Current Position
Mr David Mahlobo is the Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation. He was born on 14 January 1972 in KwaNdwalaza Royal Kraal, Berglaas in Piet Retief, in the then Transvaal (now Mpumalanga).
At the height of apartheid in 1981, Mr Mahlobo and his sisters fled to Swaziland, separating from their parents. The siblings came back to South Africa in 1983. Mr Mahlobo resumed schooling and completed his Joint Matriculation Board Certificate (Grade 12) in 1991 at Bambanani High School. He later enrolled with the University of Zululand (Ongoye campus) where he obtained a Bachelor of Science (BSc) Degree in Microbiology and Biochemistry in 1998. The following year, he obtained a BSc (Honours) Degree in Biochemistry from the same university.
He also holds a certificate in Water Quality Management Course II: Management Aspects. Mr Mahlobo has also completed a course on Performance Budgeting and Financial Management as well as Targeted Recruitment and Selection from Deloitte Human Capital.
He taught Grade 10 and 11 Biology and Physical Science at Bambanani High School. He later worked at Lalela Finishing School, teaching Physical Science and Biology for Grade 12.
Mr Mahlobo was part of the ANC volunteers who were responsible for recruiting and mobilising farming communities around Piet Retief and Pongola to join the party and relaunching its structures after it was unbanned.
He cut his teeth in the water sector when he joined the then Mpumalanga Department of Water and Forestry, in the Water Quality Division. He was responsible for the Upper Olifants River Catchment with respect to water use control at mines, municipalities and industries; water resource management protection and impact management, water quality management and water quality communication.
He was later promoted to be an Assistant Director: Transformation (later renamed External Transformation) and rose through the ranks to become Deputy Director and Director in the same unit at the Department of Water and Forestry.
In 2009, he was appointed as the Head of Department (HOD) for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs by the Mpumalanga Provincial Government for a period of three years, which was further renewed in 2012. He resigned in 2014 when he became an African National Congress (ANC) parliamentary candidate.
Since then he has served in the following capacities:
- Member of the National Assembly (NA): from May 2014 to May 2019;
- Minister of State Security: from May 2014 to October 2017;
- Minister of Energy: from October 2017 to February 2018;
- Member of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry: from March 2018 to May 2019;
- Re-elected as a member of the NA in May 2019; and
- Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation: from May 2019 to date.
- Involved in ANC structures in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces;
- Involved in the South African Student Congress (SASCO), ANC Youth League and National. Education, Health and Allied Workers Union;
- He was the SASCO Deputy Provincial Chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal;
- He became the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Chairperson for South African Union of Student Representative Council (SAU SRC);
- SRC Secretary-General at the University of Zululand (two terms);
- National Executive Council (NEC) member of the ANC: from December 2012 to December 2017;
- ANC National Working Committee member: from May 2014 to December 2017;
- ANC NEC Sub-Committee on Organising and Campaigns;
- NEC Sub-Committee on Peace and Stability;
- NEC deployee for Gauteng and later the Free State Province;
- NEC Convenor of Deployees in the Free State Province;
- Member of the University of Zululand Council for ten years; and
- Chairperson of the Council Audit Committee for two terms.
He currently serves in the following structures:
- ANC NEC: from 2017 to date;
- NEC Sub-Committee on Peace and Stability;
- NEC Sub-Committee on Policy, Monitoring and Evaluation;
- NEC Sub-Committee on Economic Transformation; and
- NEC deployee to the Free State Province.
