Vusi Shongwe

Shongwe was assigned in February 2020 by Premier Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane to meet Russia's Sverdlovsk region minister of international and foreign economic affairs, Visiliy Kozlov, for bi-lateral talks. Kozlov had come to Mbombela government offices.

In April 2020, Shongwe called on families in Mpumalanga to consider starting vegetable gardens in response to the Covid-19 outbreak in South Africa and said using backyards to plant food was better than expecting aid from donors.

Shongwe is currently serving as the Mpumalanga MEC for Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs, a position he assumed after the 3 August 2016 local government elections when Mabuza reshuffled his cabinet and moved him from the security cluster to be the new agricultural MEC.

One of the couple's three children, last-born daughter 8-year-old Sethu Thandiswa Shongwe, died on 15 April 2015 when a speeding car hit her while she was crossing Ermelo's Pet Street near her home at around 4pm.

In December 2015, Shongwe was elected the provincial treasurer of the ANC in the Mpumalanga province during an elective congress that elected Mabuza for a third term as ANC provincial chairperson. Before this Shongwe had served as regional chairperson of the Gert Sibande ANC.

Vusumuzi Robert Shongwe (born 22 April 1958), known as Vusi Shongwe, is a South African politician who served as acting Premier of Mpumalanga between August and November 2015 while then Premier and now deputy president David Mabuza was being treated for an alleged food poisoning.

Shongwe was born in Breyten, east of Ermelo, Mpumalanga on 22 April 1958.