Dr Naledi Pandor

Dr Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor is a Member of Parliament who served as Minister of International Relations and Cooperation between May 2019 and June 2024. 

Prior to this, she served as the Minister of Higher Education and Training (2018 to 2019), Minister of Science and Technology (2014 to 2018), Minister of Home Affairs (2012 to 2014), Minister of Science and Technology (2009 to 2012) and Minister of Education (2004 to 2009).

She’s been a Member of Parliament since 1994.

Dr Pandor matriculated at Gaborone Secondary School in Botswana in 1972. She was a teacher at Ernest Bevin School in London in 1980. From 1981 to 1984, she taught in Gaborone, Botswana, and from 1984 to 1986, she was a lecturer at  the Taung College of Education in North West. Between 1986 and 1989, Dr Pandor was a senior lecturer in English at the University of Bophuthatswana and from 1989 to 1994, she was a senior lecturer in the Academic Support Programme of the University of Cape Town.

Minister Pandor has a PhD from the University of Pretoria (2019) and honorary doctorates from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, University of Stellenbosch, the University of Lisbon, Portugal, and the University College Dublin, Ireland. She holds a Master’s degree in Education from the University of London (1978 to 1979), a Master’s degree in General Linguistics obtained from the University of Stellenbosch (1997), a Bachelor’s degree and Certificate for Continuing Education from the University of Botswana and Swaziland (1973 to 1977), a Diploma in Education from the University of London (1977 to 1978), a Diploma in Higher Education, Administration and Leadership from Bryn Mawr Summer Programme (1992), and a Diploma in Leadership in Development from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (1997).

Dr Pandor became a Member of Parliament in 1994 and has amassed impressive experience in positions of public office, including Deputy Chief Whip of the African National Congress in the National Assembly from 1995 to 1998, Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces in 1998 and its Chairperson from
1999 to 2004.

Dr Pandor is married to Sharif Pandor and they have four children and two grandchildren.