Dr. Molefe Tsele

The Rev. Dr. Molefe Tsele, who served as General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches from May 2001 to 31 March 2006, has been named as South Africa's Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Dr. Tsele will take up his post in Kinshasa from 16 April 2007.

Dr. Tsele's successor as SACC General Secretary, Mr. Eddie Makue, welcomed the appointment and extended the Council's congratulations and best wishes to Dr. Tsele. "We are pleased that the South African government has seen fit to appoint an ambassador with such a deep commitment to peace and economic justice," Mr. Makue said. "We pray that God will strengthen and guide you as you work to ensure that all the people of the DRC enjoy security, democracy and human rights."

The SACC held a eucharist service in the Khotso House Chapel on 31 March to recognise Dr. Tsele's appointment and to ask God's blessing on his term of service in the DRC.

Dr. Tsele was born on 7 December 1956 in Daveyton Township, Benoni, South Africa, where he matriculated in 1976. He began studying for a degree in law at the University of the North in 1977, but his studies were interrupted by unrest and the closure of the University after Steve Biko's death in detention.

He was an Executive Committee member of the Azanian Students Organisation (AZASO) from its founding in 1979 and served as its first Treasurer.

He continued his studies through UNISA where he obtained his Bachelor of Theology and Honours Degrees (Theological Ethics). At the same time, he entered for the ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

He was ordained and served as a minister from 1982 and served parishes in the Kagiso (Krugersdorp) and the Soweto townships of Phiri and Dobsonville.

He worked as a Research Officer with the Institute for Contextual Theology and was involved in the drafting of the Kairos Document in 1985.

He was a founder member of the Soweto Parents Crisis Committee (SPCC) formed in 1985 and later became Secretary of the National Education Crisis Committee (NECC). He served more than two years as a State of Emergency Detainee between 1986 and 1988 and was later released under restrictions. He left the country for the United States in 1989 where he earned Masters and Doctoral Degrees (Th. D - Political Ethics) at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.

He returned to South Africa in 1995 and assumed a teaching post at the Lutheran Seminary in Mapumulo, Natal. He was appointed Executive Director on the newly established desk on economic affairs of the South African Council of Churches known as the Ecumenical Service for Socio-Economic Transformation (ESSET). He was the former member and Chairperson of the Jubilee S A.

Dr. Tsele served as an Advisor to Mr. Popo Molefe, the Premier of NorthWest Province, from June 2000 until he took up the post of SACC General Secretary in May 2001. After completing his term of office at the SACC on 31 March 2006, he again became an Advisor to the Premier of NorthWest Province (now Ms. Edna Molewa). He also returned to active ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church and became the Executive Trustee of the Batho Batho Trust, which was set up in 1992 to support the economic development of historically disadvantaged South Africans.

Dr. Tsele has extensive international experience and has attended and addressed conferences and seminars on theological, political and economic matters. He was a member of the Black Economic Empowerment Commission, which was appointed by President Mbeki to advise government on the broadening of the economic empowerment process. He also took part in the South African delegation that observed the 2006 presidential and parliamentary elections in the DRC.

He has published essays and articles on Theology, Social Ethics, Development, Poverty Eradication, Globalization.

Dr. Tsele is married to Modiehi Bookholane and has three children - Tshepo, Palesa and Bogosibotsile.