Lerato Mbele is a Broadcaster, Strategist, Relationship Builder, an advocate for soft power in the promotion of African culture & a facilitator of Thought Leadership conversations.

Her career has spanned the fields of international broadcasting, talkshow hosting, writing, story telling and media consulting. She is also passionate about economic development in Africa and is formally trained in this field.

She is the 2023 Recipient of one South Africa’s highest honours (2023) the Charlotte Maxeke Women in Leadership Award – for her work done in international broadcasting.

She is the owner of “Moon Landing Africa Navigator” (pty) Ltd & proprietor of the African Leadership Dialogues series. In her native home South Africa, she currently hosts a daily talkshow & podcast titled “PowerTalk with Lerato Mbele”.

Prior to this Lerato Mbele spent nine years as a TV presenter and broadcaster for the renowned international organization BBC World News.

She hosted the BBC’s main Africa-focused business shows “Talking Business Africa”, “In Business Africa” and “Africa Business Report”, as well as hosting international documentaries such as “Follow the Food” and other programmes that linked African industries to global trade, supply chains, commerce and Multilateral development institutions.

Prior to that, Lerato Mbele was a senior business anchor at CNBC Africa and also a prime time news anchor at the national South African Broadcast Corporation, in her home country South Africa.

She has also worked as a foreign policy researcher and advisor, while heading the Multiparty Democracy Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs based at the University of the Witwatersrand. Here she co-edited the book titled “Designing Democracy in Africa” with Ayesha Kajee.

Her international journalism has seen her interview global leaders, chief executives and Nobel Laureates – including Bill Gates of Microsoft, Sundar Pachai the CEO of Alphabet, Christine Lagarde the President of the ECB , Kristelina Georgieva the Managing Director of the IMF, Richard Branson, Mozambican icon Graça Machel, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala SG of the WTO, Wole Soyinka, Muhammed Yunus, the late Kofi Annan & Wangari Maathai, Presidents, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other leaders.

She has moderated numerous plenaries at the World Bank, World Trade Organization, New Development Bank (BRICS Bank), World Economic Forum, UN General Assembly opening, UNECA, OPEC Fund for International Development Forum and AfDB.

Lerato Mbele was recently issued a City Proclamation (April 2025) by the mayoral council of the City of Atlanta USA, in recognition of her distinguished international broadcast career that has helped to shape new narratives about Africa and the Diaspora.

In March 2023 awarded the Charlotte Maxeke Women in Leadership for her contribution to media and broadcasting across Africa. This is one of South Africa’s highest honours, given to her by the Minister of International Relations & Cooperation and the South African government, in the a recognition of her broadcast journalism being tantamount to public diplomacy across Africa and the world.

She was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, in their 2014 chapter.

She has appeared on the power lists of the Oprah Magazine, NewAfrican Women, Leading Ladies Africa, the Star Newspaper, featured in the Mail & Guardian’s biography of the most influential women in South Africa titled “On the shoulders of giants”.

She’s a past member of the council/ board for the University of Cape Town, globally ranked as Africa’s premier university and institute of higher learning by all internationally accredited measures. She also sits as a board member for the Africa focused Early Childhood edutainment NPO Ubongo International which is based in Tanzania and operates free-to-air and PBS in 43 African nations.

Lerato Mbele is a UK Chevening Scholar who holds an MSc Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London