Hlengiwe Mkhize

Hlengiwe Buhle Mkhize (6 September 1952 – 16 September 2021) was a South African politician who served as Minister of Higher Education and Training and Minister of Home Affairs under President Jacob Zuma. A member of the National Assembly and national executive since May 2009, she was Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities when she died in September 2021.

Mkhize trained in clinical psychology and spent over a decade in academia at the University of Zululand and University of the Witwatersrand, until in 1995 she was appointed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She chaired the commission's Reparations and Rehabilitation Committee. She went on to serve as South African Ambassador to the Netherlands from 2005 to 2008 before she was elected to the National Assembly in the 2009 general election.

Between 2009 and 2017, Mkhize served Zuma's administration as a deputy minister in four different portfolios: she was Deputy Minister of Correctional Services from 2009 to 2010, Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training from 2010 to 2012, Deputy Minister of Economic Development from 2012 to 2014, and Deputy Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services from 2014 to 2017. After that, she was promoted to Zuma's second-term cabinet, first as Minister of Home Affairs in 2017 and then as Minister of Higher Education and Training from 2017 to 2018. In February 2018, she was sacked by Zuma's successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, and she retreated briefly to the chairmanship of the Portfolio Committee on Communications. She was appointed to her deputy ministerial position in the Presidency after the 2019 general election.

A longserving member of the African National Congress (ANC), Mkhize was the national treasurer of the ANC Women's League from July 2008 to August 2015. She was a member of the party's National Executive Committee from December 2017 until her death. Provided by Wikipedia