Makhenkesi Arnold Stofile (27 December 1944 – 15 August 2016) was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist who served as the second Premier of the Eastern Cape from 1997 to 2004.
Born in the Eastern Cape, Stofile was an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa and spent much of the apartheid era as a theologian at the University of Fort Hare.
He held that position until February 1997, when he returned to his home province to replace Raymond Mhlaba as Premier of the Eastern Cape.
Stofile returned to the national government after the April 2004 general election, appointed as Minister of Sport and Recreation in the second cabinet of President Thabo Mbeki.
After President Jacob Zuma sacked Stofile from the cabinet in October 2010, he served as South African Ambassador to Germany between 2011 and 2015, when he retired.
[1] He therefore played an important role in establishing the front's structures in the area;[8] for example, he recruited Matthew Goniwe, one of the Cradock Four who were assassinated in 1985.
[13][6] In May 1987, he was convicted under the Internal Security Act of terrorism, illegal possession of weapons, and furthering the aims of the outlawed ANC.
[17] At the same time, the ANC was unbanned by the apartheid government in 1990, and Stofile joined the internal leadership corps that worked to re-establish the party's legal structures inside South Africa.
[18] He also resumed his academic career, joining the University of Transkei as a senior theology lecturer in 1991 and then returning to Fort Hare as director of public relations and development from 1992 to 1994.
"[20] The Mail & Guardian described him as notably "laidback" as chief whip,[21] but he provoked the ire of Jennifer Ferguson – whom he prevented from addressing the house by singing the words of a Bertolt Brecht poem to music – among other MPs.
[20] In addition, by the end of 1994, Parliament had amended its rules to broaden the definition of parliamentary "spouses", for benefits purposes, among other things.
Stofile said of the change:We wanted the people of South Africa to see that human interaction cannot be forced into narrow, religious, ceremonial relationships.
[24] In his capacity as treasurer, Stofile froze the funding of the ANC Women's League, then led by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela; in 1996, he and Tshwete, then the ANC's head of organising, were appointed to provide interim leadership of the league amid divisions between Madikizela-Mandela and other senior women, including Adelaide Tambo.
[27] In February 1997, Stofile left the National Assembly to take office as Premier of the Eastern Cape, succeeding Raymond Mhlaba.
[1] In 1998, for example, the provincial government discovered that, due to an "oversight" by Stofile, its annual budget had not been gazetted as required by the Constitution, meaning that the last six months of expenditure had technically been illegal.
[11] However, the same newspaper also complimented his HIV/AIDS policy: unlike several other premiers, Stofile supported mother-to-child transmission prevention programmes, including through nevirapine access.
[35] In April 2003, Fraser-Moleketi reported to the press that the team had found a "province in shambles", but Stofile said that her assessment was "unscientific... 'Shambles' is a very strong term.
[36] During his tenure as premier, Stofile continued to serve as ANC Provincial Chairperson, gaining re-election to a second and third term in that office.
His re-election in 2002 involved the resounding defeat of a challenge to his incumbency by Mluleki George, who was the favoured candidate of the national ANC leadership under President Mbeki.
[37] After the national leadership found that some preparatory meetings had been inquorate, the same election was re-run in 2003, now with an even stronger majority for Stofile over George.
[38] The demand that the election be re-run had come amidst rumours that Stofile, along with other Eastern Cape politicians, was part of a leftist conspiracy to oust Mbeki from the party presidency.
[41] Although Vincent Ngema of the Inkatha Freedom Party was initially named as his deputy minister,[40] Gert Oosthuizen filled that office instead.
[42] Stofile was appointed to the ministry shortly before FIFA announced that South Africa had won the right to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
[43] In September 2009, he said there would be a "third world war" if the International Association of Athletics Federations prevented Caster Semenya from competing at the World Championship;[44] and in 2010, he encouraged the New Zealand Rugby Union and South African Rugby Union to apologise to Maori players who had been excluded from All Blacks tours of South Africa in 1928, 1949, and 1960.
[50] After Stofile vacated his provincial position, Cosatu touted him as a possible candidate for election as National Chairperson of the ANC, were the frontrunner, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, to become unavailable.
He played lawn-tennis since primary school and was the national champion in ballroom dance from 1972 to 1975, partnering his wife; according to his spokesperson, he was strongest at the tango.