Joel Netshitenzhe

Netshitenzhe was born on 21 December 1956 in Sibasa, Northern Transvaal, a village in what became the bantustan of Venda and, after the end of apartheid, became the Limpopo province. He attended medical school at the University of Natal, but dropped out at age twenty to join the African National Congress (ANC) in exile. He received military training (with Umkhonto weSizwe) in Angola until 1978, and then, remaining in exile, worked as a journalist at the ANC's Radio Freedom. He went on to edit the organisation's official journal, Mayibuye, under his nom de guerre, Peter Mayibuye. he later earned a postgraduate diploma in economics (1996) and an MSc in financial economics (1999), both from London's School of Oriental and African Studies. By 1985, he was also a member of the broader Politico-Military Council, which coordinated the military and political aspects of the struggle. By then, the National Party government of South Africa had unbanned the ANC, and Netshitenzhe returned to South Africa from exile to serve as a member of the ANC negotiating team during the negotiations to end apartheid. == Career in government ==

After Nelson Mandela of the ANC was elected President in South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, Netshitenzhe became Mandela's head of communications and principal speechwriter. In 1998, he was appointed the inaugural chief executive officer of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), which was established in that year to replace the apartheid-era South African Communications Services. He resigned from PCAS unexpectedly in October 2009, with his resignation effective from the end of December. Although the media speculated that his resignation was related to recent criticisms he had made publicly of Zuma's administration, In 2010, he joined Nedbank as an independent non-executive director, and was a member of the National Planning Commission between 2010 and 2015. and was executive director and vice chairperson at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection, a South African think tank. == Career in the ANC ==

During the Mandela and Mbeki presidencies, Netshitenzhe continued to advise the ANC on communications while working for the government, and was viewed as one of the ANC's foremost strategists and policymakers, Netshitenzhe was particularly close to Mbeki: Mbeki's biographer, Mark Gevisser, viewed him as Mbeki's protégé, comparing his mentorship by Mbeki to Mbeki's earlier mentorship by Oliver Tambo. However, the growing rivalry between Mbeki and Zuma was viewed as diminishing Netshitenzhe's prospects, as Zuma gained power within the ANC. Ahead of the ANC's 52nd National Conference in Polokwane in 2007, Netshitenzhe accepted a nomination to stand as National Chairperson of the party, but lost in a vote to Baleka Mbete, the Zuma-aligned candidate. He was, however, re-elected to the ANC National Executive Committee, and was again in 2012 and in 2017. In November 2022, ahead of the ANC's 55th National Conference, the ANC Veterans' League endorsed Netshitenzhe as a candidate for the National Chairperson post, although he had not campaigned for the position. ==References==