In 1990 she was elected COSATU's Gender Convenor in the Border Region. In 1994 COSATU seconded her to the Office of the Premier to set up the Provincial Gender Machinery, which resulted in the establishment of the Office on the Status of Women in the province. She was subsequently elected as a member of the Provincial Women Coalition Committee. In 1999 she became an executive member of the National Women's Coalition, and in 2006 she participated in the formation of the Progressive Women's Movement. In 2007, Ncitha became a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP), and was elected Convener of the Gender Transformation Commission. She represented the SACP in the historic Congress of the Left, which was held in Sweden, where she presented the Gender Transformation programme of the Party. In 2008 she was again included in the SACP delegation to CUBA to study that country's political, systematic and functional organization as a communist model. On 31 May 2011, Zukiswa Ncitha was elected as the first Executive Mayor of the newly-established Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality.
