Mathabiso Lepono

Mathabiso Angeline Lepono (born 1942) is a Mosotho politician. She was a longtime minister of gender, youth, and sports under Lesotho's prime minister Pakalitha Mosisili. Early life and education Mathabiso Angeline Lepono was born in 1942 in Thibella, a village in Lesotho's Maseru District. Due to apartheid law, her mother, a domestic worker, was not able to stay with her. so she spent her childhood living with various relatives across South Africa, from Klerksdorp to Orlando. She faced abusive environments in some of her many foster homes. She attended school at Blessed Martin de Porres in South Africa. After completing elementary school in 1957, she returned to Lesotho with her mother. Back in Lesotho, she got a job as an office assistant at a hospital. Her supervisors enrolled her at St. Stephen's High School in Mohale's Hoek, with her work supervisor and one of her teachers funding her education. Her first introduction to politics was in this period, when she joined the Basutoland African Congress as a youth member.