Mabandla rose to political prominence at Turfloop as an activist in the South African Students' Organisation (SASO), an anti-apartheid organisation of the Black Consciousness Movement.[2] After she was excluded from university, she returned to Natal, where she lived in an informal settlement in Lamontville and worked briefly as youth coordinator at the Institute of Race Relations in Durban between 1974 and 1975.[1][2] She also remained active in SASO: in September 1974, she was a member of the SASO committee that organised the "Viva FRELIMO" rallies in Durban and Turfloop, and she and her husband were among the activists who was arrested after the rallies.[3] She was detained for five months and three weeks, during which time she was not permitted to see her five-month-old daughter, her firstborn child.[4] She was also tortured by police on several occasions during her detention. Although she did not herself testify before the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission,[5] a Security Branch officer applied for amnesty, saying that he had participated in her torture; he died before his application was heard.[4]
Mabandla and her husband were released under banning orders in 1975, and, later that year, they left South Africa to go into exile elsewhere in Southern Africa, both to evade police harassment and to join the outlawed African National Congress (ANC).[2] Mabandla later said that in the ANC, "my life changed. I was exposed to a different kind of education, to politics, political economy, contesting ideologies, and ideologies of the world."[2] After completing her LLB, she became an academic, lecturing english and law at the Botswana Polytechnic from 1981 to 1983 and then lecturing commercial law at the Botswana Institute of Administration and Commerce from 1983 to 1986.[1] Her research interests included human rights, children's rights, and constitutional law.[6] In 1986, she moved to the ANC's headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia, where she became a legal adviser to the party's internal department of legal and constitutional affairs.[1]
In 1990, Mabandla left her legal adviser post to join the ANC's delegation to the negotiations to end apartheid. During this period, she was also a member's of the party's constitutional committee.[1] According to Mabandla, she took seriously O. R. Tambo's advice to ensure that women's rights and children's rights were adequately protected in the post-apartheid constitution.[2] She worked closely with non-governmental organisations and the ANC Women's League in this capacity.[1] At the same time, she worked on research in related areas at the Community Law Centre of the University of the Western Cape.[1][7]
Mabandla reportedly worked well with the minister in her portfolio, Ben Ngubane of the opposition Inkatha Freedom Party.[13] She later said that her proudest achievements in the office included the successful campaign to have Sarah Baartman's remains repatriated from the Musée de l'Homme to South Africa.[2]
During this period, Mabandla was additionally a member of the National Executive Committee of the ANC. She was directly elected onto the body for the first time at the party's 50th National Conference in December 1997, ranked 34th by popularity of the 60 members;[14] she was also elected to the influential National Working Committee.[15] In December 2002, she was re-elected to the National Executive Committee, ranked 27th, and to the National Working Committee.[16]
Her term was dominated by public controversies arising from law enforcement investigations into prominent political figures, particularly by the Scorpions, a specialised anti-corruption unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). When Mbeki appointed the Khampepe Commission to review the structure and mandate of the Scorpions in 2005, Mabandla told commission chair judge Sisi Khampepe that the relationship between the Scorpions and the police had "irretrievably broken down" and that she would support merging the Scorpions into the South African Police Service.[19][20] Although the commission did not accept her recommendation, journalists suspected,[21] and Mabandla later confirmed,[22] that her testimony to the Khampepe Commission had lasting damage on her relationship with Vusi Pikoli, the head of the NPA. Observers also surmised that Mabandla, as the NPA's political head, felt that Pikoli excluded her from decision-making, particularly in high-profile cases and particularly by comparison with the close relationship between their respective predecessors, Bulelani Ngcuka and Minister Penuell Maduna.[21][22]
On 24 September, President Mbeki suspended Pikoli as the head of the NPA, citing "an irretrievable breakdown" in his relationship with Mabandla.[23] However, there was widespread suspicion that his suspension was related to the fact that, earlier the same week, he had obtained a warrant to arrest one of Mbeki's allies, National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi, on corruption charges;[24] Pikoli himself agreed with this interpretation.[25] During later investigations, Scorpion Gerrie Nel said that Mabandla had met with the Scorpions team in June 2007 and had agreed that there was a strong case but had expressed concern that Selebi's arrest would "shake the foundations of this country".[26] Pikoli, moreover, revealed that Mabandla had written to him on 18 September 2007 with an instruction not to pursue Selebi's prosecution until, in the words of her letter, she was "satisfied that indeed the public interest will be served should you go ahead" and "that sufficient evidence exists".[25][27] Pikoli's lawyer, Wim Trengove, argued that Mabandla's instruction constituted a clear infringement on the constitutional independence of the NPA.[25] Nonetheless, Frene Ginwala, who chaired an inquiry into the saga, largely cleared Mabanda, finding instead that she had been misled by Menzi Simelane, the director-general of the Justice Department, who Ginwala said had misunderstood the department's proper role and had withheld information from her.[28]
Concurrent positions
Amid this controversy, Mabandla attended the ANC's 52nd National Conference, held in December 2007 in Polokwane. Unlike most of Mbeki's other cabinet ministers, she made a strong showing in the National Executive Committee elections and was elected to her third term, now ranked ninth of 80.[29] However, she did not gain re-election to the National Working Committee.[30] In addition, she served as the first woman president of the Asian–African Legal Consultative Organisation, gaining election to that office at the organisation's 46th session in Cape Town in 2007.[31]
Minister of Public Enterprises: 2008–2009
When Mbeki resigned from the presidency at the ANC's request in September 2008, Mabandla was among the minority of ministers who did not submit their own resignations in response.[32] Mbeki was succeeded by President Kgalema Motlanthe, who, on 25 September, announced that Mabandla would succeed Alec Erwin as the Minister of Public Enterprises in his new cabinet. She was replaced as justice minister by Enver Surty, who oversaw the disbanding of the Scorpions, while her major task in her new portfolio was the management of power utility Eskom amid the ongoing energy crisis in South Africa.[33] She vacated her parliamentary seat and cabinet office after the April 2009 general election.
After leaving frontline politics, Mabandla continued her public service in various capacities: President Jacob Zuma appointed her as chairperson of the National Orders Advisory Council in October 2014,[34] and in January 2015, the 22nd African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Forum Summit appointed her to succeed Baleka Mbete as a member of the APRM's Panel of Eminent Persons.[35] In January 2016, she was appointed to a 17-person high-level panel that was chaired by former President Motlanthe and tasked by Parliament with assessing key legislation and its efficacy.[36]
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