Bongani Bongo

Bongo was born on 29 June 1978 in an area called Dennilton, now in Limpopo’s Sekhukhune District Municipality and lying on Mpumalanga's provincial border. He matriculated at Kgothala Secondary School. He is the third of Thomas Bongo and Emily Makhanya's five children and the family in 1999 moved to permanently reside in the township of Siyabuswa, which is located in the Dr JS Moroka Local Municipality (Mpumalanga), while Bongo was studying law at the University of Limpopo.[7]

On 15 November 2017, Bongo and South African defense minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula arrived in Harare as President Jacob Zuma's special envoys to Zimbabwe's 2017 coup that deposed Robert Mugabe[8]

Zuma had dispatched them in his capacity as chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to hold talks between Mugabe and generals from the Zimbabwe Defence Force (ZDF) who finally seized power from the nonagenarian Zanu-PF nationalist leader's almost four-decade rule.

When they arrived at the Harare International Airport they were not allowed to leave the airport until the evening, when they were allowed to move to a hotel.[9]^:6 On Thursday, 16 November, Mugabe was at Harare's State House to participate in talks with General Constantino Chiwenga, Bongo and Mapisa-Nqakula over a transition of power.

Later Bongo and Mapisa-Nqakula met with Angolan president Joao Lourenco, who was chairperson of the SADC's Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, to brief him on the Zimbabwean situation[10][11]

Bongo was accused of offering a bribe to advocate Ntuthuzelo Vanara, evidence leader of Parliament's inquiry into state capture at Eskom. In an affidavit to speaker Baleka Mbete, Vanara alleged Bongo told him he had been sent by acting Eskom board chairman Zethembe Khoza to offer a bribe – “a blank cheque” – to stop the committee's investigation into Eskom.[12] Mbete referred the matter to the joint committee on ethics.[13][14]

Bongo was also implicated in a Hawks investigation relating to alleged corrupt land transactions during his time as legal adviser in the Mpumalanga human settlement provincial department, earning a R300 000 deposit for a BMW through a departmental alleged corrupt deal in 2011.[15][16]

Bongo was fired from Cabinet on 28 February 2018 by new president Cyril Ramaphosa.[17]

Bongo was a group leader of Parliament's ad hoc committee [18] that was set up in July 2019 to amend Section 25 of the South African Constitution.[19]

Called "Ad Hoc Committee to Initiate and Introduce Legislation Amending Section 25 of the Constitution", the 24-member committee elected Mathole Motshekga as its chair but when hearings were conducted across the country between February and March 2020 the committee was split into two groups to enable it to conduct the hearings countrywide at once, with one group led by Bongo and the other by Motshekga.[20]

It was set up by the National Assembly "to amend section 25 of the Constitution so that expropriation of land without compensation is made explicit, as a legitimate option for land reform ".[21]

The setting up of the review committee followed a report that the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) described as "complete farce" submitted to Parliament in November 2018 [22] by the Constitutional Review Committee, recommending that section 25 of the Constitution be amended "to make explicit that which is implicit in the Constitution with regards to expropriation of land without compensation as a legitimate option for land reform, so as to address the historic wrongs caused by the arbitrary dispossession of land, and in so doing ensure equitable access to land and further empower the majority of South Africans to be productive participants in ownership, food security and agricultural reform programmes".[23]

The ad hoc committee then began conducting public hearings asking people about the wording that they believed should be put when the piece of law is changed for land expropriation without compensation.

On 21 November 2019, Bongo was arrested in Cape Town on corruption charges involving disruption of an October 10, 2017 parliamentary investigation concerning a power utility deal which occurred in Eskom when he was serving as Minister of State Security.[5] Bongo was immediately granted bail, but on the condition he did not have any contact with State witnesses. On October 28, 2020, Bongo and 10 others - Robert Burwise, Patrick Donald Chirwa, Harrington Sizwakhendaba Dhlamini, Blessing Mduduzi Singwane, David Boy Dube, Sipho Joel Bongo, Vusi Willem Magagula, Bongani Louis Henry Sibiya, Elmon Lawrence Mdaka and Sibongile Mercy - were arrested and charged with 69 counts of corruption, fraud, theft, money laundering and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act.[24] All alleged criminal acts were said to have taken place in Mpumalanga province between 2011 and 2012.[24] His Cape Town investigation was still ongoing as well.[24]

• South African Politicians - Bongani Thomas Bongo
• - Bongani Thomas Bongo, Adv
• Bongani Thomas Bongo at People's Assembly