Noxolo Kiviet

Noxolo Kiviet (born 21 July 1963) is a South African politician who served as the Minister of Public Service and Administration from 2023 to 2024. She was formerly the Deputy Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure from 2019 to 2023 and also served as the Premier of the Eastern Cape from 2009 to 2014.

Kiviet is a member of the African National Congress (ANC) and a former trade unionist. Both before and after her term as premier, she served as Speaker of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature from 2004 to 2009 and from 2014 to 2019. Pursuant to the 2019 general election, she became a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa and was appointed to the national executive by President Cyril Ramaphosa. She has also served on the National Executive Committee of the ANC since 2017.

Early life and career Kiviet was born on 21 July 1963 in Mdantsane in the former Cape Province. She rose to political prominence through the apartheid-era trade union movement in South Africa: she rose through the ranks of the Chemical Workers' Industrial Union as Eastern Cape treasurer from 1991 to 1993 and national deputy chairperson from 1993 to 1997. From 1993 to 1994, she was also treasurer of the Border Kei regional branch of the ANC-aligned Congress of South African Trade Unions.

Kiviet took office as premier on 6 May 2009,

In the next general election in 2014, Kiviet was re-elected to the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature, ranked 23rd on the ANC's party list, but she was succeeded as premier by Phumulo Masualle and instead was elected to a second term as Speaker. While she was in that position, in December 2017, the ANC's 54th National Conference elected Kiviet to a five-year term as a member of the party's National Executive Committee; by number of votes received, she was ranked 54th of the 80 ordinary members elected.

National legislature: 2019–2024 In the 2019 general election, Kiviet did not seek re-election to the provincial legislature but was instead elected as a Member of the National Assembly, the lower house of South Africa's national Parliament; she was ranked 42nd on the ANC's national party list. In December 2022, at the ANC's 55th National Conference, she was re-elected to the National Executive Committee, ranked 43rd by number of votes received.

On 6 March 2023, Ramaphosa announced a cabinet reshuffle in which Kiviet was promoted to Minister of Public Service and Administration. That post which had been filled by Thulas Nxesi in an acting capacity since Ayanda Dlodlo's resignation in 2022.

Kiviet lost her seat in the National Assembly during the 2024 general election as the ANC lost 71 seats and its parliamentary majority.

Education Kiviet is an alumna of the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape. According to one of her public profiles, she received a Bachelor of Administration, an Honours degree in 2008, However, in March 2023, shortly after Kiviet's appointment as a minister, News24 reported that the University of Fort Hare alleged that Kiviet had not completed a Bachelor of Administration, nor any other undergraduate degree. On these grounds, the university alleged that Kiviet had enrolled in her two postgraduate degrees – the Honours and Master's degrees – fraudulently. Kiviet denied this allegation, but Ramaphosa authorised the Special Investigating Unit to investigate a possible "degree-conferring scam" at the University of Fort Hare.