Siyabonga Cwele

His Excellency Siyabonga Cwele
Cwele in September 2018
South African Ambassador to China
Incumbent
Assumed office 23 December 2020
President	Cyril Ramaphosa
Preceded by	Dolana Msimang
Minister of Home Affairs
In office 22 November 2018 – 29 May 2019
President	Cyril Ramaphosa
Deputy	Fatima Chohan
Preceded by	Malusi Gigaba
Succeeded by	Aaron Motsoaledi
Prior cabinet offices 2008–2018 Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services In office 25 May 2014 – 22 November 2018 President Jacob Zuma Cyril Ramaphosa Deputy Hlengiwe Mkhize Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams Preceded by Position established Succeeded by Position abolished Minister of State Security In office 11 May 2009 – 25 May 2014 President Jacob Zuma Preceded by Himself (for Intelligence) Succeeded by David Mahlobo Minister of Intelligence Services In office 25 September 2008 – 10 May 2009 President Kgalema Motlanthe Preceded by Ronnie Kasrils Succeeded by Himself (for State Security)
Legislative offices 1994–2019 Member of the National Assembly In office 14 June 1999 – 3 June 2019 Constituency KwaZulu-Natal (1999–2009) Permanent Delegate to the National Council of Provinces Assembly Member for KwaZulu-Natal In office 9 May 1994 – June 1999
Personal details
Born	Siyabonga Cyprian Cwele (1958-09-03) 3 September 1958 (age 66)
Citizenship	South Africa
Political party	African National Congress
Spouse	Sheryl Cwele ​ ​ (m. 1985; div. 2011)​
Alma mater	University of KwaZulu-Natal (MBChB) Stellenbosch University (MPhil)

Siyabonga Cyprian Cwele (born 3 September 1958) is a South African politician who served in the cabinet of South Africa from September 2008 to May 2019, most recently as the Minister of Home Affairs between 2018 and 2019. He was appointed as the South African Ambassador to China in December 2020. He is a member of the African National Congress (ANC) and represented the party in Parliament from 1994 to 2019.

A medical doctor by training, Cwele joined the ANC underground during apartheid in 1984. In the 1994 general election, he was elected to the KwaZulu-Natal delegation of the National Council of Provinces, where he served for a single term before joining the National Assembly. He chaired Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence between 2004 and 2008.

In September 2008, he was appointed to the cabinet of President Kgalema Motlanthe, who named him as Minister of Intelligence. He remained in that office until May 2014, though President Jacob Zuma renamed it as the Minister of State Security in May 2009. From May 2014 to November 2018, he was the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services under Zuma and his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, and he went on to serve a brief stint as Ramaphosa's Minister of Home Affairs from November 2018 to May 2019. After the 2019 general election, he was excluded from Ramaphosa's second cabinet and resigned from his legislative seat.

Cwele was a member of the ANC National Executive Committee from December 2012 to December 2022. Before that, he served in the Provincial Executive Committee in KwaZulu-Natal between 1990 and 2012.