[2] She matriculated at Sekane-Ntoane High School in Soweto in 1970 and then attended the politically tumultuous University of the North, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1976.
[2] After graduating, Mthembi-Mahanyele went into exile abroad with the African National Congress (ANC), which was then based in Lusaka, Zambia.
[5][3] After the end of apartheid in 1994, she was appointed Deputy Minister of Welfare in the South African government, under President Nelson Mandela.
[9] Mthembi-Mahanyele's resignation from the cabinet followed her election as Deputy Secretary-General of the ANC at the party's 51st National Conference in December 2002.
In later years, she served as chairman of South Africa's Central Energy Fund from February 2012 until her resignation in 2015.