Zizi Kodwa

Ncediso Goodenough "Zizi" Kodwa (born 19 January 1970) is a South African politician and communications strategist who is currently serving as the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture since March 2023.

Kodwa was born on 19 January 1970 in Gugulethu outside Cape Town in the former Cape Province.

He was the youngest of six siblings born to a single mother, Esther Kodwa, who was a domestic worker.

He was active in the Congress of South African Students in his youth.

Later, as a student at the University of the Western Cape, he joined the South African Students Congress and also served as president of the student representative council. He graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Arts and Honours in development studies.

By the time of his graduation, Kodwa's work in the students' movement had attracted the attention of the ANC Youth League.

He rose through the ranks of the league in the Western Cape, working meanwhile as a marketing manager for Denel's pyrotechnics division (Swartklip). Later, he was recruited to work in a communications role for the ANC Youth League's president, Malusi Gigaba.

Under Gigaba's successor, Fikile Mbalula, he was the ANC Youth League's national spokesperson.

He was also elected to the league's National Executive Committee.

During this period, Kodwa and Mbalula together rose to prominence as vocal supporters of Jacob Zuma, who was ousted as Deputy President of South Africa in 2005 and who became the major political rival to President Thabo Mbeki.

During Zuma's rape trial in 2006, Kodwa frequently appeared at pro-Zuma political rallies outside the Johannesburg High Court.

He attracted particular public attention for encouraging Zuma's supporters to "hit the dog until the owner comes out", an allusion to alleged political interference in Zuma's prosecution.

After Zuma was elected as ANC president in December 2007, Kodwa was the spokesman in Zuma's party office; from 2010 to 2012, he was also Zuma's special advisor on communications in the Presidency of South Africa.

Kodwa's support for Zuma continued during Zuma's bid to be elected as ANC president at the party's 52nd National Conference, held in Polokwane in 2007. Indeed, the Mail & Guardian described Kodwa and Mbalula as Zuma's "chief propagandist[s]" ahead of the conference.

In the aftermath of the Polokwane conference, Kodwa worked for Zuma in the ANC, managing the office of the ANC president and acting as the office's spokesperson.

He continued in this role during the 2009 general election campaign and after Zuma was elected as President of South Africa in May 2009.

On 16 March 2010, he was appointed as a special adviser on communications to Zuma in Zuma's government office, the Presidency of South Africa.

It was proposed that, by taking on an additional advisory role at the Union Buildings, Kodwa would be able to coordinate between Zuma's government office and his ANC office at Luthuli House.

More directly, Kodwa was believed to have been recruited to help restore Zuma's image following a sex scandal.

In mid-2010, Zuma's official government spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, resigned amid reports that he had clashed with Kodwa.

Thereafter, Kodwa acted as Zuma's government spokesman too.

However, in July 2011, Mac Maharaj was abruptly appointed as the spokesman in the Presidency.

Although Kodwa said that he had been hired as an adviser and had only been acting temporarily as spokesman, Maharaj's appointment was perceived as a snub to Kodwa, perhaps motivated by suspicion of Kodwa's continued closeness with his former ANC Youth League comrades, Fikile Mbalula and Julius Malema.

In addition to his various communications posts at Luthuli House, Kodwa has been a member of the ANC National Executive Committee since December 2012.

In June 2012, Kodwa left the Presidency altogether to take up a position as a communications and marketing manager at the Gauteng Film Commission.

There remained reports that his relationship with Zuma had been harmed by his ties to Mbalula and Malema, who were increasingly hostile towards Zuma.

In December 2012, at the ANC's 53rd National Conference in Mangaung, Kodwa was elected for the first time to a five-year term as a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee; by number of votes received, he was the 23rd-most popular candidate of the 80 ordinary members elected to the committee.

He was formerly the national spokesperson of the African National Congress (ANC) from 2014 to 2018.

Formerly a student activist in Cape Town, Kodwa rose to prominence as the national spokesperson of the ANC Youth League.

He held that office during the tenure of league president Fikile Mbalula, and he, like Mbalula, was an outspoken supporter of Jacob Zuma.

After that, for most of Zuma's second term as president, Kodwa was the ANC's national spokesperson from May 2014 to February 2018.

In the May 2014 general election, Kodwa stood as a candidate for the ANC, ranked 22nd on the party's national party list, and gained election to a seat in the National Assembly.

However, on 26 May 2014, the ANC announced that Kodwa would become the party's national spokesperson.

He replaced Jackson Mthembu, who had also joined the National Assembly.

Later the same day, Kodwa resigned from his parliamentary seat in order to work full-time from the ANC's headquarters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg.

From 2018 to 2019, he was briefly the head of the ANC presidential office under Zuma's successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Kodwa later said that the ANC Youth League had often used "hyperbole and exaggeration" to communicate its messages, but conceded that "in 2018, I would not use that type of language".

Before that, he was the Deputy Minister of State Security from 2019 to 2023.

He joined the National Assembly in the 2019 general election – following an earlier, week-long tenure in the assembly in May 2014 – and was appointed by Ramaphosa to as Deputy Minister of State Security.

He retained the state security position after it was restructured and renamed as Deputy Minister in the Presidency for State Security in 2021, and he was appointed to his current cabinet position in a reshuffle in March 2023.