Richard Mkhungo

Conduct Richard Hlophe (born 7 July 1959), commonly known as Richard Mkhungo, is a South African politician from KwaZulu-Natal. He is currently serving as the Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans since July 2024. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), he was elected as the national president of the South African National Civics Organisation in November 2023. He was formerly a local councillor in eThekwini.

Early life and career Mkhungo was born on 7 July 1959. Hlophe, his legal surname, is his mother's surname.

He rose to political prominence as a trade unionist in the South African Municipal Workers' Union, first as a union organiser and then as the union's provincial secretary in KwaZulu-Natal between 1998 and 2006. ' However, Mkhungo also endorsed both of the other frontrunners: in May 2017, Mkhungo's provincial leadership corps formally endorsed Cyril Ramaphosa, and Mkhungo told press that he viewed Ramaphosa as "fit and ready to ascend"; then, in September 2017, he announced that the leadership corps had decided to back Zweli Mkhize instead. Ramaphosa was elected when the 54th National Conference was held in December 2017.

In August 2018, Mkhungo was at the centre of a major factional dispute between his allies and SANCO national leaders Skhumbuzo Mpanza and Richard Mdakane. On 11 August, Mpanza, as SANCO's national secretary general, issued Mkhungo with a formal suspension from his position as provincial secretary. He was accused of ill-discipline and of bringing the organisation into dispute. In the aftermath he regained his position as national secretary, and Mdakane and Mpanza were arrested in January 2019, accused of stealing from SANCO.

Mkhungo was re-elected as SANCO provincial secretary at a provincial elective conference in Durban on 27 January 2023. The same conference elected Lucky Hadebe as Mkhungo's deputy, and it also elected former president Zuma as SANCO's provincial chairperson. Responding to rumours that Zuma would use SANCO as a vehicle to contest the 2024 general election, Mkhungo said that he could not rule out that SANCO might split from the ANC and register as a political party; he told City Press'' that if the ANC sidelined Zuma and SANCO, "We will make their lives difficult." SANCO's 7th National Conference was held in late November 2023 in Durban, and it elected Mkhungo as SANCO president; Chris Malematja and Lucky Moloi were elected as his deputies.

Shortly afterwards, Zuma announced the establishment of a new opposition party, the Umkhonto we Sizwe Party (MK Party), which would seek to unseat the ANC in the upcoming general election. In press interviews and in a speech to a January 8 rally, Mkhungo intimated a rejection of the MK Party, affirming SANCO's abiding alliance with the ANC and its support for President Ramaphosa. He condemned what he called "some new tendency by new shenanigans who are using our name to associate with ourselves as if they don't know our originality".

National government In the May 2024 general election, Mkhungo stood as a candidate for election to the National Assembly, ranked 87th on the ANC's national party list.

Due to the ANC's electoral decline, he narrowly failed to win a seat. However, he was nonetheless appointed to the national executive: announcing his third cabinet on 30 June 2024, President Ramaphosa named him as Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans. In that portfolio he deputises Minister Angie Motshekga of the ANC and serves alongside Deputy Minister Bantu Holomisa of the opposition United Democratic Movement.