Former Lesotho national football goalkeeper Phoka Matete has recently scored himself a PhD in law at the North-West University’s (NWU’s) June graduations.

Phoka obtained his master’s degree in labour law at the NWU’s Potchefstroom Campus in 2014 and registered for his PhD in 2015.

The title of his doctoral thesis is "Optimising the regulation of circular labour migration between South Africa, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe".

Phoka’s football career

Phoka, who is currently the operations manager of LTE Holdings and Invest Lesotho, says he started playing football at a very young age. “I joined the development structures of Arsenal Football Club in Lesotho in 1996 when I was six years old.”

“I later joined Likhopo Football club in 1999, after I was picked for the national u-12 team. I then graduated through the ranks to the national u-15, u-17, u-20 and u-23 teams, and then joined the senior national team Likuena in 2008, where I got my first cap,” he says.

“After finishing my high school studies, I enrolled for a law degree at the National University of Lesotho (NUL).

“In August 2008 I joined the NUL’s soccer team, which was plying its trade in the Lesotho Premier League. At the time, I was a regular member of the senior national team,” adds Phoka. 

Phoka says that to succeed on both the academic and sports fields level, he had to strike an effective balance between the two, but fortunately, his family provided the necessary support. 

“Consequently, I successfully passed my law degree in record time while concurrently playing in the Lesotho Premier League. However, during my fourth year of studies in 2012, I, unfortunately, suffered a career-ending knee injury when the senior national team was playing in Bujumbura Burundi.

“I was heartbroken, but was fortunate enough to receive a bursary from the NWU the following year.” 

While at the NWU, he tried to resuscitate his soccer career and joined NWU Tawana, believing that his knee had fully recovered. “This move was however short-lived, as my knee injury resurfaced just two months into intensive training with the team. I had to abandon the soccer dream again,” says Phoka.

He says now that he has his PhD degree, he still harbours hopes of active involvement in the soccer space. “This time I wish to perform more administrative functions, such as assisting current soccer players to negotiate better employment contracts with their respective teams.”

Phoka says he will forever remain indebted to the NWU’s Faculty of Law for providing him with the opportunity to complete his two postgraduate degrees.

“I hope they continue doing this wonderful work of equipping students with the necessary skills and resources to positively shape their lives.”

Lesotho soccer legend and proud NWU PhD graduate, Dr Phoka Matete.