title: Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi
text: # Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi
  
  Hlengiwe Octavia Mkhaliphi (née Hlophe-Maxon) is a South African politician who has been serving as a Member of the National Assembly since May 2014. Mkhaliphi is a founding member of the Economic Freedom Fighters and served as the party's inaugural deputy secretary-general from 2014 until 2019.
  
  ## Education
  
  Mkhaliphi received a Bachelor of Administration Honours in Public Administration from the University of South Africa in April 2019.
  
  ## Political career
  
  Mkhaliphi is a founding member of the Economic Freedom Fighters, a party that was established in July 2013 and is currently led by Julius Malema. She was elected as one of the party's first parliamentarians in May 2014. In December of that same year, she was elected as the party's inaugural deputy secretary-general.
  
  Mkhaliphi returned to Parliament following the 2019 general election. At the party's December conference, she was nominated for a second term as deputy secretary-general, but she declined the nomination. Poppy Mailola was elected to succeed her.
  
  ## Personal life
  
  Mkhaliphi married in October 2016. The party's Twitter account tweeted about it with "#revolutionarywedding".
  
  