Lindiwe Maseko

Lindiwe Michelle Maseko (born 2 March 1958) is a South African politician who was appointed South African Ambassador to Venezuela in July 2022. She previously served as a Member of the National Assembly from 2014 to 2019 and as a Member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature from 1994 to 2014; she was Speaker of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature from 2009 to 2014. She is a member of the African National Congress (ANC) and was Provincial Treasurer of the ANC in Gauteng from 2001 to 2010.

Early life Maseko was born on 2 March 1958 in Alexandra township outside Johannesburg in the Transvaal, now part of Gauteng province. She grew up in Diepkloof in Soweto, where she was a student at Orlando High School during the 1976 Soweto uprising. In the 1980s, she was a member of the anti-apartheid Women Against Repression.

Provincial legislature

Gauteng legislature: 1994–2009 Maseko was first elected as Member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature in 1994 in South Africa's first post-apartheid election. She was also a founding member of the Soweto Heritage Trust. She had previously held (and later held) various leadership positions in the Africa section of the association. The first woman to hold the position, In 2010, she banned Members of the Legislature from using the term "Alex mafia" in the legislature.

In early 2012, Maseko was accused of fostering a conflict of interest when the R6.5-million opening of the provincial legislature was held at the Coca-Cola Dome, a venue in Mamelodi which contracted Delmont Caldow Caterers as its regular caterer. Maseko had previously been a director of Delmont Caldow, and her daughter Edna remained a director. Maseko's conduct in both episodes was subject to investigation by the Gauteng Integrity Commissioner, Ralph Mgijima, and by the Privileges and Ethics Committee of the provincial legislature. Both investigations cleared her of personal wrongdoing, finding that she had not contravened the provincial ministerial code nor indulged in exorbitant or frivolous spending: she had not directly influenced the selection of the caterer for the legislative opening, and a six-month stock of groceries had been bought for her office due to poor supply chain management and record-keeping.

National legislature In the 2014 general election, Maseko left the provincial legislature and was elected to a seat in the National Assembly, the lower house of South Africa's national Parliament. She was ranked fourth on the ANC's regional party list for Gauteng. In January 2022, she – alongside Ronald Lamola, Jeff Radebe, and Joel Netshitenzhe – was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to serve on an internal ANC committee which was tasked with guiding the ANC's response to the findings of the Zondo Commission.