Honorific-Suffix: | MP |
Office: | Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces |
1Blankname: | Chairperson |
1Namedata: | Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane |
Predecessor: | Sylvia Lucas |
Term Start: | 9 July 2024 |
Office1: | Permanent Delegate to the National Council of Provinces |
Constituency Am1: | KwaZulu-Natal |
Term Start1: | 15 June 2024 |
Birthname: | Poobalan Govender |
Birth Date: | 21 November 1954 |
Nationality: | South African |
Party: | Inkatha Freedom Party |
Honorific Prefix: | The Honourable |
Poobalan "Les" Govender (born 21 November 1954) is a South African politician from KwaZulu-Natal who is currently serving as the Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces. A member of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), he was a member of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature until the May 2024 general election.
Govender was born on 21 November 1954.[1] Until 2024 he represented the IFP in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature.[2]
In the May 2024 general election, he was ranked 11th on the IFP's provincial party list for KwaZulu-Natal.[3] He was elected as a permanent delegate of KwaZulu-Natal in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), the upper house of the South African Parliament.
On 9 July 2024, the plenary of the NCOP elected Govender as the Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP.[4] Elected unopposed, he was nominated for the position by Kenny Mmoiemang of the African National Congress (ANC) in terms of a coalition agreement between the ANC and IFP.[5] He deputised NCOP Chairperson Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane, who had taken office almost a month earlier; the deputy chairmanship election had been delayed since then, reportedly because of a disagreement among the coalition partners.