president of the South African Youth Congress in Northern Transvaal in 1990. He was detained between 1986 and 1989 under the Terrorism Act. Additionally, in 1990, Mathale was appointed as a member of its interim leadership core of the Northern Transvaal branch of the African National Congress (ANC), which had recently been unbanned by the apartheid government and was re-establishing its structures inside South Africa. Subsequently he sat on the regional executive committee of the ANC in Northern Transvaal from 1990 to 1991 and again from 1993 to 1996. Post-apartheid career In South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, Mathale was elected as a Member of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature and also became Commissioner for Youth Affairs in the provincial government. He served on the Provincial Executive Committee of the Limpopo ANC between 1994 and 1997. He left the provincial legislature and government in 1996, and the ANC provincial executive in 1997, but in 1996 was elected to a two-year term as a member of the ANC Youth League's National Executive Committee. In subsequent years he held a variety of positions in ANC structures in Limpopo: he was regional secretary for the ANC's North East Limpopo region from 1998 to 2000, a member of the regional executive committee of the ANC's Mopani region in 2000, and a member of the branch executive committee at a local ANC branch in Nkowankowa from 2001 to 2002. ANC Provincial Secretary: 2002–2008 In 2002, Mathale was elected Provincial Secretary of the ANC in Limpopo, one of the most senior leadership positions in the provincial party. Although it was a full-time position based at ANC headquarters, the Mail & Guardian observed that Mathale was simultaneously a "well-known entrepreneur" in Limpopo, with directorships in at least ten companies in the mining, construction, farming, and hospitality sectors. At the same time, towards the end of his second term as Provincial Secretary, Mathale launched a bid to replace Sello Moloto as Provincial Chairperson of the ANC in Limpopo. He was supported by the Limpopo branch of the ANC Youth League, which at that time was led by league provincial secretary Julius Malema. The league had turned against Moloto when Moloto supported incumbent ANC President Thabo Mbeki in his succession battle with ANC Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who ultimately ousted Mbeki at the ANC's 52nd National Conference. In early 2008, Mathale and Moloto's rivalry became highly divisive in the