Mxolisi Dukwana

Mxolisi Abraham Dukwana (born 14 September 1964) is a South African politician who has been the seventh Premier of the Free State since February 2023.

He has also served as Provincial Chairperson of the Free State branch of his political party, the African National Congress (ANC), since January 2023.

Prior to his election as Premier, he served in the Free State Executive Council as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs since October 2021.

Dukwana was born on 14 September 1964 in Odendaalsrus in the former Orange Free State (present-day Free State Province).

He trained as a teacher in Kroonstad and taught at a secondary school in Odendaalsrus from 1986 to 1993.

In the same period, he was active in the South African Youth Congress, an anti-apartheid organisation.

In 1994, he was appointed as a Commissioner for the post-apartheid government's Reconstruction and Development Programme.

A teacher by training, Dukwana entered provincial government as MEC for Education from 1996 to 1998.

Between 1996 and 1998, he sat in the Free State Executive Council as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Education.

Between 1998 and 2008, he held several positions in the Free State Provincial Legislature, where he was Majority Chief Whip, Deputy Speaker, and Speaker.

After that, he served his political party, the African National Congress (ANC), as an ordinary Member of the Free State Provincial Legislature, first as Majority Chief Whip from 1998 to 1999 and then as Deputy Speaker from 1999 to 2001.

In 2001, he was elected Speaker of the Free State Provincial Legislature.

Over the same period he rose through the provincial ANC, ultimately serving as Provincial Treasurer of the ANC in the Free State from 2005 to 2012.

In June 2005, at a party elective conference, Dukwana was elected Provincial Treasurer of the ANC's Free State branch, serving under Ace Magashule, the longstanding ANC Provincial Chairperson.

In 2008, he was returned to the Executive Council by Premier Beatrice Marshoff, under whom he served as MEC for Public Safety and Security in 2008 and MEC for Economic Development, Tourism, and Environmental Affairs from 2008 to 2009.

He was retained in the latter portfolio by Marshoff's successor, Ace Magashule.

While in that party office, he continued to serve as Speaker of the provincial legislature, until in January 2008 he was returned to the Executive Council by Beatrice Marshoff, then the Premier of the Free State.

In a cabinet reshuffle, Marshoff appointed him MEC for Public Safety and Security.

Later that year, in July 2008, Dukwana was re-elected unopposed as ANC Provincial Treasurer.

Three months later, in another cabinet reshuffle in October, Marshoff moved him to the Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs portfolio of the Executive Council.

In February 2009, he additionally became acting acting MEC for Education, after the incumbent, Casca Mokitlane, resigned in order to defect from the ANC to the Congress of the People.

Pursuant to the general election in May 2009, Ace Magashule succeeded Marshoff as Premier of the Free State.

Dukwana was retained as MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs in Magashule's new Executive Council.

At this time, Dukwana was viewed as a close political ally of Magashule and as Magashule's possible successor.

In February 2012, however, Magashule fired Dukwana; later the same year, Dukwana attempted unsuccessfully to unseat Magashule as ANC Provincial Chairperson.

He subsequently retreated from frontline politics until May 2021, when he was appointed the interim convenor of the ANC's Free State branch.

In September of that year, he was sworn back into the Free State Provincial Legislature, and, in early October, Premier Sisi Ntombela appointed him as MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

In January 2023, Dukwana narrowly beat Ntombela to be elected ANC Provincial Chairperson, and he replaced her as Premier the following month.

However, their relationship had deteriorated by 2012: in February of that year, Magashule fired Dukwana from the Executive Council.

The opposition Democratic Alliance alleged that Magashule had made the move because he viewed Dukwana as a political threat, rather than because of his performance as an MEC.

Dukwana's removal from the Executive Council coincided with his final months in his party office as ANC Provincial Treasurer.

Instead of seeking re-election to that office, he launched a campaign to oust Magashule from the party chairmanship.

By April 2012, the Mail & Guardian identified him as the centre of a provincial ANC faction known as the "Regime Change Group", which lobbied for Dukwana's election as ANC Provincial Chairperson.

Other members of the group reportedly included (at least initially) Sibongile Besani, who was the outgoing ANC Provincial Secretary, as well as leaders of the Free State's ANC Youth League.

The group argued that Magashule, during his tenure as ANC leader and Premier, had presided over a corrupt administration and promoted his own loyalists over competent politicians.

However, when the ANC's provincial elective conference opened in June 2012, Dukwana announced that he and his supporters would boycott the conference.

He alleged that the election had been rigged to favour Magashule.

He also suggested that the national leadership of the ANC had conspired with Magashule to manipulate the electoral process in order to ensure that the Free State ANC elected a sympathetic provincial leadership: Dukwana's faction was reported to favour ANC Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, who would stand for the ANC presidency in December 2012, while Magashule was a strong supporter of incumbent ANC President Jacob Zuma.

Six years after he fired Dukwana, Magashule left provincial government to become national ANC Secretary-General and was succeeded in the Premier's office by Sisi Ntombela.

Dukwana remained an outspoken critic of Magashule – indeed, in 2021, the Mail & Guardian called him Magashule's "arch-nemesis".