Miss World Africa magnificence queen and Botswana’s youngest cupboard minister

Lesego Chombo’s enthusiasm for all times is as infectious as her achievements are spectacular: she has gained the Miss Botswana 2022 and Miss World Africa 2024 crowns, is a working lawyer, has arrange her personal charitable basis – and made historical past in November, changing into Botswana’s youngest cupboard minister.

She was simply 26 years previous on the time – and had clearly impressed Botswana’s incoming President Duma Boko, whose Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) had simply gained a landslide, ousting the occasion that had ruled for 58 years.

It was a seismic shift within the politics of the diamond-rich southern African nation – and Boko, a 55-year-old Harvard-trained lawyer, hit the bottom working.

His major focus, he stated, was fixing an economic system too reliant on diamonds, telling the BBC forward of his inauguration that he needed younger individuals to be the answer – “to turn out to be entrepreneurs, make use of themselves and make use of others”.

Key to this was discovering an acceptable ambassador – and Chombo was clearly it: a younger lady already dedicated to varied causes.

He made her minister of youth and gender.

“I’ve by no means been extra proud to be younger,” she advised the BBC on the ministry’s headquarters within the capital, Gaborone.

“I am an adolescent residing in Botswana, captivated with youth growth, gender equality, but in addition so passionate in regards to the growth of youngsters.”

The sweetness queen didn’t marketing campaign to be an MP – she is what is named a specifically elected member of parliament – and is now considered one of simply six feminine MPs within the 69-member Nationwide Meeting.

Chombo stated changing into an MP after which minister got here as a whole shock to her.

“I acquired appointed by a president who had by no means met me,” she stated.

“Miss World and the journey that I assumed I used to be speculated to pursue as my last vacation spot was solely the platform by means of which I’d be seen for this very function.”

It was her crowning as Miss Botswana in 2022 that raised her profile and enabled her to marketing campaign for social change, whereas attempting to encourage different younger girls.

It additionally gave her the chance to arrange the Lesego Chombo Basis, which focuses on supporting deprived children and their dad and mom in rural areas – and which she continues to be concerned with, its initiatives funded by company firms and others.

“We try to have a world the place we really feel seen and heard and represented. I am very thrilled that I occur to be the very essence of that illustration,” she stated.

As she ready for final 12 months’s Miss World pageant, she stated: “I actually put myself within the zone of service. I actually channelled it for this large crown.”

Now in political workplace, she is conscious of the expectations positioned on her in a rustic the place roughly 60% of the inhabitants is under 35 years.

It additionally has a excessive degree of unemployment – 28%, which is even larger for younger individuals and girls who’ve restricted financial alternatives and battle systemic corruption.

Chombo stated this was one thing she was decided to vary: “At the moment in Botswana, the charges of unemployment are so excessive.

“However it’s not simply the speed of unemployment, it is also simply the sphere of youth growth.

“It is missing, and so my want is to create an ecosystem, an setting, a society, an economic system by which youth can thrive.”

Chombo stated her plan was to develop a complete system that nurtured youth-led initiatives, strengthened entrepreneurship and ensured younger individuals had a seat on the desk when selections had been being made.

With Botswana’s anti-corruption coverage present process a rigorous assessment, she stated this may make sure that quotas for younger entrepreneurs – when state departments and companies put out tenders for items and providers – had been really reached.

The federal government has begun a 10-month forensic audit of presidency spending that can embrace 30 state-owned enterprises.

Certainly President Boko is intent on cracking down on corruption, seeing this as a option to bolter investor confidence and diversify the economic system – one thing his deputy has been searching for to do on current journeys to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Switzerland.

And a key deal has now been secured with UAE-based CCI World, a supplier of enterprise course of outsourcing, to open a hub in Botswana.

Whereas youth growth is a central pillar of her work, gender fairness additionally stays near her coronary heart.

Her brief time in workplace has coincided with a rising outcry over gender-based violence.

In line with a United Nations Inhabitants Fund (UNFPA) report, over 67% of ladies in Botswana have skilled abuse, greater than double the worldwide common.

“It hurts to know that it may very well be me subsequent,” she admitted.

A month into her appointment, she was criticised for voting in opposition to an opposition movement in parliament to create “peace desks” at police stations and Justice of the Peace courts to shortly take care of victims.

On the time she stated such provisions already existed inside the legislation and what was wanted was extra public consciousness.

This was adopted in January by a police report noting that at the very least 100 girls had been raped and one other 10 murdered in the course of the festive season – this precipitated public outrage with many lashing out at her on social media over the difficulty.

The minister reiterated – on a number of events, together with earlier than parliament in March – that Botswana had many legal guidelines and techniques in place and what was vital was to make sure these they had been really utilized.

However she advised the BBC the federal government could be pushing for the implementation of a Gender-Primarily based Violence Act, aimed toward closing authorized loopholes which have lengthy hindered justice for survivors.

She stated she was additionally advocating a extra holistic method, involving the ministries of well being, schooling and native authorities.

“We would like curriculums that promote gender fairness from a younger age,” Chombo stated.

“We need to train kids what gender-based violence is and methods to stop it.

“It should boil right down to inclusion of educating gender fairness at house, how dad and mom behave round their kids, how they mannequin good behaviour.”

She has additionally been vocal about the necessity to handle points affecting males, significantly round psychological well being and constructive masculinity, encouraging chiefs “to make sure that our patriarchal tradition is just not actively perpetuating gender violence”.

“I hear lots of people say: ‘Why do you converse of ladies greater than males?’

“It is as a result of because it stands in society, girls are principally prejudiced [against].

“However once we converse of gender equality, we’re saying that it needs to be utilized equally for everybody. However what we attempt for is gender fairness.”

Chombo, who studied legislation on the College of Botswana, stated she was grateful to her mom and different sturdy girls for uplifting her – saying that ladies needed to work “10 occasions tougher” to succeed.

“[My mother] has managed to create an setting for me to thrive. And rising up, I acquired to grasp that it isn’t a straightforward factor.

“As girls, we face so many pressures: ‘A lady can not do that. A lady cannot try this. A lady cannot be younger and in management.’ I am presently going through that.”

She additionally credited Julia Morley, the CEO of Miss World, for serving to her: “She has managed to create a legacy of what we name magnificence with a function for therefore many younger women internationally.

“She has simply impressed us so deeply to take up social duty.”

Chombo is critical about this. The sweetness queen-cum-lawyer-cum-minister is aware of she has made historical past – however can be conscious that her actual work has solely simply begun.

“Impression. Tangible influence. That is what success would appear to be to me,” she stated.

“I need to look again and see that it’s there and it’s sustainable. That after I depart, another person is ready to carry it by means of.”

Extra reporting from Harmless Selatlhwa in Gaborone