Lesego: How beauty queen strode to Botswana cabinet

By Brian Okoth

Miss Botswana 2022, who is also the Miss World Africa 2024, Lesego Chombo has been appointed the country's new minister for youth and gender affairs.

Twenty-six-year-old Chombo was appointed on Monday, November 11 by President Duma Boko.

The beauty queen is among the six cabinet ministers unveiled as part of President Boko's new government, with 12 more ministers yet to be appointed.

The president, who addressed journalists in Botswana's capital Gaborone on Monday, said the other appointments will be announced "as the week progresses."

Health ministers in his 30s

Vice President Ndaba Gaolathe has been named the country's new finance minister.

Gaolathe, who is in his 50s, holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics from an American university, and a Master's Degree in Business Administration (Finance option), also from a US university.

Stephen Modise, a medical doctor who pursued his education abroad, has been named Botswana's health minister. Modise, who is a specially elected member of parliament, is in his late 30s.

Botswana's assistant health minister is Lawrence Ookeditse, who is also the Member of Parliament for Nata-Gweta constituency.

UNICEF lauds new ministry

Micus Chimbombi, who is the Member of Parliament for Kgalagadi South constituency, will serve as Botswana's minister for lands and agriculture.

Edwin Dikoloti, an independent MP representing Good hope/Mmathete constituency, will be the assistant minister for lands.

President Boko has also appointed Dr. Nono Kgafela-Mokoka, a 59-year-old university don, as the minister for the newly created ministry of child welfare and basic education.

UNICEF lauded the president for creating the ministry, saying on Monday: "This will go a long way, in ensuring that children's rights remain at the heart of the national agenda."

Youthful Chombo's appointment lauded

Dr. Phenyo Butale, the Member of Parliament for Gaborone Central and a literature scholar, has been named Botswana's minister for international relations, an equivalent of foreign affairs ministry in other countries.

The appointments of the ministers and assistant ministers take effect immediately.

As President Boko's government takes shape, the appointment of the youthful Lesego Chombo as cabinet minister was commended by different quarters, including the African Union Women, Gender and Youth Directorate.

The directorate said on X network that the appointment provides "a platform for young people to lead, and be at the forefront of policymaking."

Impactful 'community work'

President Boko said he settled on Chombo as youth and gender affairs minister because of her impactful "community work."

Her engagements included championing children's rights and wellness, and also speaking out against gender-based violence.

While unveiling Chombo as the new youth minister, President Boko said: "I did not know her, I had not met her until very briefly after she was confirmed as a specially elected member of parliament. And I told her: 'You and I don't know each other, we've never met; we (now) meet in these circumstances. So, you know it is because of you and what you've been; not who you've known, or been known by. That doesn't matter'."

Chombo, a graduate of the University of Botswana, holds a Bachelor's Degree in Law, and is a practicing attorney at the High Court of Botswana.

Africa's finest

She was crowned Miss Botswana 2022 from a group of 30 contestants in October that year.

She represented her country at the Miss World 2024 pageant in India's Mumbai city in March.

At the contest, she emerged in the top four, behind representatives from Czech Republic, Lebanon, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Being the highest-ranked African representative, she was crowned Miss World Africa 2024.

In Botswana, cabinet ministers are chosen from parliament, with a few from outside parliament.

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