Former Ningo-Prampram MP ET Mensah dies aged 77

Former Member of Parliament for the Ningo-Prampram constituency and Council of State member, ET Mensah has died aged 77.

Citi News understands he died in South Africa last night after battling ill-health for some time.

This comes on the back of the demise of former First Lady Theresa Kufuor on Sunday, October 1, 2023.

Enoch Teye Mensah (born 17 May 1946) was a Minister for Education and a Member of Parliament in Ghana from January 1997 till January 2017.

He was popularly referred to as ET Mensah and was married with seven children.

During the time of the PNDC military regime in Ghana, he was the long-time Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), akin to being the Mayor of the City of Accra. He joined the National Democratic Congress when it was formed in 1992.

He also stood for the parliamentary election in 1996 and was elected MP for the Ningo-Prampram constituency, holding the seat for almost a decade.

After the NDC lost the 2000 elections, he continued as a member of parliament. Mensah lost the NDC primaries to Sam George on 21 November 2015.

He once served as the Minority Chief Whip in parliament prior to the Ghanaian parliamentary election in 2008. In January 2009, he became the Majority Chief Whip in Parliament.

At the beginning of the Fourth Republic, he was appointed Minister for Youth and Sports by President Jerry Rawlings. Mensah held that position through both terms of the Rawlings government. In January 2010, after a cabinet reshuffle, President John Atta Mills appointed him Minister for Employment and Social Welfare.

Mensah was a member of the Pan-African Parliament until January 2009, when he resigned after being appointed a member of state.[8] In January 2011, he was appointed Minister for Education following the resignation of Betty Mould-Iddrisu.

On 12 February 2021, Mensah was unanimously elected as the representative of the Council of State for the Greater Accra Region.