Intelligence: 2001–2004 After the
1999 general election, newly elected President
Thabo Mbeki initially retained Sisulu and Buthelezi in the Home Affairs portfolio. In that capacity, in 2003, she established the Intelligence Services Council. In December 2002, the ANC's
51st National Conference elected Sisulu to a second term as a member of the National Executive Committee; by number of votes received, she was the 13th-most popular candidate of the 60 ordinary members elected to the committee. She was also elected to the smaller
National Working Committee for the first time.
Housing: 2004–2009 After the
2004 general election, Sisulu was appointed as
Minister of Housing in Mbeki's
second cabinet. She served in that portfolio throughout the
Third South African Parliament of April 2004 to May 2009, through Mbeki's second term and the brief term of Mbeki's successor, President
Kgalema Motlanthe. During Sisulu's tenure, the
Department of Housing established the Housing Development Agency and prioritised the construction of new
government housing. Her work in the department attracted awards from the Institute for Housing of South Africa, in 2004, and the International Association for Housing Science, in 2005. It was highly controversial and met sustained civic resistance from those who were displaced during construction. This opposition peaked in December 2007, when residents of the
Joe Slovo settlement, who had been removed to
Delft, launched
a major occupation of the newly built N2 houses, leading to
eviction proceedings in the
Constitutional Court. Sisulu was criticised for threatening publicly that residents who did not "cooperate" would be removed from the waiting list for government housing, and academic
Martin Legassick excoriated her for refusing to meet with the occupiers and, more generally, for failing to consult affected communities. While admiring Sisulu for "dreaming large", the
Mail & Guardian said that, by the end of 2008, the N2 Gateway had become "the decomposing albatross around the minister's elegant neck", in large part because Sisulu's implementation of the project depended on "the forced removals of poor people to the periphery of cities".
Polokwane conference In December 2007 in
Polokwane, the ANC held its hotly contested
52nd National Conference, at which former Deputy President Jacob Zuma (Sisulu's former supervisor in ANC intelligence) ousted Mbeki from the party presidency. Although most of Mbeki's cabinet failed to gain re-election to the National Executive Committee, Sisulu was re-elected as the seventh-most popular candidate; she was also returned to the National Working Committee. Some observers, including
R. W. Johnson, explained Sisulu's rise as a result of her having "quietly joined the Zuma camp" in the run-up to the conference, abandoning Mbeki; according to
Mark Gevisser, her relationship with Mbeki had soured during his second term, partly due to her perceived demotion from the Intelligence portfolio to the Housing portfolio. Sisulu herself later said of the Mbeki–Zuma leadership contest that, "We didn’t know what we were doing; we were caught up in
factions", and that she had believed Zuma was "our best bet" to prevent Mbeki from winning an "unconstitutional" third term in the ANC presidency. at a
G20 meeting in May 2018
Defence and Military Veterans: 2009–2012 Pursuant to
the next general election in April 2009, Zuma was
elected as national president and appointed Sisulu to
his cabinet as
Minister of Defence and Military Veterans. In that portfolio she succeeded
Charles Nqakula and was deputised by
Thabang Makwetla. Soon into her term, she received media attention for appointing
Paul Ngobeni, a controversial lawyer and fugitive from justice in the American state of
Connecticut, as her legal adviser. The appointment was criticised by figures inside the defence establishment, as well as by the opposition
Democratic Alliance (DA), which said it was part of a pattern of providing jobs for Zuma's "political friends". Two years later, she was criticised for appointing
Tony Yengeni to the committee of the
South African Defence Review 2012.
SANDF de-unionisation The defining policy issue of Sisulu's tenure in the Ministry of Defence was her prolonged conflict with the
South African National Defence Union (SANDU). The conflict began in August 2009, when striking SANDU members lodged a violent protest at the
Union Buildings. Sisulu responded strongly, sending dismissal notices to some 1,300 soldiers who were involved in the protest. Although the dismissals were reversed in the following weeks, Sisulu became committed to a policy of de-unionising the
South African National Defence Force on the grounds that unionisation presented a security risk. The Constitutional Court had affirmed the military's constitutional right to unionise in
SANDU v Minister of Defence, but Sisulu said in December 2010 that she was prepared to undertake the necessary constitutional amendments. In the interim, Sisulu and SANDU frequently traded public attacks; in one statement, she called SANDU "the greatest danger to
national security" and "a union that spread lies to remain relevant", and SANDU called for Sisulu to be removed from her office.
Executive jet flights Shortly after Sisulu left the Defence Ministry, the opposition DA launched a campaign to scrutinise her use of luxury jets for travel while she was Defence Minister. In October 2012, in response to a parliamentary question from the DA, the Defence Ministry reported that Sisulu had chartered 203 private
Gulfstream flights, at a cost of over
R40 million to the
South African Air Force, between 2009 and 2012. DA representative
David Maynier called this "a staggering waste of public funds", and the
Congress of South African Trade Unions joined the DA in calling for an investigation. However, Sisulu strongly denied the Defence Ministry's account, insisting that she had only chartered 35 flights – the rest had been taken on VIP jets owned by the Air Force. Sisulu asked her successor in the Defence Ministry,
Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, to withdraw the original parliamentary response, leading to a series of mutual public recriminations between the two ministers; Sisulu ultimately laid a formal complaint against Mapisa-Nqakula and threatened to sue her. The Ministry did withdraw its initial response, acknowledging that it was factually incorrect. In the interim, Sisulu also entered into a spat with Maynier; in November 2012, arguing with him about the flights during a parliamentary debate, she proposed that, "DA MP Maynier with his flea-infested body should rather sit down". Maynier continued to pursue the issue over the next two years, maintaining that the expense of the chartered flights – now estimated at R11 million for 35 flights – was unjustifiable and "almost certainly" contrary to the ministerial code. In September 2014, he accused the Defence Ministry of obstructing investigations into the expenditure.
Public Service and Administration: 2012–2014 In June 2012, Zuma announced a reshuffle in which Sisulu became
Minister of Public Service and Administration; she succeeded
Roy Padayachie, who had recently died. The
Mail & Guardian reported that Sisulu was deeply upset about her transfer, which she perceived as a demotion. in the latter regard,
Corruption Watch named her its "hero of the week" for "showing political will". Also during her first year, Sisulu made another controversial appointment, recruiting
Menzi Simelane as a special adviser soon after the Constitutional Court questioned his integrity in a
high-profile judgment. As the ANC's
53rd National Conference approached, Sisulu was touted as a possible dark-horse candidate to challenge Zuma for the ANC presidency;'''''' she apparently had particular support from elements of the
ANC Youth League. However, when the conference took place in December 2012 in
Mangaung, Sisulu stood only for re-election to her fourth term as an ordinary member of the National Executive Committee. She was re-elected as the third-most popular candidate, behind only
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and
Malusi Gigaba. At the same time, she was re-elected to her third term on the National Working Committee.
Human Settlements: 2014–2018 Pursuant to the
May 2014 general election, Zuma appointed Sisulu as
Minister of Human Settlements in his second-term cabinet – the same (now renamed) Housing portfolio that she had formerly held under Mbeki. During just under four years in the position, she oversaw the establishment of both the Human Settlements Development Bank and the Human Settlements Ombudsman; though the department's performance in other areas was mixed, the
Mail & Guardian concluded at the end of 2017 that she had "consistently proved to be a capable and hardworking minister". in May 2018
First presidential campaign Ahead of the ANC's
54th National Conference in 2017, Sisulu launched a campaign to succeed Zuma as the party's president. She announced her candidacy on 21 July 2017 at
Walter Sisulu Square in
Kliptown, Soweto, where the
Freedom Charter was adopted in 1955. She said that she intended to "cleanse the ANC and recover its original values". Her campaign slogan was, "It's a must," and her campaign emphasised reversing the legacies of apartheid and patriarchy. However, she was not a frontrunner in the race: though she was formally nominated to stand for the position by an ANC branch in the
Eastern Cape, her family's home province, an internal poll taken in July suggested that she had the support of about seven per cent of ANC members. Her campaign ultimately cost over R1 million. During the campaign, Sisulu was openly critical of Zuma's leadership and called for the ANC to subject him to disciplinary action. She also entered into a public spat with
Gwede Mantashe, the ANC's secretary-general, as a result of an interview she gave the
Dispatch in October 2017. In particular, the newspaper quoted her as having asked, "where was he when we were fighting for this freedom in exile and in jail, which he today is abusing for personal interests?". Because Mantashe had been a
trade unionist inside South Africa during apartheid, this remark was viewed as disparaging to the
internal anti-apartheid struggle (as opposed to that waged from exile), and critics said that it supported perceptions of Sisulu as "out of touch and arrogant". and ANC Chief Whip
Jackson Mthembu mocked Sisulu as "politically immature" on
Twitter. When local ANC branches finished nominating candidates for the leadership positions, Sisulu did not emerge as a presidential candidate but was a popular candidate for the deputy presidency. Apparently in response to this, she announced on 14 December that she would drop out of the presidential race to stand as deputy president. She replaced
Naledi Pandor as the running mate of Zuma's main challenger, national Deputy President
Cyril Ramaphosa. The national conference began two days later at
Nasrec, with the results of the leadership election announced on 18 December. Although Ramaphosa prevailed against Zuma, Sisulu was defeated for the ANC deputy presidency by the Zuma-aligned candidate,
David Mabuza, who won 2,538 votes (54 per cent) against Sisulu's 2,159 (46 per cent). She was, however, re-elected to the National Executive Committee as the 12th-most popular candidate, and she returned to the National Working Committee as well.
International Relations and Cooperation: 2018–2019 In the aftermath of the Nasrec conference, in February 2018, Ramaphosa
replaced Zuma as national president. He appointed Sisulu to replace
Maite Nkoana-Mashabane as
Minister of International Relations and Cooperation in his
new cabinet. Soon after her appointment, she commissioned a comprehensive review of
South African foreign policy, which was led by
Aziz Pahad. The
Mail & Guardian commended her for "bringing a new energy" to the
Department of International Relations and for being "an assured and charming representative of South Africa".'''''' In November 2018,
human rights advocates criticised South Africa's decision to abstain from a
Third Committee resolution which condemned the
Rohingya genocide in Myanmar, but, soon afterwards, Sisulu announced that her department would reverse its position as part of a broader policy of taking a stronger stance on human rights issues. Indeed, South Africa supported the same resolution when it appeared before the
United Nations General Assembly. Sisulu was also in office when South Africa unilaterally downgraded its
relations with Israel, replacing the South African Embassy in
Tel Aviv with a liaison office. Sisulu announced this decision in a speech at the
South African Institute of International Affairs in April 2019. The
South African Jewish Board of Deputies was strongly opposed to the move; its vice-president, Zev Krengel, accused Sisulu of being "the single biggest enemy" of
South Africa's Jewish population. Later, in an October 2022 interview with
SABC, Sisulu complained that she had been "left dangling alone" to field public attacks and had expected President Ramaphosa to defend her publicly. However, her cabinet colleague
Mondli Gungubele accused her of lying, saying that she had not expressed any discomfort at the time. during the
United Nations General Assembly in September 2018
Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation: 2019–2021 Pursuant to the
May 2019 election, Ramaphosa restructured
his cabinet, and Sisulu was appointed as
Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, in which capacity she oversaw the merger of the
Department of Human Settlements and the
Department of Water and Sanitation. In November 2019, she launched the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan, which would aim to upgrade
water infrastructure at a cost of R898 billion over ten years. Critics described the policy as "a personal vanity project", and
City Press reported that it faced opposition within the cabinet and ANC parliamentary caucus. As in several of her previous offices, Sisulu was criticised for appointments she made in the portfolio. In November 2019, she appointed
Bathabile Dlamini – who had recently been sacked from the cabinet – as the chairperson of the Social Housing Regulatory Authority's interim board. Another former minister,
Susan Shabangu, was appointed to a ministerial advisory committee. In January 2020, the opposition DA called for the
Public Service Commission to investigate Sisulu's appointment of two other ANC affiliates – Menzi Simelane and former spy
Mo Shaik – as special advisers; Shaik resigned in the ensuing controversy. ANC donor Jurgen Kögl was also a special adviser to Sisulu; and another adviser, Mphumzi Mdekazi, was accused by the DA of inflating his travel expenses, as well as of being a dictatorial presence in the department. More seriously, the DA's
Emma Powell alleged that Sisulu had made improper appointments to her department's new National Rapid Response Task Team, which Powell claimed was staffed mostly with Sisulu's political allies.
Tourism: 2021–2023 Sisulu remained in the Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Ministry for just over two years before Ramaphosa reversed the merger of those portfolios in an August 2021 reshuffle. In the same reshuffle, he appointed Sisulu to replace
Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane as
Minister of Tourism. This was regarded as a substantial demotion for Sisulu. The most prominent initiative under her leadership was a R1-billion proposal for SA Tourism to sponsor
Tottenham Hotspur; the proposal led to a clash between Sisulu and Parliament's
Portfolio Committee on Tourism.
Second presidential campaign By the time of the August 2021 reshuffle, Sisulu was believed to be preparing to challenge Ramaphosa for the ANC presidency at the party's next conference. In January 2022, in what was widely viewed as the inauguration of her campaign, she published an opinion piece on
IOL entitled, "Hi
Mzansi, have we seen justice?" The piece questioned the value to post-apartheid South Africa of
constitutionalism and the
rule of law, suggesting that these institutions neglected "African value systems" and concealed a lack of post-apartheid economic transformation. In a particularly controversial passage that some commentators described as an attack on
the judiciary, she described some senior black judges as "mentally colonised". The Acting
Chief Justice,
Raymond Zondo, held a rare press briefing to respond to and reject Sisulu's remarks, characterising them as an unsubstantiated "insult" to "all African judges". During the ensuing controversy, the
Presidency said that Sisulu had been called to a meeting with President Ramaphosa at which she had been admonished and had agreed to retract her remarks about the judiciary. However, in what the
Daily Maverick called "a show of unprecedented defiance from a Cabinet minister", Sisulu released her own statement disputing the Presidency's account and asserting that "I stand by what I penned". Some observers speculated that Sisulu was attempting to provoke Ramaphosa into sacking her from the cabinet so that she could instigate a backlash against him. In subsequent months, she continued to argue publicly for "reform" to the
Constitution, and she argued that her original article had been misunderstood or deliberately misinterpreted. Despite this early stir, Sisulu's presidential campaign did not receive sufficient support from local ANC branches to appear on the ballot paper. At the conclusion of nominations in November 2022, she was nominated by only 66 branches, as compared to Ramaphosa's 2,037 and
Zweli Mkhize's 916. When the
55th National Conference began the following month, a delegate nominated her from the floor of the plenary to stand for the position of ANC treasurer-general; she accepted the nomination, but it failed to meet the requisite threshold of support from delegates. Thus Sisulu stood only as an ordinary candidate for re-election to the National Executive Committee, which she won comfortably; she was the 52nd-most popular candidate of the 80 ordinary members elected. She was not elected to return to the National Working Committee.
Departure In his next cabinet reshuffle on 6 March 2023, Ramaphosa sacked Sisulu from the cabinet, appointing
Patricia de Lille to replace her as Minister of Tourism. Sisulu announced soon afterwards that she would not serve as an ordinary Member of Parliament but would instead resign from the National Assembly. She left her seat on 15 March. She told the media that she looked forward to spending more time engaging in
world politics. == Personal life ==