Pontso S. M. Sekatle (born 26 May 1957) is a politician and academic in
Lesotho
Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...
Senate of Lesotho
The Senate of Lesotho () is the upper chamber of the Parliament of Lesotho, which, along with the National Assembly of Lesotho (the lower chamber), comprises the legislature of Lesotho.
Bicameralism in Lesotho is specifically modeled after t ...
, and on July 6, 2001 she became Minister of Health and Social Welfare. She was a member of the Qacha's Nek constituency for third time with the win in the elections in 2012 and was appointed the Minister of Local government and Chieftainship Affairs.
Dr. Sekatle in her capacity as the Minister of Local government, executed the local elections in 2005, the first of its kind in Lesotho and originally envisioned during 1968.
Early life
Sekatle was born on 26 May 1957 in Quthing District of Lesotho. She completed her primary education at Quthing Primary, secondary at Mopeli Secondary School and her Cambridge School Certificate in Masitise High School. Sekalte started her career as a lecturer of National University of Lesotho and went on to become the Head of the Department of Political and Administrative Studies. In June 2001, she was appointed as a member of the Upper House of the Representatives. Her husband, Semano Sekatle, is also a member of the government, currently serving as Minister of Public Service."Lesotho's new cabinet comprises former ministers" African Press Agency, March 3, 2007.
Lesotho Congress for Democracy
The Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) is a political party in Lesotho.
In 1997, Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle left the Basutoland Congress Party to form with his faction the new Lesotho Congress for Democracy. The new party won the 1998 ele ...
(LCD) candidate in the Qacha's Nek constituency, previously held by Prime Minister
Pakalitha Mosisili
Bethuel Pakalitha Mosisili (born 14 March 1945) is a former Mosotho politician who was the fourth prime minister of Lesotho from May 1998 to June 2012 and again from March 2015 to June 2017.February 2007 parliamentary election, she remained in the latter position in the government of March 2007. She was a member of the Qacha's Nek constituency for third time with the win in the elections in 2012 and was appointed the Minister of Local government and Chieftainship Affairs.
Sekatle joined the new Pakalitha Mosisili-led splinter party
Democratic Congress
The Democratic Congress is a political party in Lesotho that split from the Lesotho Congress for Democracy. It is led by Mathibeli Mokhothu.
History
Before the 2012 election, the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy split, with Prime Minis ...
on its formation in 2012. In December 2018, Semano Sekatle, Pontso's husband and fellow Democratic Congress legislator, defected to Tom Thabane's ruling All Basotho Convention. Pontso soon after quit her post as Democratic Congress's Women League president. Speculation that Pontso would too soon follow suit and defect to the All Basotho Convention was put to rest in April 2019, when she was officially presented to ABC masses at one of Thabane's rallies in
Peka PEKA, the Political Committee of the Cypriot Struggle (), was the political wing of the EOKA movement which fought against the British and Turkish Cypriots for the union of Cyprus with Greece between 1955 and 1959. It was founded in the summer of 19 ...
, Leribe, as one of the All Basotho Convention's latest catches.
Positions held
Dr. Sekatle was appointed as the Minister of Local government with an aim of realizing the decentralization drive of the Lesotho government envisioned during 1968. She is considered to have driven the local elections in 2005, the first of its kind in Lesotho. Dr. Sekatle has also headed various executive committees like Lesoth Congress for Democracy Women's League (DCWL) and Democratic Congress League (DCL). She started as a Secretary General in 2008 and went on to become the President of both the committees, which she headed as of 2016. She was also the Deputy President for African Association for Public Administration and Management (AAPAM), Deputy President for Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CWLG), Director of UNESCO Lesotho and Director of Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC). She has published various works in the field of public administration, governance and institution building.