Siboniso Armstrong Duma is a South African politician who is the provincial chairperson of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

(ANC) in

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is loca ...

. He is also

Member of the Executive Council In South Africa, the Executive Council of a province is the cabinet of the provincial government. The Executive Council consists of the Premier and five to ten other members,'' Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996'', Chapter 6: "P ...

(MEC) for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs in the KwaZulu-Natal government. Duma rose to political prominence in the

ANC Youth League The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) is the youth wing of the African National Congress (ANC). As set out in its constitution, the ANC Youth League is led by a National Executive Committee (NEC) and a National Working Committee (NW ...

of KwaZulu-Natal. He has served in the

KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature The KwaZulu-Natal Legislature is the primary legislative body of the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. It is unicameral in its composition and elects the premier and the provincial cabinet from among the leading party or coalition members ...

since 2014 and was the legislature's Chair of Chairs until shortly after his election as ANC provincial chairperson in mid-2022, when he was appointed to the Executive Council of newly elected Premier

Nomusa Dube-Ncube Nomusa Dube-Ncube is a South African politician and former diplomat who has been the 9th Premier of KwaZulu-Natal since August 2022. A member of the African National Congress, she is the first woman to hold the office. Previously, she served as ...

Early life

Duma grew up in Mtwalume on the South Coast of what is now KwaZulu-Natal province. His mother was a

domestic worker A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...

and his father, a construction worker in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

, died when he was a child. He is one of four siblings. He became politically active while at the

University of KwaZulu-Natal The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is a university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville ...

, where he joined the

(ANC) Youth League (ANCYL).

Early political career

Duma was the deputy chairperson of the ANC's George Mbhele local branch on the Lower South Coast between 2004 and 2006. In May 2010, he was elected deputy provincial secretary of the ANCYL's KwaZulu-Natal branch. Shortly after being elected, the branch's leadership announced that it would support controversial politician

Julius Malema Julius Sello Malema (born 3 March 1981) is a South African politician and activist who is a Member of Parliament and the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a left-wing party which he founded in 2013. He was formerly the President of ...

in his bid for re-election as national president of the league. However, according to the ''

Daily Maverick ''Daily Maverick'' is a South African daily online publication and weekly print newspaper, with offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Its readership is spread across South Africa and the world, with approximately 8 million readers per month. I ...

'', the KwaZulu-Natal ANCYL leadership fell out with the Malema-led national ANCYL leadership when the latter, but not the former, retracted its support for incumbent ANC president

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan name Msholozi, and was a former anti-apart ...

. In October 2011, at a meeting between the national and provincial ANCYL leaders, Duma alleged that the national leadership was " factionalist" and was targeting the KwaZulu-Natal ANCYL because of its support for Zuma. The following week, the ANCYL national leadership announced that it had disbanded the leadership committee of the KwaZulu-Natal ANCYL, prematurely ending the terms of Duma and other officials. ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu specifically singled out Duma's "factionalist" comment as an instance in which the KwaZulu-Natal leadership had shown "disregard of organisational process and due political conduct". Shivambu also said that the national ANCYL planned to charge Duma and others for "active involvement in mobilising members... to defy and disregard the decisions" of the Malema-led national leadership.

Provincial government

In the 2014 general election, Duma was elected to the

as an ANC representative. He was re-elected to another term in the provincial legislature in 2019. In June 2019, he was appointed Chair of Committees ("Chair of Chairs") in the legislature.

ANC Provincial Chairperson

By 2022, Duma was a member of the Provincial Executive Committee of the ANC's KwaZulu-Natal provincial branch. In May of that year, he emerged as a possible candidate for provincial chairperson of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal. At that time, the frontrunners for the chairmanship appeared to be

and the incumbent,

Sihle Zikalala Sihle Zikalala (born 6 August 1973) is a South African politician from KwaZulu-Natal who has been a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa since 2023, representing the African National Congress. Before his redeployment to the National ...

. However, Duma was nominated for the position by the ANC's John Mchunu local branch in eThekwini and received the support of the eThekwini regional branch. He campaigned at the head of a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

of candidates who represented the so-called "Taliban" faction, which was sympathetic to former party president Jacob Zuma. Duma later explained that the name alluded to his slate's status as "underdogs" and to "the resilience of the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pas ...

in fighting against the United States all these years". At the ANC's provincial conference on 23 July 2022, Duma comfortably defeated Zikalala in the election for provincial chairperson, winning 930 votes to Zikalala's 665. Candidates linked to the Taliban faction made a clean sweep of all the provincial leadership positions contested at the conference. Duma's election was described as a "big blow" to the re-election campaign of current party president

Cyril Ramaphosa Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa (born 17 November 1952) is a South African businessman and politician who is currently serving as the fifth democratically elected president of South Africa. Formerly an anti-apartheid activist, trade union leader, and ...

ahead of the party's 55th National Conference in December 2022.

Member of the Executive Council

After his election, Duma said that he did not intend to use his victory to remove Zikalala from the office of the

Premier of KwaZulu-Natal The Premier of KwaZulu-Natal is the head of government of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The current Premier of KwaZulu-Natal i''s'' Nomusa Dube-Ncube, a member of the African National Congress. She is the first elected woman to ass ...

. Nonetheless, on 5 August 2022, Zikalala resigned as premier and was replaced by

. On 11 August, in a

cabinet reshuffle A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the Head of State changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in parliam ...

by Dube-Ncube, Duma was appointed as the

(MEC) for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government.

Personal life

Duma is married and has four children. He is

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Duma, Siboniso Living people Zulu people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) African National Congress politicians Members of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature