Douglas Maimane
# Douglas Maimane

Douglas Seleke Maimane (born 16 June 1969) is a South African politician who has been mayor of Madibeng Local Municipality in the North West since November 2021. He previously represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2004. In 2005, he was convicted of having stolen from Parliament in the Travelgate scandal.

## National Assembly: 1999–2004

Maimane was elected to the National Assembly in the 1999 general election, representing the North West constituency. He served a single term in the seat, leaving after the 2004 general election.

## Travelgate: 2005–2006

Less than a year after he left Parliament, Maimane appeared in court on fraud charges in connection with the Travelgate scandal, which saw several MPs accused of abusing parliamentary air-travel vouchers for private gain. In October 2006, he accepted a plea bargain with the Scorpions, in terms of which he pled guilty to theft. He was sentenced to pay a fine of R25,000 or serve three years in prison, with an additional five-year prison sentence suspended for five years.

## Mayor of Madibeng: 2021–present

Maimane later represented the ANC as a local councillor in Madibeng, where he was a Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) until January 2014, when he was elected as speaker of the council. His promotion was part of a campaign by the ANC to stabilise the municipality following a series of corruption scandals and violent service delivery protests in Brits.

Maimane was re-elected as a councillor in the 2021 local elections and after the election, on 22 November, he was elected as executive mayor of Madibeng. Notwithstanding a scandal in 2022 in which one of Maimane's MMCs accused him of sexual harassment, he remained in the mayoral office as of April 2023.

