ANALYSIS: Gigaba: A flashy career gone up in flames
In the early 2000s Malusi Gigaba was headed for the top.
He was president of the influential ANC Youth League (ANCYL), which had begun to flex its political muscle inside a party in firm control of South Africa's young democracy.
Under then president Thabo Mbeki the ANCYL was increasingly claiming the role that Peter Mokaba, a firebrand former leader, had envisaged for it: militant, outspoken and unafraid. And in Gigaba – smart and articulate – the ANC found the right person to lead the so-called "young lions". The ANCYL started taking part in national debates – about black economic empowerment, transformation, sports quotas – and positioned itself as the progressive and radical wing of Mbeki's party, with Gigaba at the forefront.
But the ANCYL never veered too far away from Mbeki and although it often took controversial positions to test the political waters, the ANCYL was very much part of the furniture at Luthuli House. Gigaba became an MP in 1999 and was elected ANCYL president three times between 1996 and 2004, the year in which he was appointed deputy minister of home affairs by Mbeki.
Gigaba first served on the ANC's national executive committee (NEC) in 2002 and was re-elected in 2007 after switching his allegiance from Mbeki to Zuma. His higher position on the final list of NEC members reflected this, and he was rewarded with a full ministry in 2010, after Zuma dismissed Barbara Hogan as minister of public enterprises.