David Mabuza, the former deputy president of South Africa who rose from union activist to the upper echelons of power only to have his career marred by allegations of corruption and graft, died on Thursday in Mpumalanga Province. He was 64.
His death was confirmed in a statement by President Cyril Ramaphosa, whom Mr. Mabuza served under before resigning two years ago. Mr. Mabuza died at a hospital in his home province after a short battle with an undisclosed illness, Mr. Ramaphosa said.
“We are saddened today by the loss of a leader who was grounded in activism at the early stages of his political career and who came to lead our nation,” Mr. Ramaphosa said. He added that Mr. Mabuza helped to “shape South Africa’s engagement with our continental compatriots and the international community.”
Mr. Mabuza played a critical role in helping to elevate Mr. Ramaphosa to the presidency.
In a 2017 election conference for the African National Congress, the governing party, Mr. Mabuza initially backed Mr. Ramaphosa’s opponent. But in a stunning, last-minute turn of events, he threw his support behind Mr. Ramaphosa, helping him to claim a narrow victory as party leader.
Some South Africans credited Mr. Mabuza for rescuing the country from Jacob Zuma, the scandal-plagued incumbent whose support for Mr. Ramaphosa’s opponent was seen as an effort to divide the party and extend his grip on power.
Mr. Ramaphosa became president when Mr. Zuma resigned in 2018. Mr. Mabuza was appointed deputy.
He was “a person who knew how to maneuver and play politics,” said Bheki Mngomezulu, a political science professor at Nelson Mandela University.
But much of Mr. Mabuza’s political success was built on the same corruption that would lead to his downfall.
David Dabede Mabuza was born on Aug. 25, 1960, in Phola Trust township in Mpumalanga, according to the presidential website. It says he earned a bachelor’s in psychology from the University of South Africa in 1989. He was also a former mathematics teacher and anti-AIDS activist.
He is survived by a wife and children, the president’s statement said, but additional information was not immediately available.
Mr. Mabuza elevated his relatively small, rural home province into the African National Congress’s second-largest voting bloc. But a New York Times investigation in 2018 described how he had garnered much of that influence through bribes, government contracts and even KFC meals to help grow the party’s membership in Mpumalanga.
He redirected money meant for schools and other public services to build his political empire, The Times found. Many of the schools in Mpumalanga were crumbling and dangerous. Children were electrocuted and drowned in open pit latrines.
The allegations against Mr. Mabuza, some of which came from within the African National Congress, were viewed as a disgrace to Mr. Ramaphosa’s pledge to root out corruption at a time when many voters had lost faith in the party.
By the time Mr. Ramaphosa’s first term as party leader was coming to an end, much of Mr. Mabuza’s power had waned. At the party’s conference in 2022, a member rose to nominate Mr. Mabuza to run for another term as deputy leader. Mr. Mabuza declined the nomination.
It brought an abrupt end to his political career.
John Eligon is the Johannesburg bureau chief for The Times, covering a wide range of events and trends that influence and shape the lives of ordinary people across southern Africa.
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