Kebby Maphatsoe

Kebby Maphatsoe is the Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans of the Republic of South Africa a position he was appointed to on 26 May 2014.

Mr Maphatsoe is the National Chairperson of the military veterans of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC).Mr Maphatsoe is a former member of the Congress of South African Students and the Soweto Youth Congress, as well as a former member of the South African Youth Congress.

During the apartheid years, he went to exile and became a trained Political Commissar of MK; he received further training in Angola, and in the Soviet Union and was also exiled in Uganda before returning to South Africa.

Mr Maphatsoe has led the ANC Greater Joburg Zone 7 where he served as zonal treasurer.

Mr Maphatsoe also led the MK Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) as regional chairperson, and was elected provincial chairperson in 2007. Under his political direction, the MKMVA became an integral component of the ANC and for the first time the association was in the central agenda of the ANC political framework with the achievement of progressive resolutions for the association and the ANC.

During his tenure, the Ministry of Defence was changed to Defence and Military Veterans to accommodate military veterans, and to form a department separate from the Department of Defence with its own budget and administration.

Under his leadership, the South African National Military Veterans Association was re-launched and he was elected the president; this led to the unification of all military veteran structures.