Kingsley Mamabolo 2024 Speaker

South African High Commissioner

United Kingdom and Northern Ireland

Biography

High Commissioner Mamabolo began his political career in 1978 as the Deputy Head of Mission for the ANC in Tanzania before being appointed to the same position in Zimbabwe in 1985. He became Head of Mission (Chief Representative) for the ANC in Mozambique in 1987, then Cuba in 1989 and Zimbabwe in 1992. Following the election of the first ANC Government in 1994, he became High Commissioner to the Republic of Zimbabwe, until 1999, when he became South Africa’s Permanent Representative to the African Union and concurrently South African Ambassador to Ethiopia, Sudan, and Djibouti. In 2002 he became Deputy Director-General for African Affairs, Department of Foreign Affairs, until 2006, when he was appointed as South Africa’s Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region. From 2009 to 2013 he was South African High Commissioner to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, before moving on to New York to become the Permanent Representative of the Republic of South Africa to the United Nations. In 2017 he was appointed as Joint Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations and Chairperson of the African Union, a position which he held until 2021. High Commissioner Mamabolo holds a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and a Diploma in Journalism from Harare Polytechnic College, Zimbabwe. Born in 1955, he is married, has four children and is the current South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.