Bongi Sithole

Bongiwe Nomusa Sithole-Moloi is a South African politician who served as KwaZulu-Natal's Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs from February 2023 until June 2024. She represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature from 2014 until May 2024.

Sithole-Moloi was a member of the KwaZulu-Natal Executive Council from 2016 until 2024. Before being appointed as the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, she was the MEC for Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation from 2016 to 2019 and MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development from 2019 to 2023. She gained political prominence as the Mayor of Umgungundlovu District Municipality from 2000 to 2008; she was removed from that position in a vote of no-confidence supported by her own party.

Mayor of Umgungundlovu: 2000–2008 Sithole-Moloi became active in the ANC in the Natal Midlands in the early 1990s, and she represented the party as the Mayor of Umgungundlovu between 2000 and 2008. She was removed from the mayoral office by her own party in a vote of no-confidence in 2008. Her removal was reportedly related to allegations of corruption and maladministration, including the accusation that R1.5 million in municipal funds had been misappropriated and channelled to businessman Lucky Moloi, whom she later married. The allegations were never tested in court and Sithole-Moloi denied them.

Provincial legislature: 2014–present In the 2014 general election, Sithole-Moloi was elected to a seat in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature, ranked 29th on the ANC's provincial party list. The ANC caucus elected her to chair the legislature's committee for the Premier's office and Zulu royal household. Sources told IOL that Sithole-Moloi owed the promotion to her loyalty to Sihle Zikalala, then the ANC's Provincial Chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal; Sithole-Moloi had apparently begun to support Zikalala after 2008, when her removal from the mayoral office strained her relationship with Senzo Mchunu, her former ally and Zikalala's rival and predecessor. She was retained in that position by Zikalala's successor, Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube.

In 2022, Sithole-Moloi was named as a possible candidate for election to a top leadership position in the provincial ANC. She was nominated to stand for the position of ANC Deputy Provincial Secretary by the KwaZulu-Natal branch of the ANC Women's League and by local party branches in Zululand. to the ANC's Provincial Executive Committee.

On 7 February 2023, following Sihle Zikalala's resignation from the provincial legislature, Premier Dube-Ncube effected a minor cabinet reshuffle in which Sithole-Moloi replaced Zikalala as MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. Sithole-Moloi left the provincial legislature and the provincial government in 2024.

Personal life Sithole-Moloi was divorced from Inkosi Zibuse Mlaba, an ANC politician and the former KwaXimba regent. She subsequently married businessman and politician Lucky Moloi, who is a former Regional Secretary and Regional Chairperson of the ANC's Inkosi Bhambatha branch in Umzinyathi. Moloi held the regional chairmanship from 2019 to 2022, having won election in a contest against Jomo Sibiya, his wife's colleague in the provincial legislature.