Zolile Burns-Ncamashe

Prince Zolile Burns-Ncamashe Aa! Zweliyajika! (born 13 September 1965) is a South African politician from the Eastern Cape. He has served as the Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs since March 2023. A traditional leader of the amaRharhabe clan, he joined the National Assembly as a representative of the African National Congress in February 2021. As AmaGwali Prince his praise name (isikhahlelo) is Zweliyijika.

Early life and education Burns-Ncamashe was born on 13 September 1965 in Alice in the present-day Eastern Cape. He was educated at Gwali Primary School and Lovedale College. In 2019 he completed a Master's degree in social science at Fort Hare. As of 2021 he was a part-time PhD candidate at the same university, with doctoral research on land reform. He was a member of the Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders between 1996 and 2017 and served as its deputy chairperson under Ngangomhlaba Matanzima from 2002 to 2017.

In the 2019 general election, Burns-Ncamashe stood for election to the South African Parliament as a candidate for the governing African National Congress (ANC), but, ranked 22nd on the party list for the Eastern Cape, he was not initially elected. He was sworn in to the National Assembly on 19 February 2021, filling the casual vacancy that arose after Tozama Mantashe's death from COVID-19 complications. Later that month, he became a member of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, and he served as the head of the ANC's constituency office in Butterworth, Eastern Cape. In that capacity he led the ministry's awareness campaign on initiation deaths. In the next general election, held in May 2024, he was re-elected to a full term in the National Assembly, and President Ramaphosa retained him in his post as deputy minister, though Dickson Masemola was appointed to serve alongside him as second deputy minister.

Personal life His wife is Nkosikazi Nozinzile Burns-Ncamashe. They married in 2005 and have three children.

In February 2024, he was ordained as a deacon in the Ethiopian Episcopal Church.