Millicent Ntombizodwa Sibongile Manana

Millicent Ntombizodwa Sibongile Manana (born 6 September 1960) is a South African politician from Mpumalanga. She represented the African National Congress (ANC) as a legislator from 1994 to 2019, most proximately in the National Assembly from 2014 to 2019 and 2004 to 2009. She also sat in the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature, where she served on the Mpumalanga Executive Council from 1999 to 2004 and 2009 to 2014.

Manana is best known for her tenure as Mpumalanga's Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Health from 1999 to 2003 during the HIV/AIDS epidemic; she staunchly resisted the rollout of antiretroviral drugs in the province's public health facilities. She was a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee from 2007 to 2012.

Early life Manana was born on 6 September 1960.

Legislative career

1994–1999: Provincial backbenches Manana worked as a nurse during apartheid and was elected to represent the ANC in the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature in the 1994 general election, South Africa's first under universal suffrage. the Mail & Guardian said had "a reputation as Mpumalanga's own Nurse Ratched",

Battle with GRIP From 2001, Manana engaged in a prolonged battle with the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project (GRIP), a non-profit organisation whose volunteers provided counselling and information to rape victims in public hospitals and police stations. Among GRIP's services was access to antiretroviral drugs, subsidised by private donations. She said that GRIP wasabusing hospital facilities, staff and patients for unethical research purposes. There's no cure here. What about the patients? What are they giving them, how much of it, what are the protocols and who is monitoring follow up?

ARV rollout and spending At the same time, after the Constitutional Court ordered in 2002 that public hospitals had to provide access to mother-to-child transmission prevention drugs, Manana was viewed as "the worst offender" in failing to implement this directive. Both the Treatment Action Campaign and the AIDS Law Project sued her for defying the court order, and the South African Human Rights Commission investigated her department for possible human rights violations. She served a full legislative term in the seat. During that time, at the ANC's 52nd National Conference in December 2007, she was elected to a five-year term on the ANC's National Executive Committee; by the number of votes received, she was ranked 64th of the 80 ordinary members elected.

2009–2014: Return to the Executive Council Pursuant to the next general election in May 2009, Manana returned to the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature, where newly elected Premier David Mabuza appointed her as MEC for Community Safety, Security and Liaison. She remained in that portfolio until Mabuza's first reshuffle on 3 November 2010, in which she swopped portfolios with Vusi Shongwe and became MEC for Culture, Sport and Recreation.

2014–2019: Return to the National Assembly After four years as Culture MEC, Manana was listed 100th on the ANC's national party list in the 2014 general election and returned to the National Assembly backbenches. She served another full term and left the seat after the 2019 general election.

Personal life Her son is national politician Mduduzi Manana.