Cassel Mathale

The league had turned against Moloto when Moloto supported incumbent ANC President Thabo Mbeki in his succession battle with ANC Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who ultimately ousted Mbeki at the ANC's 52nd National Conference.

Cassel Mathale (born 23 January 1961) is a South African politician who was the third Premier of Limpopo between March 2009 and July 2013.

Cassel Charlie Mathale was born on 23 January 1961 in Tzaneen outside Polokwane in what was then the Northern Transvaal, now Limpopo province.

He matriculated at Phangasasa High School in Tzaneen and earned a Bachelor's degree in social sciences from the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Mathale was politically active in anti-apartheid organisations in the Northern Transvaal, including local and regional branches of the Azanian Students Organisation, the Muhlava Youth Congress and Northern Transvaal Youth Congress, the Tzaneen Education Crisis Committee, and, once it had been established, the South African Students Congress.

He was a member of the regional executive committee of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Northern Transvaal from 1986 to 1990 and was president of the South African Youth Congress in Northern Transvaal in 1990.

He was detained between 1986 and 1989 under the Terrorism Act.

Additionally, in 1990, Mathale was appointed as a member of its interim leadership core of the Northern Transvaal branch of the African National Congress (ANC), which had recently been unbanned by the apartheid government and was re-establishing its structures inside South Africa.

Subsequently he sat on the regional executive committee of the ANC in Northern Transvaal from 1990 to 1991 and again from 1993 to 1996.

In South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, Mathale was elected as a Member of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature and also became Commissioner for Youth Affairs in the provincial government.

He served on the Provincial Executive Committee of the Limpopo ANC between 1994 and 1997.

He left the provincial legislature and government in 1996, and the ANC provincial executive in 1997, but in 1996 was elected to a two-year term as a member of the ANC Youth League's National Executive Committee.

In subsequent years he held a variety of positions in ANC structures in Limpopo: he was regional secretary for the ANC's North East Limpopo region from 1998 to 2000, a member of the regional executive committee of the ANC's Mopani region in 2000, and a member of the branch executive committee at a local ANC branch in Nkowankowa from 2001 to 2002.

He served as Provincial Secretary of the ANC in Limpopo from 2002 to 2008, when he was elected the party's Provincial Chairperson.

In 2002, Mathale was elected Provincial Secretary of the ANC in Limpopo, one of the most senior leadership positions in the provincial party.

Although it was a full-time position based at ANC headquarters, the Mail & Guardian observed that Mathale was simultaneously a "well-known entrepreneur" in Limpopo, with directorships in at least ten companies in the mining, construction, farming, and hospitality sectors.

At the same time, towards the end of his second term as Provincial Secretary, Mathale launched a bid to replace Sello Moloto as Provincial Chairperson of the ANC in Limpopo.

He was supported by the Limpopo branch of the ANC Youth League, which at that time was led by league provincial secretary Julius Malema.

Additionally, from December 2008 he was a Member of the Executive Council for Roads and Transport in the Limpopo provincial government under Premier Sello Moloto.

In early 2008, Mathale and Moloto's rivalry became highly divisive in the Limpopo ANC; their respective supporters clashed violently on several occasions.

The Limpopo ANC held its elective conference in July 2008 at the University of Venda and, on 17 July, it elected Mathale as Provincial Chairperson of the ANC in Limpopo.

Mathale beat Moloto by more than 200 votes.

Finally, in December 2008, Moloto appointed Mathale as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Roads and Transport, after the incumbent, Justice Piitso, resigned.

In addition, both as provincial secretary and as provincial chairperson, Mathale was an ex officio member of the ANC National Executive Committee.

When Moloto resigned in March 2009, Mathale became acting Premier and then was formally elected as Premier by the provincial legislature.

Two weeks later, the Mathale-led Provincial Executive Committee declined a request from the national ANC to nominate three people to stand as the ANC's candidate for Premier of Limpopo in the 2009 general election; instead, the committee submitted only one name, Mathale's. The provincial party also put Moloto, the incumbent Premier, under significant pressure, exhorting him to reshuffle the provincial executive and appoint Mathale to a senior government position.

In March 2009, Moloto resigned as Premier and defected from the ANC to the Congress of the People, a new pro-Mbeki breakaway party.

The Limpopo Executive Council appointed Mathale as acting Premier of Limpopo from 3 to 23 March 2009 while the provincial legislature prepared to select Moloto's successor.

Although there was some speculation that Maite Nkoana-Mashabane might be appointed Premier instead of Mathale, he was formally sworn in to the office on 24 March.

Pursuant to the general election in May that year, he was elected to a full term as Premier.

Though re-elected as ANC Provincial Chairperson in December 2011, Mathale lost the position when the ANC National Executive Committee disbanded the ANC Provincial Executive Committee in March 2013, amid a scandal which appeared to implicate Mathale and his close ally Julius Malema in improper conduct.

Several months later, the national ANC withdrew its support for Mathale's premiership and asked him to resign.

He was also re-elected as ANC Provincial Chairperson in December 2011, despite growing opposition to his leadership of the province.

Discontent rested partly with the Limpopo provincial branches of the ANC's partners in the Tripartite Alliance, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), which had publicly called for Mathale's resignation, accusing him of presiding over a corrupt administration.

At the same time, on some accounts, opposition to Mathale was linked to broader leadership struggles in the national ANC: Mathale remained an ally of Julius Malema, and together the pair were viewed as having turned against Zuma and as agitating for the ANC to depose Zuma at the ANC's 53rd National Conference, scheduled for December 2012.

He did so on 15 July 2013.

After his resignation from the Limpopo government in July 2013, Mathale was sworn in as a Member of the National Assembly.

He is currently the Deputy Minister of Police in the South African government and before that was Deputy Minister of Small Business Development from February 2018 to May 2019.

Formerly an anti-apartheid activist in the United Democratic Front, Mathale began his political career in the Limpopo provincial legislature and in the Limpopo branch of the African National Congress (ANC).

Several years into Mathale's tenure in Parliament, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed him Deputy Minister of Small Business Development in February 2018 and then Deputy Minister of Police in May 2019.