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The Minister of Finance, Dr. Leketekete Victor Ketso,
presented his Budget Speech for the 1997/8 Financial Year to Parliament on 26
March 1997. In the speech he noted the adverse impact of recent ‘socio-political
disturbances’, a matter especially serious given the need to create employment
opportunities in a situation of continuing migrant labour retrenchment. He was,
however, able to report that during the past financial year, new labour-intensive
industrial enterprises had been negotiated in the areas of footwear and garment
manufacturing and were expected to create 3200 new jobs. (This contrasts with an
estimated 30 000 new jobs needed annually to keep pace with population growth.)
There had been during 1996 an unusually high growth of
14% in the Gross Domestic Product, resulting from the construction section, in
which certain Lesotho Highlands Water Project activities had peaked during the
year.
Amongst policy announcements, the Minister announced a
continuing liberalisation of agricultural marketing; continued action to promote
privatisation of parastatal enterprises; the promotion of tourism through inter
alia abolishing visa requirments for nationals of a number of European
countries; the introduction of Value Added Tax to replace Sales Tax with effect
from April 1998; and the embarking on a feasibility study for a road between
Thaba-Tseka and Underberg in KwaZulu/Natal.
On the Lesotho Highlands Revenue Fund, which is
supporting a variety of rural construction activities, popularly known as
fato-fato, Dr. Ketso announced a continuing focus on community-based development
projects and on the training of Village Development Councils in community needs
assessment. No mention was made of constituency MPs disbursing funds, a matter
which had led to some public concern.
For 1997/8 the budget expenditure is estimated at M2
368 million, some 3.7% above the 1996/7 estimated outturn figure of M2 283
million. Of this amount M1 662 million or 70.2% of the total is for recurrent
expenditure, 46% of the M1 662 million being earmarked for personal emoluments.
For 1997/8 the capital budget had dropped compared with the previous year,
largely as a result of decreased outlays on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project,
and the completion of the new tarred road from Oxbow to Mokhotlong.
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Influenced by trends elsewhere, and with advice from an
overseas consultant, Lesotho formally adopted a policy of privatisation when the
Privatisation Act 1995 became operational on 17 November 1995, paving the way
for the establishment of a Privatisation Unit. In parallel, steps had
been taken
to make provision for trading in a capital market and for the Central Bank to
issue and redeem securities.
It was thought that in many cases the constitution of
privatised companies might well, at least initially, provide for the retention
of a government-held ‘golden share’ of 51% in the company, allowing it a
controlling 51% of votes. Moreover, although private investors would not be
likely to be numerous, they could be attracted if there were tax incentives,
which would give them a better return on investments than would otherwise be
available locally. As with stock markets elsewhere, it was expected that the
main shareholders would be institutional investors. Local commercial banks and
insurance companies, whose assets include substantial pension funds, are
required to keep 85% of these assets in Lesotho. Their own regulations usually
require the funds to be distributed between different investments to minimise
risks. Yet the investment opportunities in Lesotho, until now, had been very
limited. Privatisation would provide these institutions with opportunities for
investment, and at the same time, as shareholders in privatised companies, they
would take a keen interest in the management and efficiency of the company.
A major problem with privatisation was however, the
comparative lack of profitable enterprises, which would attract investors. On
offer early in 1997 were Lesotho Airways and Loti Brick. According to Star
Business Report of 25 February 1997, Lesotho Airways (which now has just three
aircraft, a Fokker F27 and two De Havilland Twin Otters) made a loss of M2.8
million in 1995, and despite staff retrenchment, this rose to a loss of M6.5
million in 1996. Loti Brick was in a somewhat more healthy state, and had made a
profit of M975 000 in 1995, but this turned into a loss of M2.3 million in 1996,
because of the costs of installing new equipment. The new equipment was,
however, designed to increase production to meet the demand of building
materials in South Africa for the Reconstruction and Development Programme.
The original deadline for bids for the companies was
apparently not met satisfactorily in either case, and as a result the deadline
was extended to 10 April 1997.
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The Women’s Conference of the Basutoland Congress Party
was held on Saturday 5th April, facilitated by arrangements made by the
Executive Committee of the party. The Conference was held in the Sefika Hall,
and there were 475 delegates from 43 constituencies present. Notably absent was
the outgoing Secretary-General, ’Mamoshebi Kabi MP. The new Chairman of the
Women’s Conference who was elected on the occasion, was the former cabinet
minister, Dr. Khauhelo Raditapole.
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A report in the LENA Fortnightly News Bulletin (31
March to 6 April 1997) quoted the Police Commissioner, Major-General Bolutu
Makhoaba, who announced that the use of the brown police uniform had been
discontinued. The reason given was that it had been misused in unfortunate
incidents like the police mutiny. Not mentioned was the ease with which such
uniforms could be purchased by criminals who could pose as police road blocks,
posing a dilemma to motorists who were never certain whether they were
encountering a genuine police check or an ambush by criminals.
According to the report, mounted police were still
using the brown uniform, but this would, according to the Police Commissioner,
‘be until we have found riding bridges [breeches] for them’.
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The feud between the Majelathoko and Maporesha of the
ruling Basutoland Congress Party continued unabated in April. However, there was
evidence that not all Majelathoko were unshakably loyal to their faction. The 2
April issue of the Majelathoko faction of Makatolle had screaming headlines to
the effect that Malaisa Mahosi, the Member of Parliament for Thabana-Morena, was
a traitor.
On
13
April,
a
group
of
Majelathoko
en
route
to
a
party
meeting
in
Semonkong,
were
turned
back
on
the
road
by
a
group
of
Maporesha
said
to
be
armed
with
AK47
assault
rifles.
Radio
Lesotho,
covering
the
incident
in
its
news
bulletin
on
the
following
day,
described
what
had
happened
as
an
ambush,
although
in
fact
it
seems
that
no
shots
were
fired.
Meanwhile the Prime Minister, Ntsu Mokhehle, had made
an application to the High Court challenging his dismissal from the party
leadership by the Annual Conference of the party held in February. It was ruled
on 18 April by Mr. Justice Maqutu that Mokhehle’s removal as leader of the BCP
was null and void, and that he should remain as interim leader. However, the
Judge noted that the leader’s five year of office had come to an end at the end
of 1996, and that the matter of the party leadership should be placed on the
agenda of the 1996 Annual Conference, which should be held before the end of
July. (The conference held in February1997 had been a much postponed and
repeated 1995 Annual Conference, and as the Judge had pointed out, technically
there had as yet been no 1996 Annual Conference.)
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Amongst the more frivolous activities available in
Lesotho early in 1997 was the search for an AK47 on the road. This one was not a
gun, but a motor registration.
Car registrations in Maseru District, which were
originally prefaced by BA, switched to LA in 1974, and then to a new design with
a blue Basotho hat or mokorotlo in 1979 followed by the letter A. These six year
number plates were originally a revenue raising device, but since the
replacement charge did not keep up with inflation, the original intention of
raising revenue had by 1997 degenerated into an unnecessary bureaucratic hurdle.
This was worsened by new number plates not being available when needed, leading
to many vehicles carrying temporary card number plates. Car owners were forced
to make repeated journeys to the new sandstone ‘palace’ (a rather grand building
for the purpose it serves) which since 1996 has housed the Vehicle Licensing
Authority.
The blue number plates allowed Maseru District up to
9999 different registrations after which A was followed by AA with a further 999
registrations, the sequence continuing AB, AC etc (but omitting AI) until early
1997, when AK number plates were first issued. It was well-known that a certain
resident of Maseru had rejected AK47 (more strictly AK047) when offered it. By
April AK numbers had reached AK400. There was, however, no sign of AK047.
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The four-storey Phomolong Flats had been constructed on
what was then Lagden Road opposite the Maseru Club playing field in the late
1970s. They had later developed serious cracks and in October 1995, the
residents of the 33 flats were evacuated. Although expert evidence apparently
showed that their condition was not dangerous, it also indicated that over M1
million would be needed to refurbish them adequately. As a result in April, the
Lesotho Housing and Land Development Corporation announced that they were to be
demolished and offices and shops would be built on the site to replace them.
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Lesotho’s international high school, Machabeng College,
on 19 April celebrated its 20th Anniversary. Founded as a secondary school
continuation of the Maseru English Medium Primary School (‘Maseru Prep School’),
Machabeng High School soon developed a sixth form with A-level classes, which
were eventually abandoned in favour of the International Baccalaureate. As of
1997, Machabeng (which recently changed its name from Machabeng High School to
Machabeng College) had 340 pupils of 34 nationalities. The largest number of
pupils (70% of the total) were Basotho.
One consequence of the development of the school has
been that many of the better students now avoid the National University of
Lesotho and use Machabeng as a springboard for entry to South African or
overseas universities.
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Shortly after 10 p. m. on Saturday 19 April, a head-on
collision occurred near Tabola in Leribe District in which six persons were
killed, five of them being in a car returning from a football match between the
Lesotho Defence Force and the Linare Football Club of Hlotse.
Amongst the football supporters who died was Qhobela
Majara, the Principal Chief of Ha Majara. His death in a road accident was the
third in eighteen months involving a senior member of the chieftainship, and
followed the deaths of His Majesty King Moshoeshoe II and the Principal Chief of
Ha ’Mamathe, both of whom were killed in road accidents in 1996. Chief Qhobela
Majara, son of the late Leshoboro Majara, was born in 1967, and was the youngest
member of the Senate. His succession to the Ward of Ha Majara, after the death
of his father, Leshoboro Majara, had been bitterly contested in the courts in
1989-91, it being said that his mother was not a valid wife of Leshoboro, since
there had been an earlier childless church marriage. The learned judge, Mr.
Justice Lehohla, in dealing with the case, had discovered that a traditional
marriage had taken place days before the church marriage. This potentially
polygamous traditional marriage was to be regarded as the only true marriage,
and hence the marriage to ’Maqhobela had been valid, and Qhobela should succeed
his father. A major consequence of this judgment was that the doctrine of the
duality of marriage had been destroyed, and only the chronologically first
marriage was henceforth to be recognised, a matter with serious ramifications
for many married couples.
Also killed in the crash was Colonel Shoaepane Patrick
‘Sheriff’ Majara, a cousin of the Principal Chief, and a son-in-law of the late
Chief Leabua Jonathan, a former Prime Minister of Lesotho. He was best known to
most people for his role in the 1994 strife between detachments of the army. On
14 January 1994, he had been shot in the shoulder, after, as commander of the
Lesotho Defence Air Wing, he had used the army helicopters to bring in supplies
to the Ratjomose faction. Following his shooting, his pilots had flown the four
helicopters to Ladybrand for safety. Subsequent to the events of 1994, Colonel
Majara had been redeployed by the Ministry of Defence, and he had recently
returned from the USA after undergoing a course of advanced military training.
The three other members of the Lesotho Defence Force
killed in the crash were Lieutenant-Colonel Thabang Tšoele, Warrant Officer
Likotsi Setefane, and Private Abram Clovis Tlali. The driver of the 4x4 vehicle
which hit the car carrying them also died. Police attributed the cause of the
accident to excessive speed by both vehicles.
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New electoral legislation was passed by Parliament in
April. Taking a cue from South Africa, and responding to requests by opposition
parties, government agreed to the creation of an Independent Electoral
Commission. The voting age at General Elections was to be brought in line with
that for local elections, and was to be 18, although candidates for election
would still have to be aged 21. At the next General Election (which has to be
held before 27 March 1998) there would be 80 parliamentary constituencies rather
than 65 as at present.
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Rome in Italy was, according to legend, founded in 753
BC by Romulus, who was said to have been one of twins brought up by a she-wolf.
Roman dates were designated Ab Urbe Condita (AUC), ‘from the founding of the
city’. 753 + 1997 = 2750, and ignoring the fact that there was no year zero
between BC1 and AD1, Rome was on 21 April able to celebrate the 2750th
anniversary of its foundation. The mayors of five towns named Roma or Rome
around the world were invited to participate, and Roma, Lesotho sent its
Traditional Chief, Chief Maama Mafefoane Maama, and the Chairman of its Village
Development Council, Mr. Tefo Moeketse.
A commemorative booklet in Italian was produced for the
occasion in which Roma, Lesotho was profiled along with Roma, Queensland,
Australia (according to the pictures, a town half way to the outback and well
equipped with pubs); Rome, New York (which has the only casino in New York
State); Rome, Georgia (an educational centre, which like the eternal city,
claims to be built on seven hills); and Roma - Los Saenz, which is on the border
of Texas and Mexico, and was used as a background for the Marlon Brando film
‘Viva Zapata’. Roma, Lesotho, by contrast made much of its religious foundation
by the Roman Catholic Church and its present educational role as site for the
National University of Lesotho. The fact that ‘American Ninja IV’ was filmed
there was omitted from the booklet.
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The police mutiny in February had resulted in the
arrest of 30 police who had been charged with sedition and with various offences
relating to fire arms. However, the leader of the mutiny, Second-Lieutenant
Phakiso Molise, had escaped to South Africa, and had initially escaped
prosecution. He was later arrested in South Africa on a fraud charge, acquitted
on that charge and then extradited to Lesotho on 30 April. On 5 May, the Maseru
magistrate remanded him in custody to stand trial with the other 30 police.
There was no word, however, of what had happened to Sergeant Makateng, who was
apparently in hiding in South Africa. The charges against 24 of the policemen
were published in Mopheme of 3 June. They are charged with High Treason,
Sedition and Contravention of the Internal Security Act.
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With the police force at less than full strength and
morale low, criminal activity continued at a high level. An incident which
received major international publicity was the shooting of two South Africans at
the Polo Ground in May. The two concerned were a mother and her teenage
daughter, who was being giving a driving lesson. The daughter, Lizelle
subsequently died in hospital, while her mother, Mare Pretorius, was seriously
injured. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and the police made no
arrests. The incident was widely covered by South African television and the
press.
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The death occurred on 29 April 1997, a month before her
98th birthday, of Bernice Tlalane Mohapeloa, a pioneer of women’s education and
founder of the Basotho Homemakers’ Association.
Bernice Mohapeloa (née Morolong) was born in Mafeteng
on 31 May 1899, and trained as a teacher at Thabana-Morena Girls’ School. She
subsequently went to high school at Lovedale in South Africa, and by 1922 had
obtained a Matriculation Certificate and Diploma in Education from Fort Hare
University College, being one of the first two Basotho women to achieve this.
Subsequently she taught at Tiger Kloof in the Cape
Province, and was recruited to Inanda Seminary Girls’ School in Natal to start
secondary school classes. In 1930, she married Joel Thabiso Mohapeloa, who was
then working at Fort Hare, and in 1933, inspired by the Home Improvement
Association at Fort Hare, she began the Homemakers’ Association in Lesotho, an
association which still thrives, and is affiliated to the Association of Country
Women of the World.
Bernice Mohapeloa was noted for many firsts. She was,
for example, the first Mosotho woman to have a driving licence and the first
Mosotho woman parliamentarian. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the
National University of Lesotho in 1991.
The funeral service on 10 May 1997 was held at the same
Lesotho Evangelical Church in Mafeteng in which Joel and Bernice had been
married over 66 years earlier. Her husband, J. T. Mohapeloa, survives her (he is
92 years old) as do two sons, an adopted daughter, nine grandchildren and three
great-grandchildren.
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The border between the former Transkei and Lesotho
continued to be tense in April to June, and on one occasion Radio Lesotho warned
residents of Qacha’s Nek not to travel to Matatiele, because of the risk that
they might be killed.
Tensions across the border were exacerbated by lack of
adequate policing and the resulting large number of stock theft incidents, which
today are often carried out cattle thieves armed with guns, rather than
traditional weapons.
In late April, South African police captured a large
number of stolen stock in the foothills near the Lesotho border west of Mount
Fletcher, and invited some 300 Basotho to come to identify them. According to
the Mail & Guardian of 2 May, the cattle identification parade was interrupted
by some 60 Xhosas on horseback armed with guns, assegais and axes, who
surrounded the Basotho, police and soldiers at the scene. They managed to
interrupt the proceedings, and to recapture the stock. When the intervention of
a helicopter threatened to tip the balance onto the side of law and order, the
Xhosas charged the police and in the ensuing melee, two horsemen were shot dead,
and several people on both sides were wounded.
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In its issue of 10 May 1997, the opposition BNP
newspaper Mohlanka published what it stated was a document of the BCP’s Lesotho
Liberation Army, which had been engaged in armed conflict with the BNP
government during the early and mid-1980s. Accusations and counter-accusations
as to who had been responsible for the murders of a number of people who died at
the time have continued to reverberate, without much hard information becoming
available in the absence of a Lesotho equivalent to the South African Truth and
Reconciliation Commission.
In the published document, seventeen individuals or
groups of individuals who were killed are listed, with in most cases their names
and home villages. Also provided are the names of their killers and their home
villages within Lesotho. Dates are not given except in the case of six members
of the ANC who are said to have been abducted from Welkom on 9 October 1984 and
killed at Hlatseng in Qwa-Qwa. Evidence corroborating the document was not
published, nor details of how Mohlanka obtained it. It was apparently ignored by
other sectors of the press.
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On the morning of Monday 12 May, a fire broke out in
the locked office of the Deputy Principal Secretary of Tourism, Sports and
Culture, on the top floor of the three storey building housing the Ministry. The
fire soon spread to other offices on the same floor of the building.
The fighting of the fire proved difficult, because the
Maseru Fire Brigade is operated by the Special Response Unit of the Police,
which is the very unit whose members had recently mutinied and had been
subsequently charged and imprisoned awaiting trial. Firefighters had to be
summoned from the Airport, and the fire was then quickly brought under control.
The top floor of the building was gutted, but the lower floors suffered only
minor damage.
The Lesotho National Museum, even 30 years after
Independence, is still not housed in a building open to the public. Its staff,
office space and storage are located in the basement of the building which
caught fire. Various museum items received a rare public viewing when they were
carried outside for safety during the fire, and some idea of what is normally
concealed was conveyed by a picture of museum items on the ground published in
Leseli ka Sepolesa of 3 June 1997. The museum staff had an unusually active
working day, having also to move the museum artefacts, including many heavy
boxes of stone artefacts, back to their storage area, when the fire threat had
receded.
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In December 1996, the Prime Minister had announced that
an Independent Electoral Commission would be established by 1 April 1997, and
would be charged with the responsibility of preparing for a General Election,
which by law must be held not later than five years following the previous
General Election on 27 March 1993.
In the event, the Act establishing the IEC was delayed
in Parliament, but under the old law, a Constituency Delimitation Commission had
already been set up. In theory, redelimitation should follow each census, but
the 1996 Census Report had not yet been published. Nevertheless, the Commission
had set about its task, because of time considerations, and the fact that the
Constitution required 80 constituencies for this second Parliament under the
1993 Constitution, rather than the 65 constituencies in use in 1993.
In May, the Commission reported with a provisional
delimitation, which was made available for public scrutiny.
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It was announced in May that the Katse Dam was now
complete. Lesotho now had Africa’s highest dam, and with the water level already
well above the entrance level to the tunnel system, water delivery to South
Africa could commence at any time in the near future.
While the project had been conceived and built during
periods of drought, ironically its completion coincided with a period of water
abundance. Two consecutive summers had brought so much rain to South Africa that
all dams had been filled, and the Vaal Dam, which often remained half empty for
years on end, had had to discharge large quantities of surplus water. The very
wet summers had resulted in the Katse Reservoir filling faster than predicted by
the impoundment curves prepared by engineers, and water had had to be released
because it had crept up the dam wall before grouting was complete.
With the dam now complete, water levels could be
allowed to approach the full surface level of 2053 m above sea level. Heavy snow
in May in the catchment of the dam made it increasingly likely that the
reservoir might be at or near full surface level within a few months.
With Lesotho already storing water on behalf of South
Africa, royalties were becoming payable, with M157 million having been paid by
May 1997, and distributed through the Lesotho Highlands Development Fund.
The new body of water was predicted by ornithologists
to provide opportunities for bird species such as Fish Eagles and Ospreys,
neither of which have been recorded in Lesotho. Neither species has in fact yet
materialised. However, bird watchers, to their great surprise, did observe and
photograph flying over the water at Katse two Arctic Terns. These were far from
their usual haunts which in summer are the maritime shores of South Africa,
while in winter they return to their nesting sites in Labrador and Greenland.
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The newspaper Mopheme in its issue of 20 May reported
the case of a prisoner, Sebetoane Sebetoane, who had been in gaol on a charge of
murder since April 1991. The case came to the notice of a judge more than six
years later, and bail was finally allowed. However, the prisoner was penniless,
and when bail was allowed, the judge asked those present in the court room to
contribute sufficient money for the accused to travel home to Leribe by bus. It
was reported that the Registrar of the High Court ‘did not know what had
happened to Sebetoane’s case’, a clear indication that the case could not be
heard soon. There was a suggestion that Sebetoane’s case was not unique and that
some prisoners may have been in prison awaiting trial since 1986.
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A substantial article under the title ‘Governance of
Lesotho by Workshops’ appeared in The Mirror of 14 May 1997. In it the author,
Dr. Dan Rakoro Phororo, severely criticised the plethora of workshops, which he
estimated had cost over M200 million over the past 10 years, and were dense on
the ground to the extent of at least two workshops on every day for 200 days a
year. There was far too much talking and too little implementation.
While Dr. Phororo’s article made some very necessary
points, there did not seem to be any remedial action which would be taken as
long as workshops were being funded by donor agencies. Moreover, it seemed that
the Government was anxious to make provision for even more conferences and
workshops, by agreeing to a Chinese-financed and constructed new National
Conference Centre at the old Agricultural Showgrounds site (better known to many
people as the site for the short-lived ’Manthabiseng ‘Bus Stop’). By May 1997,
the impressive new building was rising fast. However, given that two of Maseru’s
hotels in which the Government is a shareholder were already endowed with
underutilised conference facilities, questions were being asked as to why the
new facility was needed, and why it had been given priority over other more
necessary public works.
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A report in Mopheme of 27 May described an incident on
21 May when two members of the Lesotho Police and four members of the South
African Police were apprehended by soldiers of the Lesotho Defence Force near
the Setibing Mountain Training Base, close to Bushmen’s Pass. The police were
tracking stolen stock, but were in plain clothes, because their brown uniforms
had been banned by the Commissioner of Police since the police revolt in
February. The members of the LDF were apparently particularly incensed that
armed South African police were operating in Lesotho. The six policemen were
disarmed and, according to the report, were beaten with sticks, rifle butts and
sjamboks.
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The banking scene in Lesotho has undergone a number of
changes in recent times. At Independence there had been just two commercial
banks in Lesotho, Standard Bank and Barclays. Lesotho Bank joined the scene in
1972, and was originally conceived of as a national development bank, but within
a short time its commercial operations became the main sector of its operations.
Indeed its growth was a success story, helped by the banking needs of migrant
workers. One in three adult Basotho now has a bank account, believed to be the
highest ratio in Africa.
Lesotho Bank pioneered the use of Automatic Teller
Machines in Lesotho, a service which at first was provided free. Within the past
two years the bank mounted a campaign to get its Savings Account holders to
surrender their pass books for ATM cards. However, the Bank failed to maintain
enough machines to meet the demand. In Maseru, there were long queues at busy
times, while the unfortunate students and staff at Roma found that their sole
ATM was out of order for weeks at a time. There was also discontent about ATM
charges, which were introduced without warning. Many felt that the saving on
staff salaries by providing automated banking ought to have made ATMs
sufficiently cost-saving that no charges should be levied.
Lesotho Bank in 1997 was suffering a number of
problems. The large sums which had once been deposited by migrant workers as
deferred pay were dwindling. The recent take-over of the ailing Lesotho
Buildings Finance Corporation had not been without difficulties. Then in 1997,
it became widely known that certain of its bank tellers had been suspended
pending investigations into the way in which they had acquired luxuriously
furnished houses without bank loans. The matter was ventilated in Moafrika in a
letter written by a bank employee using the pseudonym Jihad, who mentioned that
14 tellers had been suspended, and of these, two had resigned. One result was
that at the end of May, the long queues for service at the Maseru headquarters
branch snaked in several coils within the building and extended from there
outside. One could easily spend as much as three hours waiting for service, a
matter which was commented on in Mohlanka of 24 May. It quoted a government
lawyer in the queue talking to himself and saying ‘what would the judge,
accused, defendants and witnesses be saying given that the case was being held
up because he was not there?’ Given that the bulk of those standing in line are
civil servants and that on an average day there could be some 200 each waiting
some two hours, the equivalent of over a thousand government working days were
being lost monthly because of bank inefficiency.
Lesotho Bank was belying its slogan We make banking
simpler in other ways. Customers had had to put up for years with monthly
statements being sent out many weeks and often months late. Then in June 1997,
it announced that the account numbers of all customers were to be changed as
part of a new computer system. The bank would be closed for two days, and after
that every current account holder would have to acquire a new cheque book. The
prospect of yet more queueing began to make the rival banks ever more
attractive, although it was conceded that those with foreign exchange business
did get better and more efficient service at Lesotho Bank’s Foreign Department.
In this Department, little time is wasted in waiting, and comfortable chairs are
in any case provided if a wait proves necessary.
The rival banking scene has undergone several recent
changes. In 1995, Barclays Bank International sold its Lesotho operation to
Standard Bank Investment Corporation of South Africa, a branch of the Standard
Bank of South Africa. This traded in Maseru as ‘Stanbic’ to avoid confusion with
the quite different Standard Chartered Bank which was already trading as
Standard Bank. However, in January 1997, Nedbank took over the Lesotho assets of
Standard Chartered Bank. This left the name Standard Bank vacant, and in March
1997, Stanbic was renamed Standard Bank. As a result, Maseru now has branches of
two South African banks.
The exact future relationship of Lesotho Bank with
Nedbank, which was now a Maseru rival, was unclear. Lesotho Bank had for many
years been using Nedbank as a corresponding bank for its foreign exchange
transactions, but clearly both banks would now be competing for the foreign
exchange business within Maseru.
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Radio Lesotho reported early in June an incident which
had occurred in a remote part of Qacha’s Nek District. Two people died and five
houses had ben burned down, together with a shop belonging to the local MP. The
cause of the dispute was apparently the administration of fato-fato funds, money
granted by the Lesotho Highlands Development Fund for rural labour-intensive
works. Those who died were a local party leader who was burned to death inside
his house, and a woman who had been stoned.
The incident, perhaps because of the remote area where
it had occurred, apparently escaped other media attention. Radio Lesotho in its
report stated that no arrests had been made.
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A meeting of the Basutoland Congress Party was called
by the Prime Minister on Saturday 7 June, and since this meeting had not been
arranged in conjunction with the National Executive of the Party, it was
attended only by supporters of his own faction, commonly known as the
Majelathoko.
To the surprise of most who attended, Ntsu Mokhehle
announced the creation of a completely new political party to be called the
Lesotho Congress for Democracy (in Sesotho Lekhotla la Puso ea Sechaba ka
Sechaba which translates as ‘Democratic Party’). The justification for the new
party was said to be that the Basutoland Congress Party’s role had been to free
Lesotho from the yoke of colonialism. There was now need to have a party which
could develop the independent Lesotho.
However, most commentators wondered why it had taken
the party 30 years to change its name: the creation of the new party at this
stage was clearly a manoeuvre to devise a means by which the Prime Minister
could remain the leader of a party. It was clear that he would not have been
re-elected at the leadership election which was to be held by the Basutoland
Congress Party before the end of July.
The public announcement of the new party was at a news
conference held at the Parliament on the afternoon of Monday 9 June. On the same
day, the Speaker of the National Assembly asked the remaining BCP Members of
Parliament to occupy Parliamentary seats as an official opposition. This led
during the next few days to heated exchanges, with BCP members maintaining they
were the ruling party, not the opposition. On Wednesday, these BCP members, led
by Molapo Qhobela staged a walkout in protest.
Precedents for what had happened were difficult to
find, a Prime Minister creating a new Party so that he could personally stay in
power. Some people talked of a coup, although it was more of a party coup than a
national coup. The Lesotho Constitution was searched to find whether there had
been unconstitutional behaviour, but this was not immediately apparent. However,
the surviving National Executive of the BCP, which also controlled the party
assets, could apply pressure on MPs who were now openly associating with the
LCD. They had been elected on the BCP party ticket, and could be asked whether
they still supported it, and if not, their constituency parties could be asked
to disown them and to accept a new BCP candidate for the elections which were
now less than nine months away.
In terms of arithmetic, it seemed that the LCD at its
launch had some 41 supporters amongst MPs. With one MP, Stephen Motlamelle,
critically ill and unlikely to take sides, this left 22 BCP MPs, and one
Independent in Parliament. However, the situation was apparently fairly fluid
with the BCP hoping to persuade others to restore their loyalty to the old
party.
One result of the long anticipated fission within the
party was the ending of a six month period when two editions of Makatolle, the
party newspaper, had been produced each week, one being published by each of the
two factions. The LCD announced that they would now be producing a newspaper
’Moho, a title which literally means ‘together’, but which in fact will be
recognised by party members as a shortening of Mahatammoho, ‘those who step
together’, the Sesotho word for Congress Party members. However, when the paper
actually appeared, it came out under the name Mololi, meaning ‘The Whistle’, it
being apparent that there had been second thoughts in the meantime, and that a
break with the name ‘Mahatammoho’ was thought prudent.
In other ways the break was not so obvious. The new
party colours were to be red, black, green and black again, and the party flag
was to reflect this in striped version, together with a portrait of an eagle,
reflecting that the party was led by an Ntsu. [In fact ntsu or ntsu-kobokobo in
Sesotho means the Bearded Vulture, Gypaetus barbatus; and the Black Eagle,
Aquila verrauxii is seoli, but such niceties are of little political import.]
The new flag was unveiled at the first Party Conference of the LCD which was
held at the Pitso Ground on Sunday 22 June and attracted a large crowd of
delegates (estimated at over 7000 by The Mirror in its issue of 25 June). The
Prime Minister, when addressing those present, on several occasions referred to
the party as the Lekhotla la Mahatammoho (i. e. BCP) and had to be corrected by
the crowd.
Meanwhile, on Monday 16 June, a demonstration against
the LCD had been staged by members of other political parties, resulting in the
unusual sight of protesters united under BCP and BNP flags. Portraits of Ntsu
Mokhehle were burned and a letter signed by the Secretary-General of the BCP, G.
M. Kolisang, was handed in to ask the King to intervene and to dismiss him as
Prime Minister. On the same day, a meeting of the Council of State was to have
been held, but it appears that it did not take place because of a dispute over
whether the Prime Minister could bring his personal adviser, Tom Thabane, to the
meeting.
On Thursday in the same week, a more raucous
demonstration had been held by the BCP Youth League, and on the following day,
it had been announced that demonstrations at the Palace gates were henceforth to
be banned. Three members of the Youth League in the meantime had fled to South
Africa, complaining to the media that police threats made them feel unsafe in
Lesotho.
Favourable newspaper comment on developments was
largely confined to the new LCD newspaper Mololi. The various independent and
opposition party papers (including a new newspaper Pula published by the
National Progressive Party) ranged from equivocal to rampantly critical.
Moafrika’s cartoonist ran a series of cartoons in which the new party was
deliberately described as LSD rather than LCD and Ntsu Mokhehle was depicted as
drugged, and urged on to folly by Tom Thabane, represented in the cartoons as a
malevolent mouse.
Amongst repercussions deriving from these political
events were divisions amongst the student body at Roma. Although term had ended,
a regional conference of the Southern African Students Union was held on the
campus 9-14 June, when divisions amongst Basotho students came out into the
open. This culminated in an armed attack on an SRC member, Phelane Selinyane
which according to Moafrika of 27 June was ‘by unknown gunmen’. He jumped from a
window in Moshoeshoe Hall and was admitted to hospital, but fortunately without
serious injuries. A Nigerian student who recognised the attackers as fellow
Basotho students was told by them, according to Moafrika, that he must leave
Lesotho. It was by this time common knowledge on the campus that the attackers
had been two sons of Cabinet ministers.
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In 1996, after eight years with a Nigerian
Vice-Chancellor, the National University of Lesotho was without a substantive
Vice-Chancellor for the whole year. This was in part because the Lesotho
University Teachers’ and Researchers’ Union (LUTARU) had interrupted the
appointment process, when it had become clear that there was no local person on
the short list to fill the vacant post. When eventually a Lesotho born (but
South African resident) candidate was appointed, the original LUTARU demand was
thought to have been satisfied. However, in a letter sent to the press in
mid-June (The Mirror, 18 June 1997), LUTARU publicly ventilated its
dissatisfaction with the new Vice-Chancellor, Professor R. I. M. Moletsane,
citing six matters of discontent. Amongst these had been the manner of
appointment of a new Pro-Vice-Chancellor: the Vice-Chancellor had simply taken
the list of Senate nominated candidates, and chosen Dr. L. Thikhoi Jonathan as
Pro-Vice-Chancellor to succeed Dr. ’Matora Ntimo-Makara, whose period of office
had expired.
In terms of the National University of Lesotho Order
1992, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor is appointed by Council on the recommendation of
the Vice-Chancellor after consultation with Senate, a procedure which might be
thought to have been satisfied. Dr. Jonathan, a member of the Chemistry
Department, is a daughter of the late Leabua Jonathan, former Prime Minister of
Lesotho. She served a previous period as Pro-Vice-Chancellor of NUL from 1993 to
1995.
The Vice-Chancellor’s viewpoint was set out in a press
release a few days after the LUTARU statement had appeared in the press. It
referred to ‘trouble-makers who do not want to accept some changes in the
running of the University’.
<<<back to top
It was announced on Radio Lesotho on 17 June that in
future the Water & Sewerage Authority (WASA) would be ending the provision of
public standpipes in peri-urban areas. Water would be provided instead through a
vending system at M7.50 per kilolitre.
This move followed the difficulties WASA had been
having in recovering costs. In Maseru, the main area affected, the Maseru
Municipal Council had been expected to pay WASA the cost of the standpipe
service provided to otherwise waterless areas, but in fact this had not
happened.
<<<back to top
One of the most colourful and well-known political
characters in Lesotho died on 17 June. He was Litsebe Matooane, a staunch member
of the Basutoland Congress Party, an able theologian, but a person of quixotic
temperament whose enjoyment of outrage made it difficult for him to hold regular
employment. At his death, he was working for the Disaster Management Authority,
a role for which his credentials were bizarrely ambiguous.
Matooane had for many years been an aspirant minister
of the Lesotho Evangelical Church, and to many people he was indeed one.
However, the Church had been reluctant to ordain him, and when eventually it
relented and sent him to the Popa Parish, it almost immediately had to remove
him after he preached a sermon advocating that his flock should send their
children to traditional initiation schools. The Church was indeed to him a
Basotho institution. Was it not that Moshoeshoe had sent cattle to procure
missionaries in the first place? This was bohali, the missionaries were
therefore the wives of King Moshoeshoe, and their converts were children of
Moshoeshoe.
On one occasion Matooane’s estranged wife, who was the
headmistress of a high school, had been faced with a school strike. Matooane
hastened to the scene, and possibly his presence lessened the conflict but in a
totally uncoventional way. He urged the students to beat up his wife because she
deserved it. This totally unexpected support on their side created confusion
amongst the strike leaders, and reduced the tension.
There were occasions when Matooane’s urges were
detrimental to his own well-being. On one occasion he was determined to stand in
the road and will a car to come to a stop. The driver sounded his horn, and
expected the person in the road to see him and move over. Matooane stood his
ground. The car braked too late, and Matooane was injured.
Matooane was most often seen dressed in the red, green
and black colours of the BCP. When the LCD was formed, he was called upon as a
Moruti to say prayers at the first public meetings. Yet he was also present at
the protest demonstration on Monday 16 June. His allegiance to Ntsu Mokhehle was
clearly being sorely tested, and he did not look well. The following morning he
was found dead.
<<<back to top
The emergence of BCP factions as separate political
parties had had an earlier fissiparous precedent in the BNP, when the Peete
Peete faction had founded a new National Progressive Party (NPP). Subsequently,
little had been heard of this party, although it had fielded a candidate who had
acquired a meagre 54 votes in the Nqechane by-election in February. In June, the
newspaper Pula first appeared sponsored by the NPP. This brought to a total of
five the number of political party papers now regularly being sold on the
streets of Maseru: Makatolle (BCP); Mololi (LCD); Mohlanka (BNP); Pula (NPP);
and Mafube (Patriotic Front for Democracy).
<<<back to top
The significant number of Chinese doctors from Taiwan
in Maseru offering treatments ranging from acupuncture to moxibustion was
augmented in April by the arrival of the first members of a team of Chinese
doctors from mainland China. Members of the team were all in place by June, and
attached to the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, where they will serve for two
years. Led by Chen Chu Yan, a surgeon, the team consists of ten doctors together
with an interpreter and a cook. The culinary responsibilities of this last
member of the team are made easier by the doctors all being accommodated in
adjacent flats at Yasmin Court near the Maseru Sun Cabanas.
<<<back to top
The Lesotho National Development Corporation announced
in June the appointment of a new Chief Executive, 54-year old Mrs. Sophia Mohapi,
the first woman to be appointed to the post. Mrs. Mohapi succeeds Mr. Pako
Petlane who left the LNDC earlier in the year. She had previously worked for the
LNDC from 1974 to 1984, and subsequently had worked as a lecturer in the Centre
for Accounting Studies and as Deputy Chief Executive for Finance and
Administration in the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority.
<<<back to top
Lesotho’s Sixth National Development Plan 1996/97 -
1998/9 was placed on sale in June, 15 months, or some 40% into the actual
planning period. None of the previous five plans had actually been published in
advance of the planning period to which they were supposed to refer, but the
sixth plan’s timing was nevertheless significantly ahead of the timing of the
previous plan: the Fifth Plan had been published nearly three-quarters of the
way through the planning period to which it was supposed to be applicable.
In the absence of annual reports from ministries which
appear fitfully if at all, and in the absence of a government yearbook (the
attempt to produce one after very many years in 1996 was commendable but fell
far short of what is needed), the National Development Plan provides, if nothing
else, a useful survey of what happened in the previous plan period together with
planning objectives.
The new Plan departs from the long established five
year plan period and deals with just three financial years. It was prepared by
‘Inter-Sectoral Task Forces, established by the Ministry of Planning’ with
inputs and advice from the 16-member National Planning Board under the
chairmanship of Dr. Mohlalefi Moteane.
In the review of the Fifth Plan, it is noted that its
implementation had mixed results, and coincided with the implementation of the
Enhanced Structural Adjustment Programme imposed by the International Monetary
Fund. Success is reported for macro-economic management and fiscal policy. The
industrial sector was buoyant, but agricultural performance fluctuated and
provision of education and health services was constrained by inadequate
resources and poor management. Real Gross Domestic Product achieved an average
target growth of 7% during the period with a rather lower figure for the Gross
National Product which was impacted by a lower value of remittances from migrant
workers. The largest expenditure items during the Fifth Plan period were related
to the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, although they could not have been as
high as the M547 958 million stated as spent on construction of infrastructure,
which seems to be too high by a factor of a thousand. The establishment of the
Lesotho Highlands Water Revenue Fund is noted, and its funding achievements
during the Fifth Plan period are recorded. These include M40 million allocated
to road construction in the constituencies, M16 million for some 130 dam
construction projects, M12 million towards the Mafeteng factory and glazed tile
manufacturing project, M8 million for Maseru peri-urban water reticulation, M7
million for a wool and mohair plant, M5 million for Ministry of Agriculture dam
construction, M5 million for the Water Resources Management Study, and M3
million for a Police Forensic Science Laboratory. This last building, with
copper dome, has become a recent striking addition to Maseru’s architecture, but
seems far too large for the purpose. It appears that the forensic scientists
have acquired unexpectedly commodious accommodation, because of a decision that
the building must be long enough to accommodate a shooting range in the
basement.
A detailed sectoral performance during the Fifth Plan
period is provided. Under Agriculture this chronicles the failure of
agricultural policy and in particular the Food Self-Sufficiency Programme. It is
noted that ‘because of low crop output, agriculture’s share of total output
dropped to approximately 9% at the end of the Fifth Plan, compared to about 29%
in 1990.’ Under livestock, a 5% per annum increase in cattle herd size is
reported and smaller increases in sheep and goats, resulting in a deterioration
in the overstocking rate throughout the country. In relation to access to arable
land, in 1994 there were 740 persons per square kilometre compared with 446 per
square kilometre in 1976, an average annual population increase of 2.9% per unit
of arable land. Under Education there was a separate Education Sector
Development Plan coinciding with the Fifth Plan period. During the period
repetition rates were reduced in primary schools (the effect on standards is not
recorded), and in secondary education it is stated that ‘strict control over
establishment of new schools was enforced to increase enrolments in existing
schools’. Total secondary enrolment increased from 46 310 in 1990 to 61 615 in
1994, an average annual growth of 7.4%. An increase in Cambridge Overseas School
Certificate pass rate from 26% (the lowest amongst countries writing the
examination) in 1993 to 38% in 1994 is recorded, and it is noted that the
marking of all COSC subjects is now done locally, except for subjects scored
electronically. Targets for the expansion of technical and vocational education
were not achieved. Under Health, the extremely high figure of 31.3% HIV
prevalence amongst attenders at the Maseru Ante-Natal Clinic is recorded (up
from 6.1% the previous year). Although full immunisation coverage of children
had risen from 49% in 1984 to 71% in 1993, chronic malnutrition in under-fives
had risen from 32% in 1992 to 37% in 1995. Clinics had increased from 142 to 179
during the plan period, although at the end of the period 18 of them were not
functioning.
A section on the Macroeconomic Framework notes the
watershed decision by South Africa in 1995 to award permanent residence status
to Basotho mineworkers: a Central Bank survey showed that some 33% of Basotho
mineworkers have indicated a willingness to move with their families to South
Africa. This would have a substantial negative impact on the Lesotho economy,
with a substantial multiplier effect. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project
construction activity is considered to peak in 1996 but to continue at a lower
level through Phase IB until 2003. Renegotiation of the Customs Union and the
reduction of tariff barriers provide a number of major uncertainties in relation
to the Sixth Plan period. A table of Macroeconomic Outlook for 1996-2000 offers
both a base case scenario and an alternative scenario if the government
successfully implements proposed measures, which include privatisation,
elimination of protection to state enterprises, revitalisation of the public
service, containment of environmental degradation and encouraging farmers to
switch to the production of high value crops. The alternative scenario is
projected to result in a 12.2% average Gross Domestic Product growth rate over
the five year period 1996-2000 (the writers of this portion clearly still had a
five year plan in mind!) compared with 8.8% for the base case scenario. A table
also gives sectoral growth rates for the GDP to the year 2000, with the highest
rates (over 20% per annum) for crops and fruit and vegetables, rather
surprisingly optimistic given the dismal performance in this sector in the
previous plan period.
Amongst sectoral plans, under Employment and Labour, a
project to design a National Social Security Scheme is to be implemented (this
had also appeared in the previous Plan). Under Tourism, Sports and Culture, a
whole series of projects not implemented in the previous plan period are again
mentioned including the National Museum, National Archives, Thaba-Bosiu Cultural
Village, and Qeme Fauna and Flora Park. The longest sectoral plans deal with the
Services Sector, covering a series of Government
Ministries. Amongst proposed
measures are those to improve the efficiency of the judiciary, to address
inadequate training in the police force, to improve defence budget management,
and to improve broadcasting infrastructure. There is some imbalance in coverage
with 7 pages devoted to the Lesotho Meteorological Service (which does not even
have full departmental status). The LMS makes up for its humble status in the
Sixth National Development Plan by being accorded more space than the total
space devoted to the Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs Ministries.
[updated to 30 June 1997]
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