Born on 12 June 1956, in Duncan Village, East London (Eastern Cape Province), Ngcaba currently lives in Johannesburg and Mountain View, California.

[3] Ngcaba was previously an activist aligned with the African National Congress during the struggle against apartheid, and thereafter the Director General of Communications in the first democratically elected government of South Africa in 1994.

During the political turmoil in the late 1970s in South Africa, Ngcaba involved himself with the African National Congress underground, and actively took part in and helped plan insurgency operations.

Soon after South Africa transitioned to a democracy, Ngcaba took up the position of Director General of the Department of Communications for eight and half years until December 2003, during which time he worked under ministers Pallo Jordan, Jay Naidoo and the late Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.

While he was Director General of the Department of Communications he participated in international organisations such as the Office of Outer Space Affairs in Vienna and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

In May 2005, the Elephant Consortium, comprising private investors, industry players, sponsors, seed capital providers and more than 30% broad-based beneficiaries (groups representing interests of women, disabled and youth), acquired 6.7% of Telkom in a commercially funded structure, which ran to term in May 2010.

In this regard, Ngcaba played pivotal roles in several landmark transactions to bring critical connectivity to the continent, notably Seacom, the first East African undersea cable, and the New Dawn Satellite joint venture, which was launched in April 2011.

Ngcaba currently serves on a number of boards of investee companies and is a Trustee of the Convergence Partners Foundation Trust, a not-for-profit vehicle to improve the education of previously disadvantaged persons using technology and to develop ICT skills that are in short supply in the continent.

He has been a leading proponent of the implementation of various measures designed to curb the digital divide and his efforts have won him praise including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.