Makhenkesi Stofile

Makhenkesi Stofile
Chancellor of the University of Fort Hare
In office
5 May 2016 – 15 August 2016
Preceded byThembile Skweyiya
Succeeded byDumisa Ntsebeza
South African Ambassador to Germany
In office
1 June 2011 – December 2015
PresidentJacob Zuma
Minister of Sport and Recreation
In office
29 April 2004 – 31 October 2010
PresidentThabo Mbeki
Kgalema Motlanthe
Jacob Zuma
DeputyGert Oosthuizen
Preceded byNgconde Balfour
Succeeded byFikile Mbalula
2nd Premier of the Eastern Cape
In office
4 February 1997 – 26 April 2004
Preceded byRaymond Mhlaba
Succeeded byNosimo Balindlela
Chief Whip of the Majority Party
In office
May 1994 – February 1997
SpeakerFrene Ginwala
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byMax Sisulu
Party offices
1994–2006
Provincial Chairperson of the Eastern Cape African National Congress
In office
1996 – December 2006
DeputyStone Sizani
Enoch Godongwana
Preceded byDumisani Mafu
Succeeded byStone Sizani
Treasurer of the African National Congress
In office
December 1994 – December 1997
PresidentNelson Mandela
Preceded byThomas Nkobi
Succeeded byMendi Msimang
Personal details
Born
Makhenkesi Arnold Stofile

(1944-12-27)27 December 1944
Adelaide, Cape Province
Union of South Africa
Died15 August 2016(2016-08-15) (aged 71)
Alice, Eastern Cape
Political partyAfrican National Congress
SpouseNambitha Siwisa
Alma materUniversity of Fort Hare
Princeton University
Nicknames
  • Stof
  • Bra Stof
  • Mfundisi

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. After that, he was Minister of Sport and Recreation from 2004 to 2010. He was also a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC).

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. At the same time, he had joined the ANC underground in 1970, and in 1983 he became involved in the United Democratic Front, both as regional secretary in the Border Region and as a member of the national executive. In 1987, he was convicted of a political offence and imprisoned in the Ciskei for three years. Himself an accomplished rugby player, Stofile was also an active figure in non-racial sports administration in the Eastern Cape, and he co-founded the South African Council on Sport in 1989.

After the end of apartheid in 1994, Stofile joined the National Assembly as the ANC's inaugural Majority Chief Whip. He held that position until February 1997, when he returned to his home province to replace Raymond Mhlaba as Premier of the Eastern Cape. He was also the national Treasurer of the ANC from 1994 to 1997 and its Provincial Chairperson in the Eastern Cape from 1996 to 2006.

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. During his tenure in the ministry, South Africa hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 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.