Mmapaseka "Steve" Letsike is a South African human rights activist and politician.
Well known for herAIDS activism through her leadership roles within the South African National AIDS Council, Letsike is also one of the most prominent lesbian figures within theAfrican National Congress, and has campaigned forLGBT rights in South Africa.
In 2024 she was elected as a member of theNational Assembly of South Africa.[1]
Letsike was the deputy chair of the South African National AIDS Council, and served as the chair of its National Society Forum, implementing policies at a grassroots and local level.[2] For several years, Letsike served as deputy toCyril Ramaphosa, who went on to become thePresident of South Africa.[3] Through his role with SANAC, Letsike called on increased psychosocial support, in addition toantiretroviral programmes, for people diagnosed withHIV/AIDS.[4]
In 2015, Letsike represented South Africa at the launch of the DREAMS Partnership, aiming to secure an AIDS-free future for women insub-Saharan Africa.[5]
In 2021, Ramaphosa named Letsike to the Chief Justice Panel, to interview shortlisted candidates and to decide who to replaceMogoeng Mogoeng at the end of his term asChief Justice of South Africa.[6]
As a teenager, Letsike successfully challenged his high school's uniform policy, which had prohibited girls from wearing trousers. She also established its first female football team.[3][7][8] As an adult, Letsike worked for various organisations, including Anova Health Institute, which provided sexual health services tomen who had sex with men in Gauteng,Mpumalanga,North West,Limpopo, andWestern Cape.[9]
Letsike went on to establish Access Chapter 2, a non-governmental organisation that raised awareness of intersectional issues facing South Africa's marginalised communities, including black people,women, children, and the LGBT community. AC2 was named after South Africa'sBill of Rights.[3]
Following the murders of several lesbians in 2011, includingNoxolo Nogwaza, thegovernment of South Africa established the National Task Team to investigate the increase in LGBT hate crimes in the country, with Letsike named as co-chair.[7][10] In 2014, she wrote an open letter to African leaders following the passing of theAnti-Homosexuality Act by thegovernment of Uganda.[11]
In 2021, Letsike was named the chair of the Commonwealth Equality Network, an organisation representing civil society organisations working for LGBT rights across theCommonwealth.[12][8]
In 2023, Letsike was widely tipped as being likely to be elected to the ANC'sNational Executive Committee; when she did not secure a nomination for any of the 87 available seats, the party's Embrace Diversity Political Movement criticised his exclusion and the failure to elect any LGBT people to the NEC.[13] In January 2024, the NEC's General Secretary,Fikile Mbalula, named Letsike as among four new people appointed to the NEC to bring "more balanced representation" to the ANC's decision-making body. She became the second openly LGBT person to sit on the NEC, afterLynne Brown.[14]
Letsike was born and raised inAtteridgeville,Gauteng,South Africa. Letsike's parents both died when she was young, and she was subsequently raised by her grandparents.[3][8] She has a daughter.[3]