Nqola is a lawyer by training and joined the National Assembly in May 2019. He was the interim convenor of the ANC Youth League from April 2023 until June 2023, when he was removed from the position under controversial circumstances.
Nqola spent stints as an office administrator, as a civil servant in the Engcobo Local Municipality, and as a regional organiser for the ANC in the Eastern Cape. After his LLB graduation and before he became a full-time politician, he was a candidate attorney at Makangela Mntungani Incorporated in Mthatha and Litha Madikizela and Company in Ngcobo.[3]
In an October 2019 meeting of the justice committee, Nqola proposed the shortlisting of Kholeka Gcaleka as a candidate for the position of Deputy Public Protector,[6] and Gcaleka became the successful candidate in 2020. In subsequent years Nqola was a member of the ad hoc committee that recommended the impeachment of the incumbent Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane; the ANC delegated him to the committee as a non-voting member when it was established on 7 April 2021.[7][8] During the impeachment inquiry, Nqola frequently clashed with Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters, who was among Mkhwebane's defenders; during one such spat in July 2022, Malema called him "a political wannabe",[9] and in an infamous exchange in November 2022 Malema accused Nqola of political "opportunism" and of "suffering from the mind of a peanut, a mind the size of a rat's poo-poo".[10][11]
On 7 December 2023, Nqola was elected as co-chairperson of the Joint Constitutional Review Committee, which is tasked with conducting an annual review of the South African Constitution; his co-chairperson was Enock Mthethwa of the National Council of Provinces, and he was elected to replace Mathole Motshekga, the former chairperson from the National Assembly.[12]
In addition to his committee appointments, Nqola led the ANC's constituency office in Burgersdorp, Eastern Cape from 2022 to 2024.[13] In March 2024, he was sanctioned on the recommendation of the parliamentary ethics committee for failing to disclose his financial interests timeously as required by the parliamentary code of conduct; he received a formal reprimand in the house and a fine equivalent to 20 days' salary.[14][15]
ANC Youth League convenor: 2022–2023
During his first term in Parliament, Nqola remained active in the ANC's extra-parliamentary structures. In 2022 he was a candidate for election to the ANC National Executive Committee, nominated for membership by 218 local party branches,[16] but he failed to gain election at the party's 55th National Conference.
The following year, on 27 March 2023, the ANC's National Working Committee resolved to appoint Nqola as the interim convenor of the national ANC Youth League.[17] The league had been under the custodianship of an unelected interim leadership since 2019, when Collen Maine's leadership corps was disbanded; Nqola replaced Nonceba Mhlauli as the head of the National Youth Task Team (NYTT) tasked with arranging fresh leadership elections. He worked alongside Sonto Motaung, who was named interim coordinator, and Collen Malatji, who was named deputy convenor.[18] Upon taking office as convenor, Nqola said that the NYTT would refuse to allow factional disputes to delay the leadership elections further.[19]
Under Nqola's leadership, the ANC Youth League held its elective conference at Nasrec in July 2023, electing Malatji as the league's president. However, the election was preceded by an apparent dispute between Nqola and members of the ANC's national leadership. The national secretary-general of the mainstream ANC, Fikile Mbalula, was accused of interfering in the NYTT's work,[20] and in April 2023 the Sunday Times reported that Nqola was being sidelined in the NYTT by Mdu Manana, the mainstream ANC's head of organising.[21] On 29 June 2023, the day before the elective conference opened, Mbalula fired Nqola as league convenor, removing him from the NYTT altogether.[22] Mbalula's letter, which was leaked to the press, accused Nqola of "gross ill-discipline and defiance" in connection with the league's recent provincial elective conference in the Eastern Cape.[23][24] Nqola had apparently allowed the provincial elective conference to go ahead despite procedural irregularities.[25]
However, Nqola's supporters alleged that his removal from the NYTT was a unilateral decision by Mbalula and constituted an example of Mbalula's interference in Youth League affairs, which they said was calculated to favour Malatji's presidential bid. IOL reported that Nqola wrote a letter to the ANC's national leadership to complain about meddling by Mbalula, Manana, and others.[26] Mbalula denied this account,[27][28] but it was repeated by a group of seven NYTT members in a subsequent protest against the conduct of the elective conference;[29] it was also reportedly raised by Mondli Gungubele and Enoch Godongwana during an ANC National Executive Committee meeting.[30]
Seventh Parliament: 2024–present
In the May 2024 general election, Nqola was re-elected to his parliamentary seat, now ranked 67th on the ANC's national party list.[1] He became the chairperson of the National Assembly's Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development, a restructured iteration of the committee he had served in since 2019.[31] He was elected unopposed to the chair during the committee's first meeting on 9 July 2024, nominated by the ANC's Oscar Mathafa.[32]