Sheila Sithole

Sheila Coleen Nkhensani Sithole (; born 4 February 1948) is a South African politician who represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly from 2009 to 2019. Before that, she was a Member of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature. She is also a former chairperson of the ANC Women's League in Bushbuckridge.

Early life Sithole was born on 4 February 1948. Her father was Mark Shope, a trade unionist and Treason Triallist who went into exile abroad after the ANC was banned in 1960; her younger sister, Ntombi Shope, also became a politician. She was influenced in her adolescence by Ruth First and Sheila Weinberg; according to Sithole, her father introduced her to First, who proclaimed her "a blue stocking" and arranged weekly maths lessons for her with Weinberg.

Political career In South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994, She also represented the ANC in the Limpopo Provincial Legislature and was chairperson of the ANC Women's League branch in Bushbuckridge. In a dramatic encounter in August 1994, Phosa arrived in Bushbuckridge in a helicopter to rescue Ramatlhodi and Sithole from protestors who had surrounded them; Sithole's supporters later alleged that Phosa's camp had staged the demonstration and pre-arranged the rescue. but returned for another term after the 2004 general election.