Lungi Gcabashe

Born on 27 October 1960, Mnganga-Gcabashe was from KwaMashu in present-day KwaZulu-Natal province. During apartheid, she was active in the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Natal Organisation of Women, a UDF affiliate. After the African National Congress (ANC) was unbanned in 1990, she joined the interim leadership corps of local ANC and ANC Women's League (ANCWL) structures in KwaMashu. Shortly afterwards, she was recruited to work full-time in the ANC's political organising department, a job she held for several years until her resignation in mid-1997. By the end of 2008, she had succeeded Dlamini-Zuma as ANCWL Provincial Chairperson; her deputy was Dolly Shandu. In March 2012, Mnganga-Gcabashe stood for a second term as ANCWL Provincial Chairperson but lost in a tense contest with Celiwe Madlopha.''' by number of votes received, she was ranked ninth of the 20 candidates elected to the committee. Then, in December, delegates to the ANC's 53rd National Conference elected Mnganga-Gcabashe to her first five-year term on the party's National Executive Committee; by number of votes received, she was ranked 16th of 80 candidates elected, receiving 1,695 votes from the roughly 4,500 voting delegates. == National Assembly: 2014–2025 ==

Fifth Parliament: 2014–2019 In the 2014 general election, Mnganga-Gcabashe was elected to an ANC seat in the National Assembly, the lower house of the South African Parliament; she was ranked fourth on the ANC's regional party list for KwaZulu-Natal. She served a single term in Parliament, departing after the next general election in 2019. the ANC caucus formally elected her to that position on 25 October. She succeeded Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, who had left the committee to become Deputy Minister of Public Service and Administration, Mnganga-Gcabashe was not re-elected to the ANC National Executive Committee in 2017, but she retained the parliamentary chairmanship until 2019, when she did not seek re-election to Parliament. She was returned to a second five-year term on the ANC's National Executive Committee at the party's 55th National Conference in December 2022; by popularity, she was ranked 64th of the 80 candidates elected, receiving 1,091 votes across the 4,029 ballots cast in total. In July 2023, the ANCWL convened its first elective conference since 2015. Mnganga-Gcabashe received 325 nominations from league branches for the position of ANCWL Deputy President, the second highest amount of branch nominations behind the late Tina Joemat-Pettersson, who received 1,061 nominations. On 23 July, Mnganga-Gcabashe was named as the new ANCWL Deputy President; she received 1,661 votes while her competitors for the position, Bernice Swarts and Sylvia Lucas, received 1,190 and 62 votes, respectively. Seventh Parliament: 2024–2025 In the May 2024 general election, Mnganga-Gcabashe was elected to return to the National Assembly, ranked 60th on the ANC's national party list. == Personal life and death ==

Mnganga-Gcabashe was formerly married to Sipho Gcabashe, a businessman and ANC politician. She died in office on 17 May 2025, at the age of 64. == References ==