Member of Parliament In 1994 Mlambo-Ngcuka became a
Member of Parliament,
chairing the Public Service Portfolio Committee. She was deputy minister in the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) from 1996 until 1999, during which time she also was a founding member of the Guguletu Community Development Corporation. From 1997 she served as member of the national executive committee of the
African National Congress (ANC), as well as being the provincial vice-chairperson of the ANC
Western Cape. Mlambo-Ngcuka was
Minister of Minerals and Energy from June 1999 to June 2005. During this time she was a driving force behind the government's policy of creating New Order Mining Rights which ended a period where big mining firms which controlled nearly all South Africa's minerals reserves, were able to hold mining rights to them in perpetuity. Mlambo-Ngcuka's policy of 'use it or lose it' created a situation where mining rights became available to a much broader segment of the population including many previously disadvantaged black people. She served as acting Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology from February 2004 to April 2004.
Deputy President School of Public Policy and Management on Sino-South African relations in 2007. On 22 June 2005, President
Thabo Mbeki appointed her as deputy president of South Africa, after he relieved
Jacob Zuma of the post the week before. Mlambo-Ngcuka's husband, Bulelani Ngcuka, was head of South Africa's National Directorate of Public Prosecutions at the time and charged with fighting organised crime. It was the NDPP which had determined that criminal charges should be brought against Zuma. It is Zuma's position that the charges against him are politically motivated. Soon after her appointment she was booed by Zuma supporters at a rally in KwaZulu-Natal, an incident that was not covered by the public broadcaster, the
SABC, which led to accusations of bias. In August 2005, commenting on the slow pace of the Willing Buyer Willing Seller land reform program in
South Africa, she stated that
South Africa could learn about
land reform from
Zimbabwe. This comment caused alarm and was condemned by the parliamentary opposition. In December 2007, she lost her position on the ANC's
National Executive Committee after party delegates elected a pro-Zuma slate. President Mbeki resigned in September 2008 after the National Executive Committee, objecting to Mbeki's alleged role in Jacob Zuma's prosecution for criminal activities, decided to recall him. On 23 September, in the wake of this, most of the South African cabinet resigned, Mlambo-Ngcuka among them. Mlambo-Ngcuka joined
COPE in late February 2009, but shortly after rejoined the ANC. ==Executive Director of UN Women==