Enoch Godongwana

Enoch Godongwana (born 9 June 1957) is a South African politician and former trade unionist who is currently serving as the Minister of Finance since August 2021.

He is a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC).

Godongwana was born on 9 June 1957 in Cala in the former Cape Province, now part of the Eastern Cape.

Godongwana began his political career in the trade union movement, beginning as a shop steward for the Metal and Allied Workers' Union in 1979 and rising through the ranks to become an organiser for the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) between 1983 and 1989.

He was Numsa's regional secretary from 1990 until 1993, when he was elected to succeed Moses Mayekiso as its national general secretary.

At the same time, he was a member of the executive committee of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) from 1992 to 1997, as well as the chairperson of Cosatu's economic development task force.

He was also a founding member of the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) and represented labour during the drafting of post-apartheid labour legislation, including the Labour Relations Act.

The Financial Mail credited Godongwana for bringing Numsa, a notoriously militant and workerist union, "into the Cosatu fold", as well as for setting it up for the major expansion in membership that it subsequently underwent.

Born in the Eastern Cape, Godongwana rose to political prominence as the general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers between 1993 and 1997.

After that, from 1997 to 2004, he served in the Executive Council of the Eastern Cape as Member of the Executive Council for Finance.

He was first elected to the ANC National Executive Committee in December 1997, and he was the Deputy Provincial Chairperson of the ANC's Eastern Cape branch from 2003 to 2006 under Chairperson Makhenkesi Stofile.

He served as general secretary until 1997, when he stepped down and was succeeded by Mbuyi Ngwenda.

Godongwana left the union movement in 1997 to take office in the Executive Council of the Eastern Cape, appointed by Premier Makhenkesi Stofile as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Finance, Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism.

During his tenure in the provincial government, at the ANC's 50th National Conference in December 1997, Godongwana was elected for the first time to the party's National Executive Committee (NEC).

He matriculated at St John's College in Mthatha, and he completed an MSc in financial economics at the University of London in 1998.

Between 1998 and 2002, Godongwana instituted a "single government chequebook" in the provincial government, reducing the ability of other departments to pursue discretionary spending.

The measure led to improved audit outcomes and facilitated spending cutbacks.

He was re-elected to a second five-year term on the committee in December 2002.

Although his ties to the left wing of the Tripartite Alliance apparently put him at odds with the ANC's incumbent national leadership, he rose in stature in the Provincial Executive Committee of the ANC in the Eastern Cape.

The vote followed an earlier iteration of the election – with the same outcome – which had been held in 2002 but annulled and rerun at the request of the NEC.

On 26 April 2003, he was elected to succeed Stone Sizani as Deputy Provincial Chairperson of the Eastern Cape ANC, deputising Premier Stofile.

Godongwana won in a crowded field of candidates, receiving 177 votes against the 125 to Phumulo Masualle, 98 to Mandisi Mpahlwa, and 83 to Thobile Mhlahlo.

Premier Nosimo Balindlela sacked him from the Executive Council under controversial circumstances in September 2004.

After the April 2004 general election, his large portfolio was divided and he became MEC for Finance alone, now under Premier Nosimo Balindlela, with the rest of the portfolio given to new MEC Andre de Wet.

In the Executive Council and Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature, he represented the African National Congress (ANC), Cosatu's Tripartite Alliance partner.

On 6 September 2004, Premier Balindlela sacked Godongwana as MEC for Finance, replacing him with Billy Nel.

Balindlela's office said that his dismissal was related to "a probe into financial irregularities" in the provincial Department of Finance.

Godongwana remained an ordinary Member of the Provincial Legislature until November, when he resigned from his seat.

The reasons for Godongwana's dismissal remained unclear, and his departure created tensions in the provincial Tripartite Alliance.

However, the trio rejected Pillay's findings and mounted a court challenge, which succeeded in May 2005 when the Grahamstown High Court discarded the report on review.

He held the Deputy Provincial Chairperson position for a single term, stepping down in December 2006 to be succeeded by Mbulelo Sogoni.

Meanwhile, he was re-elected to the ANC NEC at the 52nd National Conference in Polokwane in December 2007.

In 2008, media published a leaked copy of the report of the three-person Pillay Commission, chaired by Judge Ronnie Pillay, which had investigated financial irregularities in the administration of former Premier Stofile.

Pillay's report implicated Godongwana, Stofile, and Stone Sizani in maladministration and corruption in their respective departments.

Between May 2009 and January 2012, Godongwana was a deputy minister under the first cabinet of President Jacob Zuma.

He was Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises from 2009 to 2010 and Deputy Minister of Economic Development from 2010 to 2012.

After leaving the provincial government, he served as head of the Financial Sector Charter Council, while also managing various personal business interests; by 2009, he was a director of 24 different companies, including Denel and the Pan African Insurance Group.

He resigned from the latter position in January 2012 after a scandal involving one of his business interests, an investment company called Canyon Springs.

However, he remained a prominent figure as long-serving chairperson of the ANC National Executive Committee's subcommittee on economic transformation, and he was chairperson of the Development Bank of Southern Africa from 2019 to 2021.

He was appointed to the cabinet of President Cyril Ramaphosa on 5 August 2021.