Born in Durban, Mabandla entered politics through the South African Students' Organisation at the University of the North before she went into exile with the ANC in 1975.

After the April 2004 general election, Mbeki appointed her as South Africa's first woman Minister of Justice, in which capacity she had a difficult and controversial relationship with the National Prosecuting Authority and its head, Vusi Pikoli.

[2] After she was excluded from university, she returned to Natal, where she lived in an informal settlement in Lamontville and worked briefly as youth coordinator at the Institute of Race Relations in Durban between 1974 and 1975.

Although she did not herself testify before the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission,[5] a Security Branch officer applied for amnesty, saying that he had participated in her torture; he died before his application was heard.

[9] However, in March 1995, President Nelson Mandela announced that Mabandla would join the Government of National Unity as Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology.

[13] She later said that her proudest achievements in the office included the successful campaign to have Sarah Baartman's remains repatriated from the Musée de l'Homme to South Africa.

[18] Her term was dominated by public controversies arising from law enforcement investigations into prominent political figures, particularly by the Scorpions, a specialised anti-corruption unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

Observers also surmised that Mabandla, as the NPA's political head, felt that Pikoli excluded her from decision-making, particularly in high-profile cases and particularly by comparison with the close relationship between their respective predecessors, Bulelani Ngcuka and Minister Penuell Maduna.

[23] However, there was widespread suspicion that his suspension was related to the fact that, earlier the same week, he had obtained a warrant to arrest one of Mbeki's allies, National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi, on corruption charges;[24] Pikoli himself agreed with this interpretation.

[26] Pikoli, moreover, revealed that Mabandla had written to him on 18 September 2007 with an instruction not to pursue Selebi's prosecution until, in the words of her letter, she was "satisfied that indeed the public interest will be served should you go ahead" and "that sufficient evidence exists".

She was replaced as justice minister by Enver Surty, who oversaw the disbanding of the Scorpions, while her major task in her new portfolio was the management of power utility Eskom amid the ongoing energy crisis in South Africa.

After leaving frontline politics, Mabandla continued her public service in various capacities: President Jacob Zuma appointed her as chairperson of the National Orders Advisory Council in October 2014,[34] and in January 2015, the 22nd African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Forum Summit appointed her to succeed Baleka Mbete as a member of the APRM's Panel of Eminent Persons.

[35] In January 2016, she was appointed to a 17-person high-level panel that was chaired by former President Motlanthe and tasked by Parliament with assessing key legislation and its efficacy.

[37] She also remained active in the ANC, and in July 2018 she was appointed to deputise George Mashamba as deputy chairperson of the party's internal Integrity Commission.