Mahali Phamotse

Dr. Mahali Phamotse (born 1969) is a Mosotho politician. She is the member of Lesotho's National Assembly for the Matlakeng constituency and has held several cabinet portfolios, including Minister of Education and Training and Minister of Justice and Correctional Services. In 2023 she was expelled from the governing Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) party, but retained her constituency seat, and subsequently became the leader of the Lesotho branch of United Africans Transformation (UAT).

Early life and education Phamotse was born in Ha Shepheseli, Lesotho, in 1969. Before entering politics, she worked as a schoolteacher and later lectured at the Lesotho College of Education and the National University of Lesotho.

Political career

Early career and 2015 election Phamotse entered electoral politics in 2015 as a Democratic Congress (DC) candidate for the Matlakeng constituency. She narrowly lost the general election but entered the National Assembly through a proportional-representation seat and was appointed Minister of Education and Training in the coalition government formed after the election.

Matlakeng MP and expulsion from the RFP Phamotse won the Matlakeng constituency seat for the Revolution for Prosperity at the 2022 Lesotho general election. In August 2023, she and two other RFP MPs, Thuso Makhalanyane and Rethabile Letlailana, were suspended from the party for six years after voting with opposition parties in parliament. Phamotse and Makhalanyane challenged the suspension in Lesotho's High Court. The RFP's national executive committee formally expelled the three MPs at a party conference on 30 September 2023; Phamotse said she believed she was also targeted for inviting opposition leaders to a celebration in her constituency. Because she held the seat as a directly elected constituency MP rather than through a party-list proportional representation seat, her expulsion from the RFP did not affect her membership of parliament, and she has continued to sit as Matlakeng's MP since. Prosecutors allege that, while serving as Minister of Education and Training, she acted together with Kolotsane and Majara to improperly influence the awarding of the tender to Epic Printers and Molumeli (Pty) Ltd, including by amending the bid document's experience requirements. The case, prosecuted under Lesotho's Prevention of Corruption and Economic Offences Act, has faced repeated delays over discovery and pre-trial procedure; as of the most recent reporting it had not gone to trial and was scheduled for a hearing in August 2026, more than six years after charges were filed.

Leader of UAT Lesotho Following her expulsion, former RFP activists who had registered a Lesotho branch of the South African party United Africans Transformation invited Phamotse to lead it. She accepted in a letter dated 3 December 2023 and was introduced as the party's leader at a media briefing in Maseru on 5 December 2023.

Russia scholarship programme and defamation suit In January 2025, Phamotse announced a UAT-sponsored programme to send Basotho students to study in Russia, through a partnership between the party and Synergy University in Moscow. The scholarships covered tuition fees of over M35,000 per student, with parents responsible for accommodation and food, and were offered across fields including medicine, engineering, agriculture, and information technology. Phamotse described the programme as reviving a long-standing history of Basotho studying in Russia dating to before Lesotho's independence. In August 2026, as UAT leader, she petitioned the South African UAT's leader, Bantu Wonder Mahlatsi, to press for legislative changes affecting Basotho migrants in South Africa, including easier movement rights and clearer permanent-residency pathways for holders of the Lesotho Special Permit.