Leonard Ramatlakane

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Leonard Ramatlakane (born 16 February 1953) is a South African politician. He served as the Western Cape’s Minister for Community Safety and Security and briefly as acting Premier after Marthinus van Schalkwyk resigned in 2004.

In 2004, while Safety and Security MEC, he faced death threats linked to Chinese Triads after gang investigations. He also spent about R347,716 of public money on improving security at his home, which led the Western Cape Parliament’s public accounts committee to urge him to repay the funds; the vote against him included both the DA and ANC.

Ramatlakane resigned as MEC on 31 July 2008 after Premier Rasool was fired, making way for Lynne Brown to appoint her own MECs. Earlier, he served as the Congress of the People’s spokesperson on Public Service and Administration. In 2014 it emerged that he had defected from COPE to the ANC, with his name appearing on the ANC’s national parliamentary candidate list in March 2013. He has been a member of the National Assembly since 2014 (2014–2019 and 2019–2024).