in Respect of the Elections Held on 22 April 2009 |url=https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/32184408.pdf |magazine=Government Gazette of South Africa |location=Pretoria, South Africa |publisher=Government of South Africa |volume=526 |issue=32184 |pages=4–50 |access-date=8 April 2021}} She left Parliament after the next general election in 2014.
During her final term in Parliament, Njobe also chaired an internal COPE disciplinary committee which, in 2010, dismissed sexual harassment charges against Willie Madisha, a close political ally of COPE president Mosiuoa Lekota.{{Cite web |date=13 October 2010 |title=COPE women tell Lekota to think again on sex charges |url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2010-10-12-cope-women-tell-lekota-to-think-again-on-sex-charges/ |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=Sunday Times |language=en-ZA}} The deputy chairperson of COPE's women's wing, Zale Madonsela, said that the disciplinary process was procedurally flawed, showed a "total disregard and disrespect for women", and had been "appointed to serve factional interests".
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{People's Assembly (South Africa)|makhosazana-abigail-alicia-njobe|Mrs Makhosazana Abigail Alicia Njobe}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Njobe, Makho}}
Category:African National Congress politicians
Category:Congress of the People (South African political party) politicians
Category:South African anti-apartheid activists
Category:20th-century South African educators
Category:21st-century South African women politicians
Category:20th-century South African women politicians
Category:Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 1994–1999
Category:Women members of the National Assembly of South Africa