Mbali Ntuli is a South African politician and a member of the Democratic Alliance. She is the former Provincial Campaigns Director for the party in KZN. She currently serves as a member of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature and serves as the DA KZN Spokesperson on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. She previously served as leader of the Democratic Alliance Youth. She was elected to this position in May 2013.
Early life and education
Ntuli is a native of KwaZulu-Natal. She grew up in La Lucia. When she was 8 years old, her father, "Big Ben" Ntuli, the founder of the KwaZulu-Natal Taxi Association died. In the wake of his death, her extended family feuded over his business. During that time, both she and her brother survived poisoning by their grandmother, and survived another three assassination attempts. Due to the danger they faced, Ntuli's mother sent her to The Wykeham Collegiate boarding school in Pietermaritzburg. Ntuli holds a Bachelor of Social Science degree from Rhodes University, and runs a taxi business. In August 2010, she was chosen as one of 5fm's Women of the Month along with many other notable South African woman. In May 2011, Ntuli was named one of South Africa's 200 Young People to Watch by the Mail and Guardian in their annual supplement. Ntuli has also been named as one of the Top 40 Power Women by the Destiny magazine. In February 2013, Ntuli was named a Trustee of C.R.O.W citing a passion for wildlife as the reason for her acceptance of the position. In March 2013, Ntuli was an alumnus of the prestigious IVLP Programme.
Political career
Ntuli is a graduate of the DA Young Leaders programme, and was part of the 2008 class. After graduating, Ntuli returned to KwaZulu-Natal, where she was elected as the party's Provincial Youth Chairperson. In that position, she helped the DA build up their political presence in townships such as KwaMashu and Ntuzuma. She held the office of Chairperson of the Federal DA Youth from 2010, and was elected on 18 May 2011 as a councillor for the community of Inanda in the eThekwini Municipality, and succeeded Makashule Gana as DA Youth Federal Leader in 2013. She was elected to the KwaZulu-Natal legislature after the 2014 general election. Following the election, the former leader of the DA in KZN, Sizwe Mchunu, deployed Ntuli to the Mkhanyakude constituency in the north of the province in order to grow support in the area, where the DA had negligible presence. Due to these duties, Ntuli announced in August 2014 that she would stand down as youth leader, to be replaced by Yusuf Cassim. In 2018, she left the Legislature to take up a staff position for the DA in KZN, as the party's Provincial Campaign Director. Ntuli's task was to help grow the DA's support in KwaZulu-Natal in the 2019 elections. While the DA in KZN lost their position as the Official Opposition in the province, the party did manage to grow their support from 12.76% to 13.9%, and subsequently, increased the number of seats that they hold in the KZN Legislature, from 10 to 11. In the 2019 elections, Mbali appeared 2nd on the provincial list for the Democratic Alliance, and has taken up her seat in the KZN Provincial Legislature, as the DA's Spokesperson on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. In a letter to DA members and public representatives, Ntuli announced that she would contest the position of the DA Federal Leader at the party's upcoming Federal Congress. She held a press briefing formally announcing her candidacy on 7 February 2020.
Mbali Ntuli and Helen Zille's relationship has been characterised by disagreement with each other. South African media have even claimed that there is animosity between the two. In 2014, Zille called Ntuli a "princess" and a "prima donna", for "repeated instances" of behaviour that Zille regarded as unprofessional. Ntuli had criticised as "strategically unsound" DA plans to march on Luthuli House to complain about an unfulfilled promise of new jobs by the ANC; although Zille encouraged disagreement, she took issue with Ntuli's unwillingness to discuss the topic with her when she tried to reach out to her. Ntuli faced internal disciplinary charges in 2017, based on allegations that she in December 2016 "liked" a comment on social media, in response to an article about Zille's controversial tweets in 2016, that called Zille "racist"; and that she accused the DA of "inconsistency" in the way it treats contraventions of its social media policy. Acting Western Cape DA leader Bonginkosi Madikizela brought the allegations to the party's attention. Despite advice from the DA legal commission that charges not proceed because they could reflect poorly on the party, federal executive chairmanJames Selfe maintained that it was the federal executive's duty to investigate the matter in order to be consistent with the way that the party addressed social media faux pas such as Zille's and Dianne Kohler Barnard's. "How does one justify charging Ms Kohler Barnard and not Ms Ntuli?" he had asked.
