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Discover Pheli People , Places and Culture                                                                       History

                                                                                    DR









                                                                                                   GWEN


                                                                                     RAMOKGOPA


                                                                                     Career in the ANC

                                                                                     Provincial Executive Committee :
                                                                                     2010–2018
                                                                                     In May 2010, while still Tshwane
                                                                                     Mayor, Ramokgopa was elected
                                                                                     Deputy Provincial Chairperson of
                                                                                     the ANC in Gauteng, deputising
                                                                                     Paul Mashatile.  At the party's next
                                                                                     provincial elective conference in
                                                                                     October 2014, she was elected ANC
                                                                                     Deputy Provincial Secretary, serving
                                        Career in government                         under Hope Papo, and
       Gwen Malegwale Ramokgopa is a                                                 completed a four-year term .
       South African politician who was   Health MEC: 1998–2006
       elected the Treasurer-General of  In 1999, she was appointed Member of the    Secretary-General's ofce:  2022
       the governing African National    Executive Council (MEC) for Health in the Gauteng  At the ANC's 54th National
       Congress (ANC) in December 2022.   provincial government of Gauteng Premier   Conference in December 2017,
       She was formerly the Deputy       Mbhazima Shilowa.                           Ramokgopa was elected to the
       Minister of Health under President                                            party's National Executive
       Jacob Zuma from October 2010 to   Tshwane Mayor: 2006–2010                    Committee (NEC).She was later
       May 2014.                         In March 2006, pursuant to the 2006 local elections  co-opted onto the NEC's National
                                         , Ramokgopa was elected the rst female Mayor of   Working Committee.In 2022 she
       A medical doctor by training,     Tshwane, leading the City of Tshwane Metropolitan   assumed additional duties at the
       Ramokgopa began her  political    Municipality.While mayor she pursued a      ANC's headquarters at Luthuli
       career in the provincial government   stubborn campaign to rebrand Pretoria – the   House: as ANC Secretary-General
       of  Gauteng. She was the Member of  administrative capital of South Africa and part of the   Ace Magashule was suspended and
       the Executive Council (MEC) for   Tshwane municipality – as Tshwane.          Deputy Secretary-General Jessie
       Health in Gauteng from 1999 to                                                Duarte was ill, she was recruited as
       2006 and again from 2017 to 2019.   Deputy Minister of Health: 2010–2014      a coordinator in the Secretary-
       She was also the  rst female Mayor   Ramokgopa left the mayoral ofce because   General's ofce to assist acting
       of Tshwane from 2006 until 2010,   President Jacob Zuma, in a cabinet reshufe on 31  Secretary-General Paul Mashatile
       when she was elevated to national    October, had appointed her national Deputy  (who was simultaneously fullling his
       ofce. At the same time, she was a    Minister of Health under Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.  main role as Treasurer-General).
       member of the ANC Provincial      In May 2014, after the 2014 general election, she  Ramokgopa was generally described
       Executive Committee in Gauteng,    was replaced as Deputy Minister by Joe Phaahla.   as a political ally of incumbent
       serving as ANC  Deputy Provincial                                             national President and ANC
       Chairperson to Paul Mashatile     The following year, during the #FeesMustFall   President Cyril Ramaphosa.
       (2010 to 2014) and then as ANC    student protests, she was appointed the Chancellor
       Deputy Provincial Secretary to Hope    of the Tshwane University of Technology, a  ANC Treasurer-General:  2022–
       Papo (2014 to 2018). She was       primarily ceremonial position; she remained   Ahead of the ANC's 55th National
       elected to the party's National   Chancellor as of November 2021.             Conference,
       Executive Committee  for the rst
       time in 2017.                     Health MEC: 2017–2019                       When the conference began in
                                         In February 2017, Ramokgopa was returned to her
       Early career and education         earlier position as Gauteng MEC for Health, this   December 2022, Ramokgopa
                                                                                     received two last-minute
                                         time by Premier David Makhura. She succeeded
       Ramokgopa was born and raised in    Qedani Mahlangu, who had resigned shortly after  nominations from the oor of the
                                                                                      conference. She declined a
       Atteridgeville, a township outside    the Life Esidimeni scandal broke.Upon taking   nomination to stand as Deputy
       Pretoria in what is now Gauteng   ofce, Ramokgopa promised of the tragedy that her  Secretary-General,but accepted
       province (then the Transvaal).She    department would "reect on this experience, as   a nomination to stand as Treasurer-
       qualied as a medical doctor in 1989  difcult as it is, and nd ways to restore the  General.On 19 December, it
        at the Medical University of South    condence of our people in our health system".In  was announced that she had won
       Africa and worked as a medical     the May 2019 general election she was not   the election with 41.76% of the vote
       ofcer at Ga-Rankuwa Hospital until  re-elected to a seat in the Gauteng provincial    in a crowded race: she received
       1992.In subsequent years she held   legislature and she vacated her seat on the   1,809 votes, compared with 1,652 to
       several positions in public health,and  Executive Council.                     Pule Mabe, 590 to Bejani Chauke,
       later, in 2007, she received a                                                and 281 to Mzwandile Masina.
       Master's degree in public health.
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