Baleka Mbete

Baleka Mbete
Mbete in 2016
5th Deputy President of South Africa
In office 25 September 2008 – 9 May 2009
President	Kgalema Motlanthe
Preceded by	Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
Succeeded by	Kgalema Motlanthe
2nd and 5th Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa
In office 21 May 2014 – 21 May 2019
President	Jacob Zuma Cyril Ramaphosa
Deputy	Lechesa Tsenoli
Preceded by	Max Sisulu
Succeeded by	Thandi Modise
In office 12 July 2004 – 25 September 2008
President	Thabo Mbeki
Deputy	Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde
Preceded by	Frene Ginwala
Succeeded by	Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde
Other legislative offices Member of the National Assembly In office 9 May 1994 – 9 May 2009 In office 21 May 2014 – 7 May 2019 Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly In office May 1996 – April 2004 President Nelson Mandela Thabo Mbeki Speaker Frene Ginwala Preceded by Bhadra Ranchod Succeeded by Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde
Party offices National Chairperson of the African National Congress In office 18 December 2007 – 18 December 2017 President Jacob Zuma Preceded by Mosiuoa Lekota Succeeded by Gwede Mantashe Secretary-General of the African National Congress Women's League In office April 1991 – December 1993 President Gertrude Shope Succeeded by Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
Personal details
Born	(1949-09-24) 24 September 1949 (age 74) Clermont, Durban Natal, Union of South Africa
Political party	African National Congress
Spouses	Nape Khomo ​ (m. 2016)​ Keorapetse Kgositsile ​ ​ (m. 1978; div. 1992)​
Education	Inanda Seminary School Lovedale Teachers' College

Baleka Mbete (born 24 September 1949) is a South African politician who was the Deputy President of South Africa from September 2008 to May 2009. She was also the Speaker of the National Assembly for two non-consecutive terms from 2004 to 2008 and from 2014 to 2019. She also served as Deputy Speaker between 1996 and 2004.^[1] A member of the African National Congress (ANC), she was first elected to the National Assembly in 1994 and stepped down from her seat in 2019.

Born in KwaZulu-Natal, Mbete is a teacher by training and a former anti-apartheid activist, initially through the Black Consciousness Movement. Between 1976 and 1990, she was stationed with the ANC in exile outside South Africa; during this period, she was also a prominent cultural activist as a poet and the head of the Medu Art Ensemble. Upon her return to South Africa, she represented the ANC at the negotiations to end apartheid and was a central figure in the relaunch of the ANC Women's League, serving as the league's secretary-general from 1991 to 1993.

Mbete was elected to the National Assembly in the first post-apartheid elections in 1994 and served in her seat until 2019, with the exception of a hiatus from 2009 to 2014. Her rise through the institution began in 1996, when she was elected as Deputy Speaker, and continued during the third democratic Parliament, when she succeeded Frene Ginwala as the second Speaker. In the last year of the third Parliament, she ascended to the Deputy Presidency during the reshuffle occasioned by the resignation of President Thabo Mbeki in September 2008; she held the office during the brief term of Mbeki's successor, President Kgalema Motlanthe.

Although she declined to return to Parliament after the 2009 general election, Mbete returned in May 2014 in her former office as Speaker of the National Assembly. She left her parliamentary seat again after the 2019 general election, though she remained active in the ANC Women's League.

A member of the ANC since 1976, Mbete served as the party's National Chairperson from December 2007 to December 2017 during Jacob Zuma's presidency. She was a member of the ANC National Executive Committee from 1994 to 2022.