David Mahlobo | |
|---|---|
| Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation | |
| Assumed office 5 August 2021 Serving with Dikeledi Magadzi (2021–2024) and Sello Seitlholo (since 2024) | |
| President | Cyril Ramaphosa |
| Minister | Senzo Mchunu Pemmy Majodina |
| Preceded by | Himself |
| Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation | |
| In office 29 May 2019 – 5 August 2021 Serving with Pam Tshwete | |
| President | Cyril Ramaphosa |
| Minister | Lindiwe Sisulu |
| Preceded by | Pam Tshwete (for Water and Sanitation) |
| Succeeded by | Himself (for Water and Sanitation) |
| Minister of Energy | |
| In office 17 October 2017 – 26 February 2018 | |
| President | Jacob Zuma |
| Deputy | Thembi Majola |
| Preceded by | Mmamoloko Kubayi |
| Succeeded by | Jeff Radebe |
| Minister of State Security | |
| In office 25 May 2014 – 17 October 2017 | |
| President | Jacob Zuma |
| Deputy | Ellen Molekane |
| Preceded by | Siyabonga Cwele |
| Succeeded by | Bongani Bongo |
| Member of the National Assembly | |
| Assumed office 21 May 2014 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Mbangiseni David Mahlobo 14 January 1972 Piet Retief, Transvaal South Africa |
| Political party | African National Congress |
| Parent |
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| Alma mater | University of Zululand |
Mbangiseni David Mahlobo (born 14 January 1972) is a South African politician who has served as the Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation since August 2021. He has been responsible for the water and sanitation portfolio since May 2019, initially as Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation. A member of the National Assembly since May 2014, he was formerly the Minister of State Security from May 2014 to October 2017 and the Minister of Energy from October 2017 to February 2018.
Although he was born in Mpumalanga, Mahlobo was primarily educated in KwaZulu-Natal, where he rose to political prominence as a student activist in the early post-apartheid period. Between 2000 and 2014, he worked in the civil service; a scientist by training, he began his career in the water quality unit of the Mpumalanga provincial government before a stint in the national Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and a stint, between 2009 and 2014, as director-general of the Mpumalanga Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. In the latter capacity, he became reputed as an ally of Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza, whom some credited for subsequent Mahlobo's political rise.
After his election to the ANC National Executive Committee in December 2012, Mahlobo was appointed to President Jacob Zuma's second cabinet. Infamous for his personal intimacy with Zuma, Mahlobo was a controversial member of the cabinet; the Zondo Commission later implicated him in the capture of the State Security Agency as State Security Minister, and he was known as Energy Minister for his support for the proposed Russian nuclear deal.
After Zuma was deposed in February 2018, Mahlobo was sacked from the cabinet by newly elected President Cyril Ramaphosa, but he returned to the national executive as a deputy minister after the 2019 general election. He was re-elected to his third consecutive term in the ANC National Executive Committee in December 2022, and he was elected to a five-year term in the ANC National Working Committee in January 2023.