Former cabinet minister Sicelo Shiceka died on Monday morning, the ANC has confirmed.
Spokesman Keith Khoza said Shiceka, 45, had been in hospital in the Eastern Cape at the time of his death.
He could not immediately provide further details, but said that he was in contact with members of Shiceka's family.
Shiceka served as minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs from mid-2009 before he was put on sick leave early in 2011.
He was later sacked by President Jacob Zuma in a cabinet reshuffle in October last year after an investigation by the Office of the Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela.
Madonsela found that Shiceka had acted unlawfully and dishonestly, abused public funds and contravened both the ethics code for executive members of government and the Constitution.
The investigation was launched after allegations surfaced in newspaper reports that Shiceka had racked up large bills staying at luxury hotels at taxpayers’ expense and accommodating family members and friends, and that he had also visited a former girlfriend serving time in jail in Switzerland under the false pretext that he was in the country on official World Cup business.
Despite the report being handed to Parliament's ethics committee, no further action appears to have been taken.
Shiceka remained an MP until the time of his passing.
Prior to his appointment as Co-operative Governance minister, Shiceka was Minister of Provincial and Local Government under President Kgalema Motlanthe from 2008.
As an MP he served on a number of committees, including those overseeing the public service, land and environmental affairs, security and constitutional affairs and defence.
His political career started when he became a member of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) in the 1980s. He went on to serve as branch chairman in Soweto.
He served on various structures for numerous political parties including the Azanian Student Organisation (1987), the Paper, Printing, Allied Workers Union in 1989, the Johannesburg inner-city branch of the South African Communist Party (1991), as provincial secretary of Cosatu in 1992.
Shiceka became a member of the ANC's Gauteng provincial executive council in 1996, and served as MEC for Development Planning and Local Government in the Gauteng Legislature from 1994 to 1999.
He became a member of the ANC NEC in 2007, serving on a number of sub-committees.
He is credited with conceptualising the establishment of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA). - Political Bureau