'Mamoshebi Kabi

Kabi was born in Khubetsoana in 1936, the eighth child of Eliza Phakisi and reverend Elijah Phakisi.^[1][2] After attending the National University of Lesotho, she studied at Tennessee State University in the United States and St. Francis Xavier University in Canada.^[1] In 1958 she married Motete Kabi, with whom she had two daughters and two sons.^[2] Two years later she became a member of the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP).^[1] During the state of the emergency of the 1970s, Kabi was detained by police on fourteen occasions, and was tortured eleven times.^[2] She worked at the Institute of Extra Mural Studies at the National University of Lesotho and served as secretary general of the Women's League.^[1]

Kabi was a BCP candidate in the 1993 general elections, and was one of three women elected, becoming the first female members of the National Assembly.^[3] She was an Organisation of African Unity observer at the 1994 South African general elections.^[1] In 1996 she was appointed Minister of Transport, Post and Telecommunications.^[1] The following year she became the first Minister of Women's affairs, with the post renamed the Minister of Gender, Youth and Environment the following year.^[4] She died on 9 May 1999 following a long illness.^[5]