Lindiwe Nonceba Sisulu (born 10 May 1954) is a South African politician. She represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly of South Africa between April 1994 and March 2023. During that time, from 2001 to 2023, she served continuously in the cabinet as a minister under four consecutive presidents. President Cyril Ramaphosa sacked her from his cabinet in March 2023, precipitating her resignation from the National Assembly.

The daughter of anti-apartheid leaders Albertina and Walter Sisulu, Sisulu was born in Johannesburg and attended boarding school in neighbouring Swaziland. After suffering prolonged detention without trial in 1976–1977, she left South Africa, aged 23, and joined Umkhonto we Sizwe in exile. She lived primarily in Swaziland and England until 1990, when she returned to South Africa during the negotiations to end apartheid. Elected to the National Assembly in South Africa's first post-apartheid elections, she became the inaugural chairperson of Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence, and she went on to serve in Nelson Mandela's Government of National Unity as Deputy Minister of Home Affairs from 1996 to 2001.

Under President Thabo Mbeki, Sisulu served as Minister of Intelligence from 2001 to 2004 and as Minister of Housing from 2004 to 2009. Under President Jacob Zuma, she was Minister of Defence and Military Veterans from 2009 to 2012, Minister of Public Service and Administration from 2012 to 2014, and (returned to her former portfolio) Minister of Human Settlements from 2014 to 2018. President Ramaphosa appointed her as Minister of International Relations and Cooperation in February 2018, but her tenure in that position was brief: after the 2019 general election, she was moved to the newly created position of Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation. Finally, in a cabinet reshuffle in August 2021, she was demoted to Minister of Tourism, her last position in government.

Known for her "relentless" political ambition, she campaigned for election to the ANC presidency ahead of the party's 54th National Conference in 2017 and its 55th National Conference in 2022. Her 2022 campaign was notable for its populist rejection of constitutionalism. Neither campaign received enough support to advance a presidential nomination. She did appear on the 2017 ballot as Ramaphosa's running mate, but David Mabuza won the deputy presidential slot. Sisulu has been a member of the ANC National Executive Committee since December 1997; she was re-elected to a sixth five-year term in December 2022. She also served four terms as a member of the ANC National Working Committee between 2003 and 2022.

Sisulu was born on 10 May 1954 in Johannesburg. She had three elder brothers – Max, Mlungisi, and Zwelakhe – and a younger sister named Nonkululeko. Their parents, Walter and Albertina Sisulu, were prominent anti-apartheid activists; Walter was the secretary-general of the African National Congress (ANC) in 1954, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment ten years later in the Rivonia Trial. During her childhood, Sisulu therefore corresponded with her father by post; after the first moon landing, she wrote to tell him that she hoped to become "the first African woman in space" and he encouraged her to pursue her ambition.

Having attended boarding school since childhood, Sisulu completed high school outside South Africa at St Michael's School and Waterford Kamhlaba in neighbouring Swaziland. She graduated in 1973 with the Cambridge General Certificate of Education: Advanced Level. She studied Latin in school, intending to pursue a legal education in Britain, but was a denied a passport. Instead, she enrolled in a history and politics degree at the University of Swaziland. During this period, to her mother's disapproval, she became interested in Black Consciousness politics.

On 13 June 1976, at home in Johannesburg between semesters, Sisulu was arrested by the South African Police on suspicion of association with the banned ANC. She was detained without trial under the Terrorism Act for the next eleven months, held in jails at John Vorster Square, Hartbeespoort, Nylstroom, and the Pretoria Central Prison. Under interrogation, she suffered electric torture, sexual torture, and isolation; she was also told, falsely, that her family members had died or been arrested. Her father, himself still imprisoned, wrote a lengthy letter to Jimmy Kruger, the Minister of Justice, noting her depression and expressing concern that "the sins of her parents are being visited on her head". Her mother later said that Sisulu was "terribly affected" by her torture. She was released from detention in July 1977 and, shortly afterwards, she left South Africa to live permanently in exile.

After a sojourn with Ruth First in Maputo, Mozambique, Sisulu joined Umkhonto we Sizwe, the exiled military wing of the ANC, later in 1977. Over the next two years, she received military training under its auspices, with a specialism in military intelligence; according to her official résumé, she was admitted to the Order of the Red Star for her performance on a Soviet training course. In 1980, she returned to Swaziland, where she continued her work for the ANC and where she resumed her education: she completed her BA at the University of Swaziland, followed by diploma in education in 1980 and an Honours in history in 1981.