Dali Mpofu

His term coincided with the prologue to and aftermath of the ANC's 52nd National Conference, which removed President Thabo Mbeki from the ANC presidency and replaced him with Jacob Zuma.

The SABC was thought to be caught up in the ANC's internal factional politics.

Daluxolo Christopher Mpofu (born 1962) is a South African lawyer, politician, and former businessman who was the National Chairperson of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) from 2014 to 2019.

Mpofu was born in 1962 in Duncan Village outside East London in the former Cape Province.

His mother, Nosebenzile Doris, was a domestic worker.

In his account, he became active in the anti-apartheid movement around the time of the 1976 Soweto uprising and subsequently became a "radical".

At the age of 17, he was detained for his political activities – then as a member of the Congress of South African Students – and was charged with sabotage and arson.

In addition, he later said that he had joined the African National Congress (ANC) underground in 1980.

After his acquittal in April 1981, he took up work as a spot-welder at a Mercedes-Benz factory, where he organised on behalf of the South African Allied Workers' Union.

By 1986, Mpofu was a student at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), where he was president of the Congress-aligned Black Students' Society – according to him, he won the position in a contest against Black Consciousness activist Xolela Mangcu.

In 1986 he was detained without trial at John Vorster Square.

In 1987, Mpofu worked in Kathleen Satchwell's attorney offices, and he completed his BProc at Wits in 1988.

Mpofu worked for a year in the Social Welfare Department of the ANC, which was unbanned by the apartheid government in 1990.

In that capacity he served under Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the ANC's head of social welfare.

In addition, along with George Bizos and others, he served on the legal team that represented Madikizela-Mandela when she was prosecuted for her alleged involvement in the murder of Stompie Seipei.

By 1991, City Press had reported on rumours that Madikizela-Mandela had an affair with Mpofu while her husband, political prisoner Nelson Mandela, was on Robben Island.

It was also widely rumoured that the affair continued after Mandela's release.

In 1992 he was elected as publicity secretary for the Johannesburg branch of the ANC Youth League.

In May 1992, both Mpofu and Madikizela-Mandela were sacked from their ANC positions amid reports that the party was investigating fraud charges against them; an ANC document leaked to the press said that Madikizela-Mandela was accused of using "ANC money to live it up with her alleged lover, lawyer Dali Mpofu".

Mpofu instituted wrongful dismissal charges against the ANC; both he and Madikizela-Mandela denied the affair and fraud allegations.

In June 1992, national and international media printed a letter that Madikizela-Mandela had apparently written to Mpofu in March 1992; in the letter, she alluded heavily to their affair and moreover appeared to admit that she had given Mpofu about R160,000 (then equivalent to roughly £30,000) from the ANC's coffers.

Paul Erasmus of the South African Police later said that the police's Security Branch had leaked rumours of the affair to the media as part of a so-called Stratcom operation intended to discredit Madikizela-Mandela and the ANC.

Mpofu did not ultimately pursue his wrongful dismissal lawsuit.

Also in 1992, Mpofu completed an LLB at Wits, and the following year he was admitted as an advocate of the High Court of South Africa and as a member of the Johannesburg Bar.

Mpofu was admitted as an advocate of the High Court in 1993 and was awarded senior counsel status in 2014.

He is known for taking on politically sensitive cases: among other clients, he has represented striking mineworkers at the Marikana Commission, Tom Moyane at the Zondo Commission, and Busisiwe Mkhwebane at the Section 194 Enquiry; since 2021, he has been lead counsel for former President Jacob Zuma in his corruption trial.

He practiced law at the Department of Justice and, from 1996 to 1997, as a trainee international advocacy teacher at Gray's Inn in London.

After a brief stint as an acting judge in the Labour Court of South Africa in 2000, he worked as executive director for corporate affairs at Altron Group, an ICT company, from 2000 to 2005.

He also acquired a number of business interests during that period, including through black economic empowerment deals.

In June 2005, Mpofu was appointed chief executive officer of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), South Africa's public broadcaster.

As early as October 2006, there were media reports that Mpofu and Zikalala had clashed after Zikalala sought to restrict coverage that he thought was critical of Mbeki.

Early in his tenure at the SABC, in September 2007, Mpofu controversially announced that the SABC would sever ties with the South African National Editors' Forum over the forum's response to a series of critical reports about Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

In addition, Business Day later pointed out that, during Mpofu's tenure, the SABC required several large bail-outs from the central government.

However, the bulk of Mpofu's tenure was dominated by his battles with the SABC board and with Snuki Zikalala, the SABC's head of news and current affairs.

Until 2008, he served simultaneously as chairman of the board at Boxing South Africa; as of 2009, he also retained a directorship at Deutsche Securities South Africa and shares in the Elephant Consortium, which had a 6.7% stake in Telkom.

In April 2008, Mpofu said publicly that the SABC was facing, and resisting, "political pressure", though he did not say from whom.

On 6 May, Mpofu suspended Zikalala pending the outcome of a disciplinary inquiry.

The next day, the SABC board announced that it viewed Zikalala's suspension as invalid and that it had, in turn, suspended Mpofu pending the outcome of a disciplinary inquiry.

Formerly a longstanding member of the African National Congress, Mpofu defected to the EFF in 2013.

He served on the Judicial Service Commission from 2017 to 2022 and formerly served as chief executive officer of the South African Broadcasting Corporation from 2005 to 2009.