Puleng Peter "Pule" Mabe (born 19 March 1980) is a South African politician who served as the national spokesperson of the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa's governing party, from 2018 to 2023. He formerly represented the ANC in the National Assembly from 2014 to 2017.
Mabe rose to national prominence in 2008 when he was elected Treasurer-General of the ANC Youth League, then under the leadership of Julius Malema. Amid divisions over Malema's suspension from the ANC and over Mabe's political support for Jacob Zuma, Mabe was removed from his party position by a motion of no confidence in May 2012 and then reinstated in January 2013. After his term in the league office ended in March 2013, he launched an abortive campaign to succeed Malema as ANC Youth League president. He was elected to Parliament in the 2014 general election but resigned in mid-2017.
Mabe was elected to his first term on the ANC National Executive Committee in 2012. After his re-election at the party's 54th National Conference in December 2017, he was appointed ANC spokesperson in February 2018. He was elected to a third consecutive five-year term on the National Executive Committee in 2022.
A journalist by training, Mabe also had a career in business, and his former business dealings have attracted controversy. A 2012 contract between his company and the state-owned Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa was the subject of a Public Protector investigation and a parliamentary misconduct finding, and in 2014 Mabe was acquitted on a charge of defrauding the South African Social Security Agency.
Early life and career
Mabe was born on 1 March 1980 in Namakgale, a township in Phalaborwa in present-day Limpopo. He was raised by a single mother who died when he was 22. He earned a BTech in journalism from the Tshwane University of Technology (then called Technikon Northern Gauteng), where he served as deputy president of the students' representative council from 1998 to 1999. Later, in June 2019, he completed a Master of Business Leadership at the University of South Africa.
After he earned his undergraduate degree, Mabe worked as a print journalist. He met and befriended Julius Malema in Johannesburg while he was working at his first reporting job at the Mail & Guardian. In the early 2000s, he left journalism and ultimately was employed at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), where he served as executive manager for corporate affairs until his resignation in the 2008/2009 financial year. He also pursued his own business career, establishing a publishing company called KG Media. Malema told the Mail & Guardian that he and Mabe occasionally took on business deals together, especially contracts with state agencies. In addition, Mabe served on the Gauteng Youth Commission from 2003 to 2009.
ANCYL Treasurer: 2008–2013
In April 2008, Mabe was elected Treasurer-General of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League (ANCYL). He ran for the position on a slate of candidates aligned to Malema, who was elected ANCYL President at the same party conference. He was re-elected to the position, again alongside Malema, in June 2011. During his tenure as Treasurer-General, the league approached insolvency.
It was also reported that Mabe, formerly a "staunch supporter" of Malema, grew increasingly estranged from Malema in 2011 and 2012, as Malema turned against incumbent ANC President Jacob Zuma and was suspended and then expelled from the ANC. Mabe, and other ANCYL leaders aligned to him, apparently urged the ANCYL to accept Malema's expulsion and hold new leadership elections rather than challenge the mainstream ANC's decision. In addition, the pro-Malema caucus of the ANCYL reportedly resented Mabe's support for Zuma's bid to be re-elected ANC President, as it was at odds with the ANCYL's unofficial platform at the time.
Motion of no confidence
In May 2012, the ANCYL National Executive Committee passed a motion of no confidence in Mabe and dismissed him as Treasurer-General, though he would remain an ordinary member of the league. The motion reportedly arose from allegations that Mabe had mismanaged the league's funds and, through his own ANCYL presidential ambitions, had sown division in the league. Pule rejected the decision, saying it had been made improperly. The Mail & Guardian reported that Mabe attempted to attend an ANCYL leadership meeting as usual later in May and was escorted out by security guards.
