Mkhuleko Hlengwa

He has sat in the National Assembly since 2012, chaired its public accounts committee from 2019 to 2024, and has been Deputy Minister of Transport since July 2024. He is the IFP's candidate for mayor of eThekwini (Durban) in the 2026 local government elections.

Career

Hlengwa attended Port Shepstone High School, studied at the University of KwaZulu-Natal without completing a degree, earned a bachelor's degree through the University of South Africa and a postgraduate certificate in governance and leadership from the Wits School of Governance in 2016. He was national chairperson of the IFP Youth Brigade from 2011 to 2019 and has been the IFP's national spokesperson since 2018. He entered the National Assembly in 2012 and was re-elected in 2014, 2019 and 2024. From July 2019 to May 2024 he chaired the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), and since July 2024 he has been Deputy Minister of Transport. On 31 August 2026 the IFP named him its eThekwini mayoral candidate, with taxi industry figure Sizwe Skhakhane as its deputy mayoral candidate.

Positions

Announcing his candidacy in August 2026, Hlengwa said eThekwini has the economic assets to be one of the leading metropolitan economies on the continent, and that this needs competent planning, efficient administration, investment and people prepared to make things happen, as reported by EWN. His party, the IFP, is described by Wikipedia as right-wing while describing itself as centrist; it favours devolution of power to provinces, strong law-and-order policies, lower income taxes and trade liberalisation, and recognition of traditional authorities.

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Wikipedia · Wikipedia · EWN

Photo: Kabir Dhanji, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons (cropped)