Vusi Shongwe

Shongwe lives in Ermelo, Gert Sibande District Municipality. He is married to Charmaine Zwane and they have three children.[4]

One of the couple's three children, last-born daughter 8-year-old Sethu Thandiswa Shongwe, died on 15 April 2015 when a speeding car hit her while she was crossing Ermelo's Pet Street near her home at around 4pm. [5] [6]

Shongwe was born in Breyten, east of Ermelo,[7] Mpumalanga on 22 April 1958.

Shongwe is a member of the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature for the African National Congress (ANC).

He was the MEC for the Mpumalanga Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison when he was voted to stand in Mabuza's position while he was off sick.[8] [9]

Shongwe is currently serving as the Mpumalanga MEC for Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs, a position he assumed after the 3 August 2016 local government elections when Mabuza reshuffled his cabinet and moved him from the security cluster to be the new agricultural MEC.[10]

As an MEC of Community Safety, Security and Liaison, Shongwe was the political head of the provincial security structure.[11] [12] [13] [14]

In December 2015, Shongwe was elected the provincial treasurer of the ANC in the Mpumalanga province during an elective congress that elected Mabuza for a third term as ANC provincial chairperson.[15] Before this Shongwe had served as regional chairperson of the Gert Sibande ANC.[16]

Shongwe was assigned in February 2020 by Premier Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane to meet Russia's Sverdlovsk region minister of international and foreign economic affairs, Visiliy Kozlov, for bi-lateral talks. Kozlov had come to Mbombela government offices.

Shongwe is Mtsweni-Tsipane's second-in-charge, being the leader of government business in Mpumalanga.[17]

In April 2020, Shongwe called on families in Mpumalanga to consider starting vegetable gardens in response to the Covid-19 outbreak in South Africa and said using backyards to plant food was better than expecting aid from donors.

“Food parcels which are currently distributed are not sustainable”.

Shongwe also called on municipalities to consider having vegetable gardens across the province "to feed those who cannot afford".

"While we fight the Covid-19 virus and other deadly diseases on the hand we [should] also fight hunger and starvation aggressively because our communities can also die from malnutrition,” he said[18]

• Vusumuzi Robert Shongwe - People's Assembly