Seiso Mohai

Seiso Joel Mohai (born 8 November 1966) is a South African politician from the Free State. A member of the African National Congress, he has been the Deputy Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation since 3 July 2024. Before that, he was the Chief Whip of the Majority Party in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) between 2014 and 2024.

Before joining the NCOP in the 2014 general election, Mohai served stints in both the National Assembly and the Free State Provincial Legislature, and he was a Member of the Free State Executive Council from 2004 to 2013.

Early life and activism Mohai was born on 8 November 1966. In the early 1980s, he attended secondary school in Botshabelo, a township outside Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State. While a student, he became active in anti-apartheid politics, including through the Congress of South African Students and South African Youth Congress. He also helped establish the Garment and Allied Workers' Union among textiles workers in the region.

After the African National Congress (ANC) was unbanned in 1990, he was recruited to the leadership of the ANC Youth League in the Southern Free State region around Botshabelo. He was elected to the Youth League's National Executive Committee in 1998.

Thereafter he returned to the Free State to serve as ANC Chief Whip in the Free State Provincial Legislature. After the next general election in 2009, he was appointed MEC for Finance by Marshoff's successor, Premier Ace Magashule. However, in March 2013, Magashule fired Mohai from the Executive Council, replacing him with Elzabe Rockman. He said that Mohai was a "very strong leader" and that the ANC had decided to "redeploy" him to the national Parliament.

Mohai rejoined the National Assembly on 26 March 2013, filling a casual vacancy. He served in that seat until the 2014 general election, when he was elected to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), the upper house of the Parliament, and appointed the ANC's Chief Whip in the NCOP. In January 2023, he was one of three candidates nominated by the ANC for election as Mayor of Mangaung.