Do we like them?

Do we like Fikile Mbalula?

Our score: 5 out of 10. A decent public record on gender violence and LGBTQ+ safety, set against contested migrant rhetoric and two unresolved legal fights.

Mbalula is the ANC's secretary-general, the party's chief administrator and election boss. Before that he was sports minister and later police minister. He has a name for loud, social-media-friendly politics. We couldn't open a full profile of his early life, so this card is about the recent record.

The freshest mess is a criminal one. In September 2026 the NPA decided to prosecute him for crimen injuria over his public accusation that a school principal had committed a serious crime against a child. The same charge is going ahead against EFF leader Julius Malema. EWN reported the NPA had earlier declined to prosecute the principal, saying it found no conclusive evidence. The report carried no response from Mbalula, and nothing has been decided in court.

Then there's the bribery fight. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on a podcast that it was common knowledge Mbalula bought votes at the 2022 ANC conference. She has filed an affidavit from a delegate who says he saw cash handed out. Mbalula denies it, is suing for defamation, and says he has “nothing to hide”. On 5 October the High Court ordered oral evidence, so this goes to a proper trial and nothing is proven either way.

A third matter is AfriForum's push to prosecute him privately over a 2016 family trip to the UAE. It was reportedly sponsored by a government service provider, and a sporting-goods subsidiary reportedly settled about R300,000 of the bill. His office said at the time the trip was private. It's a long-running tangle, and nothing has been decided against him.

On the recent run, the ANC beat the odds in the Constitutional Court in October to get 181 candidates back on the 4 November ballot. Mbalula was the campaign's front man. The election result wasn't in the sources we found, so we can't say how it went for him or the party.

On the good stuff, we found no charity record or cost-paying stand for others. What we did find is a consistent public line on women's and queer safety, and he kept to it in 2025 when he said gender violence must be resolved by South Africans themselves. That's real, but it's words and policy, not sacrifice. We looked for harmful company and campaigns and found none.