Frank Mdlalose

Dr Frank Themba Mdlalose was the first Premier of the newly renamed KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa, after the African National Congress (ANC) won the country's first all-inclusive general election in April 1994.

He was born on 29 November 1931 in Nquthu, northern Natal to Jaconia Mdlalose, a general dealer and Tabitha Mthembu, a tutor. He was educated at St Francis High School, Mariannhill, outside Durban. He then attended the Fort Hare University - (alongside future Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, to whom he is distantly related) - where he obtained a diploma. Mdlalose continued his studies at the University of Natal and in 1958 he obtained his MB Ch B degree and became a resident doctor at Durban's King Edward Hospital. Representing the students at the segregated medical school in Durban, established by Jan Smuts for Black and Indian students, he attended the only conference of the Association of Medical Students of South Africa attended by students from one of the Afrikaans-medium medical schools. They had hitherto refused to attend if Black students were present. One of the Afrikaner students said, as the conference finished, “I thank the Chair for having organised this conference. This is the first time I have met a black man with an intelligence equal to, or superior to, my own.” To which Frank responded, “I, too, thank the Chair for having organised this conference. This is the first time I have met an Afrikaner with an intelligence equal to, or superior to, my own.” Subsequently he became a GP in Atteridgeville near Pretoria and Steadville and Madadeni in northern Natal.