[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.
She was a journalist on Radio Freedom and worked under Thabo Mbeki in the ANC's department of international affairs.
[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.