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Mcebisi Hubert Jonas (born 1960) is a South African politician and businessman who was the Deputy Minister of Finance of South Africa between May 2014 and March 2017. He is best known as a state capture whistleblower. In 2016, he publicly alleged that the Gupta brothers had offered him the post of finance minister under President Jacob Zuma.
Born in the Eastern Cape, Jonas was an anti-apartheid activist in Port Elizabeth and a founding member of the United Democratic Front. A former head of the Eastern Cape Development Corporation, he joined the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature as a representative of the African National Congress (ANC). Between 2009 and 2014, he was a Member of the Executive Council of the Eastern Cape under Premier Noxolo Kiviet. He launched two unsuccessful campaigns to become provincial chairperson of the Eastern Cape ANC, in 2006 and 2009 respectively.
Jonas joined the National Assembly in the 2014 general election and was appointed as Deputy Minister of Finance under President Zuma's second cabinet. Zuma sacked him on 31 March 2017, alongside Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, and he resigned from Parliament shortly thereafter. He has since launched a career in business, running Ntiso Investment Holdings. He was appointed as special investment envoy to President Cyril Ramaphosa in April 2018 and as board chairperson of the MTN Group in December 2019.
Jonas became active in politics as a teenager in Port Elizabeth during apartheid. In the early 1980s, he was involved in the Black Consciousness Movement, including as an organiser in the Azanian Students' Organisation, and he was a founding member of the Eastern Cape branch of the United Democratic Front. He later went into exile with UMkhonto weSizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). According to his official résumé, he received military training in Angola and Uganda and was recruited by the United Nations to run an educational programme for his fellow MK cadres. He returned to South Africa during the negotiations to end apartheid and became active in the newly legalised activities of the ANC and South African Communist Party in the Eastern Cape.
Jonas left the ECDC acrimoniously, sacked during a board meeting in November 2004. His dismissal was viewed as part of a "purge" inside the ANC, led by Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela and targeting allies of Balindlela's rivals, Enoch Godongwana and Makhenkesi Stofile. After his departure from ECDC, Jonas and two senior ECDC officials were indicted on criminal charges, accused of Fraud investors in a deal in which ECDC had been involved. In September 2005, the charges against them were dismissed, with Eastern Cape High Court judge Dayalin Chetty finding that there was "not a shred of evidence even remotely implicating the accused".
In December 2006, Jonas attended the ANC's provincial elective conference at Fort Hare in Alice, where he was one of two candidates for election as provincial chairperson of the Eastern Cape ANC. Jonas was viewed as aligned to ascendant national politician Jacob Zuma, while his opponent, Stone Sizani, was a supporter of incumbent president Thabo Mbeki, Zuma's primary rival. He also had the support of the outgoing provincial chairperson, Makhenkesi Stofile. However, Sizani beat him by just under 200 votes, across a total of 1,509 ballots.
Nonetheless, in 2007, Jonas returned to the ANC Provincial Executive Committee. Later that year he joined the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature, filling an ANC seat, and he chaired the legislature's Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements for the next two years.
The ANC's next provincial elective conference was held in East London in September 2009. In a fierce contest, Jonas stood for the provincial chairmanship, running against his colleague in the Executive Council, Phumulo Masualle. Running on an Anti-communism platform, Jonas was the presumed frontrunner in the race, having won the support of most of the incumbent government, as well as of the party's large branches in the Amathole District and O. R. Tambo District. However, the vote was apparently swayed by Masualle's decision to select national minister Gugile Nkwinti as his running mate, and Masualle defeated Jonas, receiving 1,031 votes to his 930. Jonas also failed to gain re-election to the Provincial Executive Committee.
On 27 November 2010, Premier Kiviet announced a major reshuffle of the provincial government. In the reshuffle, the prestigious finance portfolio was removed from Jonas's brief and given to Masualle; Jonas thereafter served as MEC for Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism. He continued in that role until the next general election in May 2014.
The story ignited a major controversy about the putative State capture of the Zuma administration. In addition, politician Vytjie Mentor and public servant Themba Maseko both came forward with their own accusations about improper advances by the Guptas. Jonas was interviewed by the Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, as part of her investigation into state capture, and Madonsela's report revealed additional details of his meeting with the Guptas, including that he had been offered a R600 million payout, in addition to the job of Finance Minister, and that Duduzane Zuma and Fana Hlongwane had both been present at the meeting.
Senior ANC leaders, including deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and chief whip Jackson Mthembu, the reshuffle, sparking dissent against Zuma in the party and leading the Daily Maverick to label Jonas and Gordhan "the faces of the resistance movement". Their dismissals were among the grievances voiced at the so-called protests of early April 2017. Meanwhile, on 6 April, the ANC confirmed that Jonas had resigned his seat in Parliament in the aftermath of the reshuffle. His resignation took effect on 31 March, the day the reshuffle was announced. In May he said that the situation in South Africa had "gone beyond corruption. It is a real coup."
In August 2018, Jonas testified at the Zondo Commission, established under Justice Raymond Zondo to investigate the alleged capture of Zuma's administration. He gave a full account of his alleged meeting with Ajay Gupta in October 2015. Adding to his prior account, he alleged that Gupta had threatened to kill him. He appeared again at the Zondo Commission in March 2019 for cross-examination. The final report of the Zondo Commission concluded that Jonas had provided credible evidence of the Guptas' influence over Zuma.
In August 2019 Jonas launched his book, After Dawn: Hope after State Capture, which offers a political and economic programme for recovering from state capture in South Africa.
In April 2025 Jonas was appointed as a special envoy to the U.S by South African president Cyril Ramaphosa as part of efforts to repair relations with the Trump administration following the expulsion of South African ambassador Ebrahim Rasool and other diplomatic disagreements. His suitability for the role has been questioned following the resurfacing of an interview carried out by the SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) in November 2020 whereby Jonas labelled President Trump a "racist, homophobic narcissist and right-winger"
The interview has been forwarded to the Trump administration.
He heads Ntiso Investment Holdings, which is a leading partner in the consortium that became Apex Group's black economic empowerment partner in October 2023. After the deal was finalised, Jonas resigned from the board of Sygnia to avoid a conflict of interest.
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