National Executive Committee Member: ANC

At 32, Pule Mabe is the youngest member to have joined the powerful ANC national executive committee. The former ANC Youth League treasurer general was elected in December last year after he campaigned tirelessly for the re-election of Jacob Zuma as ANC president. Once a close ally of expelled youth league president Julius Malema, Mabe is now seen as an adversary of Malema, who unsuccessfully campaigned for Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to replace Zuma as ANC president. A former Mail & Guardian journalist and former government communicator, Mabe has been roped into the ANC communications subcommittee. He is also part of the ANC’s election team, which is led by former Limpopo Premier Ngoako Ramahlodi. A politician-cumbusinessman, Mabe is determined to change the lives of many South Africans. Despite his busy schedule he has managed to build a successful business empire in the media industry. At 32, he owns a publishing company called KG media, which publishes Kwela Express, a monthly transport newspaper. Through Kwela Express Mabe has managed to create both a print and an electronic platform for the transport industry. He also launched a programme on SABC2 focusing on transportation issues throughout the country. Three years ago Mabe established the Kedibone Mabe Trust to fund deserving students from his hometown, Phalaborwa, to study journalism, marketing and transport engineering. He also established the Kwela Media Institute in Johannesburg, aimed at training young people in journalism, design, media and sales. Mabe’s previous leadership roles included serving as deputy president of the students’ representative council at Technikon Northern Gauteng, now called the Tshwane University of Technology, between 1998 and 1999. He also served as a Gauteng youth commissioner between 2003 and 2009.

— Matuma Letsoalo

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