Benny Malakoane

Benjamin "Benny" Malakoane is a South African politician and medical doctor who served in the Free State Executive Council from 2004 to 2005 and from 2013 to 2019. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), he dropped out of the Executive Council after failing to gain re-election to the Free State Provincial Legislature in the 2019 general election.

Malakoane was best known for his tenure as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Health from 2013 to 2016, in which capacity he faced continuous opposition from the Treatment Action Campaign. Between 2013 and 2018, he also faced criminal charges in connection with alleged procurement corruption at Matjhabeng Local Municipality, where Malakoane served as municipal manager from 2007 to 2010 during a hiatus from legislative politics.

Early life and education Malakoane is from Kroonstad in the former Orange Free State. He is a medical doctor: he completed his MBChB at the Medical University of Southern Africa, as well as a Master's in family medicine at the University of the Free State. In December 2022, he received a PhD in community health from the University of the Free State.

Political career

Marshoff premiership: 2004–2005 Malakoane was first appointed to the Free State Executive Council on 3 May 2004, when Premier Beatrice Marshoff announced her cabinet following her election in the 2004 general election. She named Malakoane as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Tourism, Environmental and Economic Affairs. He remained in that position only until Marshoff's first reshuffle in early April 2005, when he was sacked from the Executive Council.

He did not serve out the remainder of the legislative term as an ordinary Member of the Provincial Legislature: instead, in 2007, he left the provincial legislature to become municipal manager at Matjhabeng Local Municipality.

Magashule premiership: 2009–2018 Malakoane did not initially secure re-election to the Free State Provincial Legislature after the 2009 general election, but instead continued as Matjhabeng municipal manager until 2010, He was released on bail and trialled in the Welkom and Bloemfontein Regional Courts.

With the charges against him pending, Malakoane was elected to a full term in the provincial legislature in the 2014 general election; he was ranked 17th on the ANC's provincial party list. After the election, Magashule announced that Malakoane would continue as MEC for Health in the new legislative term. However, Malakoane faced a sustained public campaign – led by the Treatment Action Campaign, an influential health lobby group – in support of calls to #FireBenny. The Treatment Action Campaign also claimed that unlawful stem cell trials had been conducted in the Free State with Malakoane's full knowledge. The ANC denied that Malakoane had been removed from the health portfolio because of the public campaign against him. He remained in that post for one year: in the 2019 general election, he was ranked 24th on the ANC's party list and did not secure re-election to his seat in the provincial legislature.