Elizabeth Thabethe (26 September 1959 – 26 March 2021) was a South African politician and former trade unionist from Gauteng.

After leaving the National Assembly, she was special investment envoy to President Cyril Ramaphosa until her death in March 2021.

In the National Assembly, she served as an ANC whip from 1996 to 2004 and then as the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs from 2004 to 2005.

After a hiatus as chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Energy, she returned as President Jacob Zuma's Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry from November 2010 to May 2014.

[1] After the end of apartheid, she took postgraduate education in economics at the University of South Africa, where she completed a certificate and an advanced diploma in 2008.

[1] Thabethe rose to prominence during apartheid as a trade unionist in the Chemical Workers' Industrial Union (CWIU) in present-day Gauteng.

[13] Thabethe served as committee chairperson for just over a year: on 22 June 2005, reshuffling his second-term cabinet, President Thabo Mbeki announced her appointment as Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry.

[16] Both Thabethe and Davies, along with Minister Mpahlwa, were retained in the ministry when Mbeki was succeeded by President Kgalema Motlanthe in a midterm presidential election in 2008.

[30][31] She was buried at Heroes' Acre on 3 April after a funeral at Change Bible Church in Katlehong, where the speakers included Panyaza Lesufi and Faith Mazibuko.