Richard Dyantyi

Qubudile Richard Dyantyi (born 25 October 1968) is a South African politician who represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly from 2019 until 2024. Before that, he was a Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament and served as the Western Cape's Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Local Government and Housing from 2005 to 2008. In 2021, he was elected chairperson of the national parliament's Committee for the Section 194 Enquiry into Busisiwe Mkhwebane's fitness to hold office.

Early life and career Dyantyi was born on 25 October 1968 in Burgersdorp in present-day Eastern Cape (then part of the Cape Province). His home language is Xhosa. He matriculated in 1989 from All Saints College in Bisho, a private school which he attended on a scholarship and where he was first-team rugby captain. On 26 July 2005, in a cabinet reshuffle by incumbent Premier Ebrahim Rasool, he was additionally appointed to the Provincial Cabinet of the Western Cape as Provincial Minister (MEC) for Local Government and Housing. In this position, he became known in South African municipal politics after he had led an unsuccessful effort in 2006 to replace the Unicity government of the City of Cape Town with a centralised executive mayor system, which would have stripped the current mayor of the municipality, Helen Zille, of her powers as mayor.

Viewed as a political ally of Premier Rasool, he was fired from the Executive Council on 31 July 2008, shortly after Lynne Brown succeeded Rasool as Premier. However, he remained an ordinary Member of the Provincial Parliament. He was re-elected to his final term in the provincial legislature in the 2014 general election, ranked fourth on the ANC's provincial party list.

National Assembly: 2019–2024 In the 2019 general election, Dyantyi did not seek re-election to the provincial legislature but was instead elected to the National Assembly, the lower house of the South African Parliament; he was ranked fourth on the ANC's provincial-to-national party list for the Western Cape.

Dyantyi was ranked too low on the ANC's national list to return to parliament following the 2024 general election.

Controversies Public Protector at the time, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, laid a complaint against three ANC MPs, Dyantyi, Pemmy Majodina and Tina Joemat-Pettersson with Parliament's Joint Committee on Ethics and Members' Interests. This came after Mkhwebane's husband alleged that Joemat-Pettersson approached him for a R600 000 bribe for the three to influence the outcome of the Section 194 Enquiry into the fitness of Mkhwebane to hold office.; he also laid a complaint with the police. The Committee cleared Dyantyi and Majodina saying the claim was unfounded.

Personal life He is a single father to three sons.