Thabang Sampson Makwetla MP (, born 18 May 1957) is a South African politician affiliated with the African National Congress (ANC). He is a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa and is the current Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, a role he previously served in between 2009 and 2014. He has also served as the Deputy Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, and was Premier of Mpumalanga province between 2004 and 2009. Early life and exile Thabang Sampson Phathakge Makwetla was born on 18 May 1957 in Lydenburg, a mining town in the Eastern Transvaal province, now known as Mpumalanga, South Africa. Since he participated in the Soweto Student Uprising in June 1976, he was forced to flee the country before he could matriculate. He fled to Lesotho to complete his schooling and joined the ANC's military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), later serving as an instructor and political commissar in the organization. While serving in the MK, Makwetla was stationed in neighboring countries, such as Angola, Botswana, and Zambia. Matwetla received education in Europe, earning a diploma from the Academy of Sciences in Bulgaria, and also undertook a short military training course from the Soviet Union in 1979. Makwetla returned to Africa and worked as treasurer for the South African Communist Party in the Botswanan region from 1981 to 1990. It was near the end of apartheid when Makwetla returned to South Africa, joining the National Executive Committee of the ANC's youth wing, the African National Congress Youth League.

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Thabang Sampson Makwetla MP (, born 18 May 1957) is a South African politician affiliated with the African National Congress (ANC). He is a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa and is the current Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, a role he previously served in between 2009 and 2014. He has also served as the Deputy Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, and was Premier of Mpumalanga province between 2004 and 2009.