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Zolile Burns-Ncamashe | |
|---|---|
| Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs | |
| Assumed office 6 March 2023 Serving with Dickson Masemola (since June 2024) | |
| President | Cyril Ramaphosa |
| Minister | Thembi Nkadimeng Velenkosi Hlabisa |
| Preceded by | Obed Bapela |
| Member of the National Assembly | |
| Assembly Member for Eastern Cape | |
| Assumed office 19 February 2021 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 13 September 1965 Alice, South Africa |
| Political party | African National Congress |
| Education | Lovedale College |
| Alma mater | University of Fort Hare |
| Nickname | Aa! Zweliyajika! |
Prince Zolile Burns-Ncamashe (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.
Burns-Ncamashe was born on 13 September 1965 in Alice in the present-day Eastern Cape.[1] He was educated at Gwali Primary School and Lovedale College.[1] His father, Sipho Burns-Ncamashe, was a Xhosa traditional leader, the Rharhabe praise poet, and later a Ciskei politician.[1]
He has a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and psychology and an Honours in philosophy from the University of Fort Hare.[2] In 2019 he completed a Master's degree in social science at Fort Hare.[3] As of 2021 he was a part-time PhD candidate at the same university, with doctoral research on land reform.[2]
Burns-Ncamashe was an advisor, counsellor and spokesperson to the Rharhabe royal family, serving under successive monarchs Noloyiso Sandile and Jonguxolo Sandile.[2][4] 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.[1] In 1997, he was additionally sworn in to the National House of Traditional Leaders.[2]
Burns-Ncamashe became politically active in the students' movement during apartheid and became a member of the anti-apartheid Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa.[2] Decades later, he became involved in the post-apartheid national government during the first term of President Cyril Ramaphosa, initially as a traditional affairs advisor to Zweli Mkhize, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.[1] Later he was the chairperson of the Department of Water and Sanitation's National Rapid Response Task Team, established by Minister Lindiwe Sisulu in 2019.[1][5]
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.[6] 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.[7] 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.[6]
On 6 March 2023, in a cabinet reshuffle, President Ramaphosa appointed Burns-Ncamashe as Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.[8] In that capacity he led the ministry's awareness campaign on initiation deaths.[9] 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.[10]
His wife is Nkosikazi Nozinzile Burns-Ncamashe.[11] They married in 2005 and have three children.[12]
In February 2024, he was ordained as a deacon in the Ethiopian Episcopal Church.[13]