Jessie Duarte

Duarte matriculated from Coronationville Secondary School in Johannesburg. Duarte started her professional career as a Management Accountant.[1]

She was recruited by Albertina Sisulu in 1979 to set up women’s structures throughout South Africa.

Two years later, in 1981, she served under the position of secretary of the Federation of Transvaal Women (FEDTRAW).[2]

In 1988, Jessie was detained without trial. She was placed under restriction orders until the lift of the State of Emergency.[3] Around that time she was working with Reverend Beyers Naudé to set up a scholarship fund to educate anti-apartheid activists to become an effective corp of public servants.

In 1990 she was elected to the Gauteng Provincial Executive Council (PEC) and appointed to the ANC’s Interim Leadership Core.[4]

She was appointed as the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Safety and Security in Gauteng in 1994 after serving as a Personal Assistant to both former President Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu.

In 1998 she was involved in controversy centered around the possible misuse of public funds when she was alleged to have taken her lover on a trip to Portugal at the taxpayers' expense.[5]

She was subsequently forced to quit her role as Gauteng Safety and Security MEC after a commission of inquiry found there was a "strong suspicion" that she had covered up a car accident while driving without a licence.[6] Jessie Duarte admitted to having driven a car without a license but maintained that it was people in her department who had put out the claim that it was a bodyguard driving at the time.[7] The Mail & Guardian newspaper reported that she delivered the allegedly fraudulent document containing this claim to them in person.[8]

After leaving her position as MEC, Duarte was appointed as the South African ambassador to Mozambique and held this position between 1999 and 2003.

In 2012, she was appointed as Deputy Secretary-General of the African National Congress during the 53rd National Conference held in Mangaung.

On 7 January 2021, Duarte announced that she would be retiring as deputy secretary-general of the ANC at the party's next conference in 2022.[9]

In 2009 she featured in the news for two recorded diatribes launched against journalists Philani Nombembe of The Sunday Times[10] and John Humphrys of BBC Radio.[11] She later voiced support for the ANC's plans for a Media Appeals Tribunal in South Africa[12] that faced criticism as being political interference with free speech and possibly unconstitutional.[13] Jessie Duarte blamed the media for portraying Jacob Zuma in a negative light[14] and her dislike for the media is an open secret.[15]

In 2014, Duarte publicly compared Israel's alleged actions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to that of Nazi Germany.[16] This drew strong rebukes from Jewish groups within South Africa.[17]

In 2019 she accused the ANC, the majority ruling party in South Africa, of being "racist" and "tribalistic" towards members and voters who are not black Africans.[18]

She has been accused of being tolerant of corruption within government structures,[19] and in April 2021 supported Jacob Zuma's claims that the commission set up to investigate state capture under his rule was discredited.[20] Evidence given at the commission suggested that Jesse Duarte’s ex-husband John Duarte was one of the people who appeared in the evidence of money flows from contracts within the scope of the commissions investigation.[21] Her son was also accused of receiving money from a company that was awarded government tenders.[22]

In June 2021 Jessie Duarte was quoted by China's state newspaper, Xinhua News Agency, as saying that China is an example for many developing countries to learn from (in) areas such as poverty eradication as well as economic growth and development.[23] In March 2020, just three months before, a report implicated 83 major brands implicated in report on forced labour of ethnic minorities where the Chinese government was found to be using the Uyghur minority for forced labor, inside sweat shops. According to a report published then by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), no fewer than around 80,000 Uyghurs were forcibly removed from the region of Xinjiang and used for forced labor in at least twenty-seven corporate factories.[24] Duarte believes that the approach upheld by the CPC resonates with the ANC, which honors the belief of Batho-Pele, or "People First."

Duarte is the sister of Achmat Dangor.[25]

Jessie Duarte was married to John Duarte and divorced in 2001. They have two children together.[26]

In 2022, the African National Congress gave Jessie Duarte sick leave and has been away from her political duties for the past 6 months. On 24 April 2022, Duarte revealed that she had been battling with cancer, after media falsely claimed that she had passed away, due to being absent from public party events.[27]