Thembi Majola

Thembisile Cheryl Majola is a South African politician and civil servant who was Deputy Minister of Energy between May 2014 and December 2018. She was also director-general of the State Security Agency between March 2022 and November 2023.

A civil engineer by training, Majola rose to prominence during the presidency of Thabo Mbeki, when she worked in Mbeki's presidential office and served as South African Ambassador to Senegal, Mauritania, Cape Verde, Gambia and Guinea Bissau. She joined the African National Congress in exile during apartheid.

Early life and career Majola was born in Soweto but spent part of her childhood in exile, attending school in Botswana, Zambia, and Cuba. She studied civil engineering at university in Zambia and Cuba, completing a bachelor of science and master of science in civil engineering at the University of Camagüey. but she did not win a seat. Nonetheless, on 25 May 2014, President Jacob Zuma announced Majola's appointment as Deputy Minister of Energy in his second-term cabinet. Through the remainder of Zuma's presidency, Majola served under three consecutive energy ministers: Tina Joemat-Pettersson, Mmamoloko Kubayi, and David Mahlobo. The activities of the energy department in this period were controversial, particularly because of Zuma's support for a proposed nuclear deal with Russia and the 2015 sale of a large portion of the Central Energy Fund's strategic oil reserves.

When Zuma's successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, took office in February 2018, Majola remained in the energy portfolio, now under Minister Jeff Radebe. On 14 August 2018, she was additionally sworn in as a member of the National Assembly, filling the casual vacancy created by Lynne Brown's resignation; before then, Majola had served in government under a constitutional provision allowing appointments from outside Parliament.

In November 2018, Ramaphosa announced that Majola would resign on 31 December for personal reasons.

State Security Agency: 2022–2023 On 28 February 2022, President Ramaphosa's office announced that Majola had been appointed as director-general of the State Security Agency (SSA) with effect from 1 March. Her appointment followed a prolonged period of instability at the agency: it had not had a permanent director-general since Arthur Fraser's departure in 2018, and two high-level reviews had concluded that the agency's functions had been politicised and abused during the Zuma administration.

Although Majola was appointed for a three-year term, Although the presidency said that her resignation was by "mutual consent", it was rumored to be related to tensions between Majola and Ramaphosa's Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, and to Majola's opposition to Robert McBride's reinstatement as head of the SSA's foreign branch. Ntshaveni denied the rumors.

Personal life During her tenure as ambassador in West Africa, Majola met and married Umaro Sissoco Embaló, a Bissau-Guinean politician who later became the president of Guinea-Bissau. They divorced in 2014.