Bathabile Dlamini

Bathabile Dlamini
Dlamini (second from left) meets Manmohan Singh
6th President of the African National Congress Women's League
In office 7 August 2015 – April 2022
Deputy	Sisi Ntombela
Preceded by	Angie Motshekga
Succeeded by	Sisisi Tolashe
Minister in the Presidency for Women
In office 27 February 2018 – 29 May 2019
President	Cyril Ramaphosa
Preceded by	Susan Shabangu
Succeeded by	Maite Nkoana-Mashabane
Minister of Social Development
In office 1 November 2010 – 27 February 2018
President	Jacob Zuma Cyril Ramaphosa
Preceded by	Edna Molewa
Succeeded by	Susan Shabangu
Personal details
Born	Bathabile Olive Dlamini (1962-09-10) 10 September 1962 (age 61) Nquthu, Natal South Africa
Citizenship	South Africa
Political party	African National Congress
Alma mater	University of Zululand

Bathabile Dlamini (born 10 September 1962) is a South African politician who was the President of the African National Congress (ANC) Women's League from 2015 to 2022. She was previously the Minister in the Presidency for Women from 2018 to 2019 and the Minister of Social Development from 2010 to 2018.

A social worker by training, Dlamini rose to national political prominence in the ANC Women's League, where she was Secretary General from 1998 to 2008. She was also a Member of Parliament between 1994 and 2004. In 2006, she was convicted of having defrauded Parliament in the Travelgate scandal. She was first elected to the ANC National Executive Committee in 2007 and became an outspoken supporter of former President Jacob Zuma, who appointed her to his cabinet. Although she served briefly as Minister for Women under Zuma's successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, she was removed from the cabinet after the May 2019 general election and resigned from the National Assembly the following month.

As Social Development Minister, Dlamini was a central figure in the 2017 social grants crisis which nearly disabled the South African Social Security Agency and social welfare system. The Constitutional Court and an official inquiry into her conduct both concluded that her personal negligence had contributed to the crisis. In April 2022, she was additionally convicted of perjury for having lied under oath during the inquiry. In the same month, she was removed as President of the ANC Women's League when the ANC disbanded the league's leadership corps on the grounds that it had exceeded its five-year term. Her perjury conviction also disqualified her from standing for election to a fourth five-year term on the ANC National Executive Committee.