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Cape Town – The Western Cape MP who called for the #ZumaMustFall banner to be burnt down in Cape Town last year is now in President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet.
Bongani Mkongi was in January 2016 forced to apologise after he angered anti-Zuma campaigners, as well as various political parties.
He was also reported to Parliament’s ethics committee.
Now, he has been appointed to the police ministry as Fikile Mbalula’s deputy, replacing Maggie Sotyu.
After a big #ZumaMustFall banner was erected in the Cape Town CBD, Mkongi was one of the first ANC leaders to object to it.
"Join the ANC in Cape Town today at 14h00 to burn down the billboard saying 'ZumaMustFall'. The billboard must not be lifted down, but, burnt down," he said on his Facebook page at the time.
One person commented: "We can't burn it down as it is pasted against an apartment block, people inside the apartment will burn to death. We can remove it though."
Mkongi responded with: "They must burn to death as it is life for them to keep it that way."
He later apologised and said this was an error of judgement.
Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba
Meanwhile, NEC member and Western Cape caretaker Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba has been appointed as the new deputy minister of public service and administration.
Zuma announced a reshuffle of his Cabinet on Thursday night, ending weeks of speculation over his sacking of ministers.
Letsatsi-Duba also chairs the public enterprises committee in Parliament.
She was sent to the Western Cape to help clean up when provincial chairperson Marius Fransman and secretary Faiez Jacobs were suspended.
She was deployed to the office of the chairperson in the Western Cape.
The fairly unknown Letsatsi-Duba joined the ANC in the 1980s, and was a member of uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), according to her profile.
Born and raised in Gauteng, the new minister has experience in communications, having been a media liaison officer in the ANC in the early 1990s.
In 2007, she was elected to serve on Limpopo's provincial executive committee and as provincial treasurer of the ANC in 2008.
Earlier on Thursday, Zuma convened a meeting of the ANC’s top six, which preceded the announcement.
