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SUMMARY OF EVENTS IN LESOTHO Volume 3, Number 1 (First Quarter 1996) |
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Summary of events in Lesotho is a quarterly publication compiled and published by |
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SUMMARY OF EVENTS IN LESOTHO Volume 5, Number 3 (Third Quarter 1998) |
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Summary of events in Lesotho is a quarterly publication compiled and published by David Ambrose since 1993 at the National University of Lesotho, P. O. Roma 180, Lesotho. |
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Budget Speech
The Lesotho Financial Year begins on 1 April, but the Budget Speech, delayed because of the General Election, was not presented in Parliament until Thursday 2 July 1998. The Budget Speech was given by Dr Victor Leketekete Ketso, Minister of Finance & Development Planning. He was now the Member of Parliament for Maseru Central, the constituency containing the Parliament Buildings themselves. In the previous Parliament he had only been able to hold ministerial office as Minister of Finance because of his appointment to a seat in the Senate. In his speech, the Minister stressed that the emphasis was on ‘sustainable human development’ in the context of the Sixth National Development Plan. In reviewing the 1997/8 fiscal year, it was revealed there had been a small budgetary surplus (M15.7 million against a planned deficit of M62.7 million). The main reason for this had been strict recruitment policies in the public service, and a lower than expected disbursement of funds from the Lesotho Highlands Water Revenue Fund, operations of which had had to be suspended pending reformulation of procedures. This fund deriving from water royalties earns approximately M140 million per year, half of which had been devoted to ‘community-based’ (in reality ‘constituency-based’) development projects (feeder roads, small dams etc) commonly known as fato-fato (‘dig-dig’). An average GDP growth rate of 7% for the past five years was reported. The unemployment rate was stated to be 40% and rising faster than employment. Only 2810 jobs had been created during the past year as a result of new industrial projects, and 2490 new jobs, mainly in the clothing industry, were expected to be created in 1998/9. (It was not mentioned, although it is useful for comparison purposes, that the actual net number of new entrants to the labour force annually is around 40000). With less customs receipts expected from Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) imports of expensive construction equipment, revenue from the Southern African Customs Union was expected to decline by 12% in the coming year. A necessary response was a broadening of the local tax system, which would be largely achieved by the introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) in place of Sales Tax. The implementation of VAT, originally set for April 1998, was however now to be deferred until later in the present financial year. Reference was made to the privatisation programme and those enterprises already privatised including the former Lesotho Airways Corporation (now Air Lesotho and run by Rossair) and the Lesotho Flour Mills (taken over by Seaboard (US)). Government was already benefiting by being relieved of having to pay subsidies to loss-making enterprises. However, original plans to set up a Lesotho Stock Exchange had been drastically modified ‘because of practical limitations in the banking system’. Alternative strategies were being pursued so that Basotho could invest in private corporations. Meanwhile other areas were being given priority for privatisation, notably telecommunications, water, electricity and banking. The Minister also spoke about investments in tourism, agriculture and the National Environmental Action Plan. Progress with the LHWP was reported, and the ’Muela Hydropower Complex should be completed by September 1998. On the mining front attempts were being made to reopen closed mines, and to curb the pollution from mining operations at Kao which was polluting the Katse Reservoir. A pre-feasibility study was to be undertaken to solve the problem of the Maseru water supply by a large storage dam at Metolong Ha Makotoko in the Phuthiatsana gorge. Plans were also well advanced for a Trans-Maloti Highway, although no final decision had yet been taken as to whether the route beyond Thaba-Tseka would be through Sani Pass or Sehlabathebe. In relation to the chronic traffic congestion now affecting Maseru, there would be a feasibility study for the Kingsway Relief Road. (An alignment for such a road running parallel and south of Kingsway has been preserved for many years, but was spoilt when no-one opposed the building of a new African Methodist Episcopal Church and extensions to Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, both of which intruded into the reserved area.) Under health and social welfare, there was an indication that government would strengthen its association with CHAL (the ‘Christian Health Association of Lesotho’, formerly PHAL, the ‘Private Health Association of Lesotho’; CHAL members own approximately half of the hospitals in Lesotho), with a long-term assistance strategy, not explained in any detail. In relation to a pension scheme for the elderly, a study had been undertaken and it was now known that providing pensions to those over 65 (an estimated 85 413 persons) would cost 34% of government recurrent expenditure if the monthly payment were M387.30 (approximately US$60) per month. The high cost required further studies, and a much lower monthly payment might be all that could be afforded by government. In relation to education, the election promise of free education at primary level was relegated to an aim not a promise: ‘The target is ultimately to achieve free education particularly at primary level ...’. The poor performance in terminal secondary examinations was noted and would be addressed by increasing the capacity of the National Teaching Training College, strengthening the inspectorate and building school laboratories. The ‘rampage of the scourge of AIDS’ required a revision of curricula and teaching programmes. Reference was made to ‘distressed financial institutions’ (the Lesotho Agricultural Development Bank and Lesotho Bank itself presumably being included). Legislative reform was being undertaken which would inter alia speed the processing of commercial court cases and enforcement of court rulings. The judiciary now had nine judges and thirteen magistrates, but a special commercial court was being contemplated. In figures, the overall 1998/9 budget provides for revenue and grants of M2373 million and expenditure of M2809 million, a budgeted deficit of M436 million. The revenue includes an estimated M1033 million (44%) from customs union receipts, M363 million from income tax (15%), M252 million from sales tax (11%), and M140 million from water royalties (6%). External grants are predicted to amount to M141 million (also 6%). The largest single expenditure item is M2139 million for recurrent expenditure, no less than 44% of which is needed for personal emoluments. This is stated to be ‘unacceptably too high by international standards’, yet it has been further inflated by an across the board 10% ‘inflation adjustment’ announced just before the election. Elsewhere in the speech the Minister admitted that the inflation rate for the past year had only been 8.5% for 1997. (In fact for the financial year 1997/8 it was even less, although there is now an upward trend as a result of the recent serious devaluation (some 25% against the US dollar in May to July) of the rand and loti.) By ministries the Ministry of Education at M537 million (25%) receives the highest share of the recurrent budget, followed by the Ministries of Finance at M231 million (11%), Defence at M166 million (8%), Health at M160 million (7%), and Home Affairs at M116 million (5%). In relation to the capital budget, Public Works receives 23%, the LHWP 15%, Natural Resources 11%, Education 10%, Agriculture 7%, and Trade and Industry 5%. These are identified as key sectors of the economy with a high potential to reduce poverty and create employment. In relation to the planned budget deficit, efforts were being
made to locate sources within the donor community and would continue to be made
with investment promotion campaigns to attract foreign investors. Death of Bishop John MaundJohn Arrowsmith Maund, first Anglican Bishop of Basutoland, died in England on 9 July 1998 at the age of 88. Born in England, where he trained as a priest at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield, John Maund arrived in South Africa in 1938 and served in the Second World War as an army chaplain. He was awarded the Military Cross for leading stretcher bearers and rescuing wounded men under heavy fire. Appointed Bishop of the new Basutoland Diocese (Basutoland had formerly been part of the Bloemfontein Diocese) in 1950, John Maund presided over an area where, as a result of the recruiting policy of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the High Church version of Anglicanism was already well established. This was strengthened by John Maund inviting to Masite in Lesotho a contemplative community, the Society of the Precious Blood. Another group of Anglican sisters, the Community of the Holy Name, also came to Lesotho during John Maund’s episcopacy, working both at St Mary’s, Hlotse and St Catherine’s, Maseru. A working religious order, they redressed an unfortunate situation where earlier Anglican sisterhoods of the Bloemfontein Diocese had reflected apartheid in their division of labour between white and black sisters. A skilled horseman, John Maund presided over a period of
Anglican expansion in which 75 new schools were opened in mainly remoter areas
of Lesotho. In the latter part of this period he was ably assisted by a
suffragan bishop, the late Fortescue (‘Forty’) Makhetha. John Maund retired in
1976, shortly after celebrating the Silver Jubilee of his episcopacy. His
successor, but for two years only, was Bishop Desmond Tutu. On his retirement,
and by then widowed, John Maund lived for many years in a home for retired
clergy near Malvern in England. Leader of BNP Ill: Bereng Sekhonyana Takes OverThe leader of the Basotho National Party (BNP), Chief
Retšelisitsoe Sekhonyana, was reported in NewsWire of 8 July 1998 to have been
ill, and had recently returned to Lesotho following a stomach operation in
Gauteng. His position as leader of the BNP had been taken over temporarily by
his brother Bereng Sekhonyana, the previous BNP deputy leader, Thabo Rakhetla,
having been ostracised because he had accepted Senate nomination without party
approval. Daily affairs of the BNP were in the hands of the Party Chairman, Dr
Ebenezer ’Meli Malie. Work Commences on Mohale TunnelThe first blast initiating work on the tunnel to connect the
Mohale and Katse Reservoirs took place on Friday 10 July. The tunnel will be 4.3
metres in diameter and 32 km in length, and the main work will be undertaken by
two tunnel boring machines working in opposite directions at an estimated speed
of 650 metres per month. Majara Chieftainship again ContestedThe Chieftainship of Maqhaka, the village which is the residence of the Principal Chief of the Majara Ward, was the subject of prolonged litigation in the early 1990s after the death of Chief Leshoboro Majara. The judgment in that case was one which has sent ripples through the whole legal system, since it seemed to destroy the previous doctrine of duality of marriage, ruling that the first marriage to take place chronologically, whether customary or civil, was the only legal marriage. A subsequent ruling by the Court of Appeal left some doubt by implying that the rules applying to the chieftainship might be different from marriages contracted by commoners. The young chief who won the succession as a result of the earlier litigation was Qhobela Majara, but he was unfortunately killed in a car crash on 20 April 1997. As reported by Mopheme of 14 July 1998, a court case was now proceeding between his brother and his widow for control over the chieftainship. Qhobela Molapo was reported to have married Thakane Thelingoane in 1995, and she assumed the married name of ’Mamolapo Qhobela Leshoboro Majara. A son, Molapo, was born and after his birth a cow was slaughtered as a traditional ritual to accept him as a lawful member of the Majara family and as lawful heir. Moreover in the printed programme for Qhobela Majara’s funeral, ’Mamolapo Qhobela was shown as Qhobela’s widow. Qhobela’s brother, Makotoko, apparently supported by Qhobela’s
mother, disputed these facts, saying that the marriage between Qhobela and
Thakane had never been completed, and that the five cattle paid as bohali had
only been an initial instalment. The outcome of the case was not published in
the press, and as a result of shortages of paper, the High Court in recent years
has no longer been providing the service by which interested persons could
subscribe to High Court Judgments. BCP Treasurer Refuses Senate NominationSekoala Toloane, Treasurer of the Basutoland Congress Party,
was reported in NewsWire of 15 July to have declined an invitation to be
appointed as a Senator. He replied to the Government Secretary‘s invitation
implying that his refusal was because the present government had not been
democratically elected. Buses Stranded in SnowThree buses bound for Thaba-Tseka with 120 passengers from Maseru were stranded as a result of snowfall on the bleak Matšooana plateau between Mantšonyane and Thaba-Tseka on the afternoon of Tuesday 21 July. The buses got into difficulty about 4.30 p. m., but a vehicle capable of towing the buses managed to reach them by 11 p. m., and the passengers were then ferried to Thaba-Tseka, where many passengers, who included 12 nursing mothers, had to sleep overnight at the police station. The bus passengers were luckier than two young men whose
bodies were later found on Blouman’s Nek between Qacha’s Nek and Ha Rankakala.
They had apparently died of exposure after being caught in a snowstorm.
Fifth Mayor of Maseru Assumes OfficeIn a ceremony at the Pitso Ground on Wednesday 22 July, His
Worship Mohau Mabitle was sworn in as the fifth Mayor of Maseru. Earlier mayors
had been the late Sobhuza Sopeng, Candi Ratabane Ramainoane (owner of the
newspaper Moafrika), Dickson Lefa Monaheng and Thabiso Molikeng. The new Mayor
is Councillor for the Motimposo Ward. He is a former Lesotho High School pupil
who is now in business. He is an active member of the Seventh Day Adventist
Church and a teetotaler. AIDS Figures Show Alarming RiseThe Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) Control Unit of the Ministry of Health recently released AIDS figures which were published in Lentsoe la Basotho of 23 July 1998 and in Public Eye of July 1998. These show that the number of people with full-blown AIDS had risen from 936 in 1996 to 4075 in 1997. The seriousness of the situation was meanwhile becoming more and more apparent to ordinary people. Although AIDS is avoided as a stated cause of death at funerals, most people now state that they know people who have died of AIDS. In the Berea District Hospital at Teyateyaneng, the Bulgarian doctor in charge reports that almost all the available beds in her hospital are now filled with AIDS patients. The Tebellong Hospital Annual Report for 1997 deplores the widespread tendency for even hospital staff to refuse to diagnose patients as having AIDS, which distorts statistics. The report is dedicated to the memory of a Trained Nurse Assistant who had died of AIDS in 1997, following the deaths of her husband and infant son from the same disease. However, the full and horrendous impact of the AIDS pandemic is yet to occur. The Sixth National Development Plan states a figure of 40 000 for expected full-blown AIDS cases by the year 2001. This represents nearly 10% of the sexually active population, but is the tip of the iceberg because for every full-blown case, several more are likely to be HIV positive. Even as early as 1995, an HIV prevalence rate of 31.3% had been found amongst expectant mothers attending the ante-natal clinic at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Maseru. Few doctors are anything but pessimistic about the situation. Mortality rates as high or higher than 50% for the 20 to 40 age group over the next ten to fifteen years are considered not implausible. The situation is equally serious in neighbouring countries. Apparently HIV prevalence rates in Southern Africa are already higher than they ever were in Uganda, one of the most seriously affected countries in Africa. The campaign against AIDS in Lesotho is taking many forms with
explicit literature explaining how to use condoms, and campaigns on the radio
and in the press, and also by government, including a rally planned by the Prime
Minister to be held in August (but postponed because of civil unrest) to warn
civil servants of the dangers. However, the statistics seem to show that so far
there has been little impact. Apparently the high rate of HIV transmission is
influenced by the high incidence of other STDs, which cause sores allowing HIV
to pass very readily between persons having sexual intercourse. The higher
incidence of HIV infection amongst women in Lesotho is apparently a result of
their more vulnerable anatomy as well as their exploitation as sex objects.
Tuberculosis, a disease until recently usually curable, is now very frequently
combined with AIDS leading to a rapid decline and death. Serious Accident at Maseru Border PostA serious accident occurred on Friday 24 July on the South
African side of the Maseru Border Post when a minibus taxi carrying Lesotho
miners from Kloof Mine went out of control on the slope approaching the border
post. It hit another taxi and fruit vendors who were selling fruit by the
roadside. Five people were killed, most of them passengers in the minibus taxi.
More than 20 people were injured. University Constructs Electric FenceWriting in The Mirror of 24 July 1998, Sally Stevens
(presumably a pseudonym) described the electric fence under construction around
the National University of Lesotho campus at Roma. She echoed doubts from many
persons interviewed about the appropriateness of such an installation when there
were many other pressing needs including the need to remedy classroom and hostel
accommodation shortages. Sitting of the Court of AppealThe Court of Appeal, the members of which are three South African judges, met in Maseru in July. One case heard was that of the hapless Chinese national, Shao Ming Sheng, who in August 1997 had been sentenced by Mr Justice Maqutu to 27 years imprisonment for murdering all three members of a Chinese family resident in Maseru. He did this in frustration after a promise by one of them which had lured him both to Lesotho and to part with US$4000: he had been promised that in return he would be guaranteed a visa and work in South Africa. The judges of the Court of Appeal ruled that there were irregularities in the trial, that he should be set free, but be rearrested at the gate of the court and be tried by another Judge of the High Court. They noted that an irony of the situation was that in the second trial he might well be sentenced to death. The defence attorney, Hae Phoofolo, advised Shao under the circumstances to withdraw his appeal, which he did. In another case, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court
decision reinstating 314 dismissed Lesotho Telecommunications Corporation (LTC)
workers. In his judgment, the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice J. H.
Steyn, said that the litigation so far had benefited no-one except lawyers. The
reinstated workers were told that they would get back pay from May, and they
announced their intention of holding a party to celebrate. The LTC was fined
M50000and its Managing Director, Thamahane Rasekila, was fined M10 000 for
contempt of court when it ignored the High Court ruling. Doubts about Census Distort Statistics of Food RequirementsTwo years after the 1996 Census, none of the promised four volumes have been published. Nevertheless there exists a published list of village populations from which a de jure population total of only 1836000 can be inferred. An underenumeration of at least 12% is suspected, and informed sources indicate that 100 000 of the population of Maseru were not enumerated, and also only half the expected number of children under the age of 10 were enumerated. A serious problem now arises as to whether to use the actual census figures or the expected figures in published data. The Food Security Bulletin for the period April to June 1998 published in July 1998 elected to use the lower figures for the de facto population. As a result lower figures for food requirements for Lesotho were published including lower figures for the expected deficit. For the 1997/8 summer, maize production is recorded as 67 million tons, while total annual requirements are given as 254 million tons. This compares with maize production of 142 million tons in 1996/7 (a good summer); 188 million tons in 1995/6 (the best summer in recent years); 49 million tons in 1994/5 (a drought year); 175 million tons in 1993/4 (another good year); and 92 million tons in 1992/3 (a dry summer, although with more rainfall than 1994/5). The figures illustrate that even in the best summers, Lesotho imports a significant proportion of its maize requirements. However, whereas in 1996/7 there was a shortfall of 32 million tons between sorghum requirements and actual production, in 1997/8 the deficit was reduced to less than one million tons. Although not commented on in the Food Security Bulletin, there
is a general belief that the 1997/8 figures of maize production are low, not so
much because of low rainfall in 1997/8, but because publicity about El Niño and
a likely drought (which did not materialise) discouraged people from planting.
In large areas of the Lowlands of Lesotho more than half of the fields were left
fallow throughout the 1997/8 summer season. Rainfall in 1997/8 as it turned out
was in fact considerably more than in 1992/3. As has been seen the maize harvest
amounted to a higher total of 92 million tons in that summer, compared with a
predicted total of only 67 million tons for 1997/8. Closure of AgricbankThe Lesotho Agricultural Development Bank (Agricbank) closed
on 31 July 1998 amid confusion about the future status of the staff, who thought
they were negotiating guarantees of further employment but instead received
severance packages. The Bank had been in a severely distressed state for some
time, and as rumours that it was about to fail spread, investors had converged
on the bank in the previous two months to remove their savings. The Bank is to
be put up for sale under the Government’s privatisation scheme. A notice placed
outside the Bank after its closure indicated that remaining account holders had
had their accounts transferred to Lesotho Bank. Funeral of Martin Tlepu MahanetsaA long serving member of the National University of Lesotho
Institute of Extra-Mural Studies, Martin Tlepu Mahanetsa, was buried at Matsieng
on 1 August 1998. He had died from liver cancer after a long illness. Well known
as an adult educator, Tlepu Mahanetsa was also an accomplished singer. For a
while he had also been Managing Director of the Basotho Enterprises Development
Corporation (BEDCO). Moyeni Election Result: Overall Election SummaryThe election in the Moyeni Constituency was the only one not held on 23 May. The death of the Sefate Democratic Union (SDU) candidate resulted in its postponement in terms of election regulations. As part of their protest against the main election, the three main opposition parties announced their withdrawal from the election a few days before it was held on Saturday 1 August. In fact their announcement was too late for an official withdrawal of nominated candidates in terms of the regulations. Consequently the names of all candidates remained on the ballot papers. Tefo Mabote, the former Minister of Health and Social Welfare regained his seat for the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) with 4163 votes. The Basotho National Party (BNP) candidate came second with 129 votes, followed by the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) candidate with 74 votes, the Patriotic Front for Democracy (PFD) candidate with 32 votes, and the Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP) candidate with 12 votes. The SDU did not replace their deceased candidate. With the result of the last constituency available, it was possible to compute overall election statistics for the 80 constituencies. The LCD polled nationally 60.8% of the votes, followed by the BNP with 24.3% of the votes. In third place was the BCP with 10.4%, while the MFP obtained just 1.1%. Other parties scored even less, with the SDU recording 0.6%, the National Progressive Party 0.5%, the Popular Front for Democracy 0.5%, and five smaller parties together polling just 0.6%. Independent candidates, one of whom was a former MP, between them scored 1.1% of the total votes. Approximately 73% of those registered actually voted, with the figure ranging widely between individual constituencies. It was particularly low at 46.6% in the Maama constituency where many people stayed away because, as a result of an unresolvable primary election dispute, the BNP did not have a candidate. At the other extreme, Independent Electoral Commission figures showed a surprisingly high figure of 97.0% of registered voters actually voting in the Mpharane Constituency in Mohale’s Hoek District. The LCD won 79 out of the 80 constituencies, and this was achieved with a majority vote in all but 13 of the constituencies. The LCD did best in Berea District with 68.5% of the vote, and worst in the four constituencies of Mokhotlong District where it scored just 39.5% of the vote. It was only in Mokhotlong that the overall BCP vote at 32.5% exceeded that of the BNP, which had 25.1%. Nevertheless, such are the vagaries of the ‘first past the post’ electoral system that it was in Mokhotlong that the LCD lost its only constituency, that of Bobatsi, which fell to the BNP, not the BCP. In view of subsequent events, the overall figures for the
Maseru urban area are of some interest. The LCD at 55.0% scored lower in these
eight constituencies than in any district other than Mokhotlong. Nearly all the
other votes went to the BNP (27.6%) and the BCP (14.5%), with the MFP scoring
just 0.6%. In the Maseru Central Constituency, the LCD scored only 40.7% of the
overall votes. Post-Electoral Protests Lead to Maseru UnrestFollowing the 23 May elections, the three main opposition parties, the Basotho National Party (BNP), Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) and the Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP) continued a campaign to discredit the results. BNP youths for example hurled abuse at the Prime Minister, Pakalitha Mosisili, during the King’s 35th Birthday celebrations on 17 July. On 22 July, the opposition parties obtained a ruling from the High Court that they should be allowed to examine voting lists and other materials held by the Independent Electoral Commission. The campaign was given new impetus by failure on 31 July to get the Court of Appeal to interfere with the High Court judgment given a few days before the elections which allowed the elections to proceed despite objections from the BCP, BNP and MFP. The fallout from the Court of Appeal judgment was suspicion that the parties might try to manipulate the King to intervene and to dissolve Parliament and by rumours (denied by Government) that this would be forestalled by banishing the King. The campaign gained momentum late in July. Loudspeaker vans of the BNP toured the districts offering material support to anyone coming to Maseru for a meeting which would be held on Tuesday 4 August. Unemployed youth from many parts of Lesotho responded. The meeting was duly held at the ’Manthabiseng Plateau, after which over a thousand persons converged on the Royal Palace with a petition asking the King to intervene. They held an all night vigil outside the Palace, and continued the demonstration the following day. Early on the Wednesday afternoon the Prime Minister made a Parliamentary statement which the crowd heard relayed over the radio. It reiterated the fairness of the elections and the legitimacy of the Government. This statement, however, only incensed the crowd who moved to the gates of Parliament, and held everyone inside hostage for some 2½ hours. The crowd was dispersed by the police using newly learned techniques of riot control: use of water cannon and rubber bullets, the latter being apparently fired into the air. Nevertheless, some damage was done by members of the crowd. Nine government cars were damaged, including two ministerial cars. Out-of-control youths also took advantage of the disturbances and some shop windows were broken and goods looted, although not on a major scale. The following day, Thursday, the crowd again surrounded Parliament and succeeded in preventing the normal sittings of both Senate and the National Assembly. By Friday, Parliament was back to normal, but a group of protesters continued a non-stop day and night vigil outside the Palace gates. According to informed sources, the Government drafted a statement on Friday 7 August to be made by the King to the protesters. It thanked them for their petition, assured them that their concerns were receiving attention, and then asked them to go home peacefully. The King read part of the statement, but omitted the paragraph asking the protesters to go home peacefully. Government then realised that the King had aligned himself with the protesters, just as his father before him had developed a close relationship with the same E. R. Sekhonyana, leader of the BNP. The matter became even more serious when it became apparent that the Commissioner of Police was not prepared (some said was unable) to take realistic steps to end the demonstration. It was then announced that there would be a meeting between the government and the three main opposition parties (BNP, BCP and MFP) on Saturday, but this broke down as a result of opposition demands that the meeting be held at the Palace, and that they would only negotiate with Pakalitha Mosisili as Leader of the LCD and not as Prime Minister. The campaign took a more serious turn on Monday 10 August when the streets of Maseru were blocked by barricades of burning tyres and all public transport and most private vehicles were unable to move. Street vendors particularly suffered when their roadside stalls were commandeered to build the barricades. The police and army were called out, but seemed only half-hearted in efforts to control the widespread disturbance which effectively brought Maseru to a complete standstill. On the Monday, at government invitation, a high-level delegation arrived from South Africa, headed by the Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki, accompanied by Foreign Minister, Alfred Nzo and Defence Minister, Joe Molise. A meeting was held in the Prime Minister’s Office attended by three-person delegations from the BCP (Tšeliso Makhakhe, Sekoala Toloane, and Dr Khauhelo Raditapole), the BNP (Dr Ebenezer ’Meli Malie, Bereng Sekhonyana and Lekhooana Jonathan), and the MFP (Vincent Moeketsi Malebo, Moletsane Monyake and Mrs Mamello Morrison). It was announced that following the meeting there was an agreement that a committee of independent experts from the ‘troika’ countries (Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, who in 1994 had pledged to guarantee democracy in Lesotho) would examine allegations of electoral irregularities and the conduct of the elections. They would report within two weeks. This was reiterated on the following afternoon by a broadcast speech by the Prime Minister who said that the Government and opposition leaders had pledged to accept the findings of the committee as the basis for a way forward. He called on the opposition leaders to tell their followers to disperse, and asked LCD supporters also to exercise restraint. If the demonstrators did not disperse then the disciplined forces (police and army) would assist them to do so. (In fact the demonstrators did not disperse and the disciplined forces failed to intervene.) The Prime Minister’s speech was followed on the radio by a speech by the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, ’Nyane Mphafi, on behalf of the government, who responded to an inflammatory speech, broadcast earlier in the day by Molapo Qhobela of the BCP over the South African Lesedi FM radio station. Qhobela had said that he did not recognise the Monday agreement, and it was foreign interference. There was speculation as to why Qhobela as leader of the BCP had not represented his party at the Monday talks, and some persons believed him to have been incapacitated at the time. The need for calm and an end to demonstrations became ever more clear on the Monday afternoon when a battle broke out between opposition and LCD supporters. One LCD member was killed and 15 persons were injured. Two houses of BNP candidates in Maseru were burnt down. Earlier in the day, two minibus taxis which had tried to defy the stayaway were also burnt. By Tuesday, unidentified members of the opposition parties were also telephoning shops and schools outside Maseru telling them that they must observe the national stayaway and close down or face reprisals. Parliament was unable to meet on Monday or Tuesday, and Radio Lesotho abandoned its normal programmes and played hymns, religious songs and military marches. The International Committee of the Red Cross arrived and set up a field station on Kingsway near the centre of Maseru. Stalemate continued throughout the week, and considerable hardship was experienced by many Maseru residents who found banks and shops closed, and consequently ran short of foodstuffs. The large number of householders who pay for electricity using prepaid coupons found they were unable to buy these, and many homes were plunged into darkness. Workers attempting to reach factories in the industrial area were turned back by opposition roadblocks, and Maseru became essentially a ghost town. On Wednesday 12 August, the College of Chiefs met with the King at the Palace, asking him to make a statement to calm the situation, but he apparently declined to do so. A spokesman for the College of Chiefs later denied that they had asked him to dissolve Parliament, something which he was in any case not constitutionally able to do without a request from the Prime Minister. As members of the Chieftainship left the palace gates, some of the crowd maintaining the vigil outside attempted to surge through the gates as they were briefly opened. The police fired tear gas to prevent their entry. On Thursday, shortly after midday, a group of LCD supporters attempted to take over the BNP headquarters. They were repulsed by armed guards, and in the exchange of fire, 9 people were wounded, of whom 5 were admitted to hospital and 4 discharged after treatment. Two shops in the suburbs of Maseru were looted that evening, and one of them, belonging to Khomo Molapo, was also burnt down. Pamphlets distributed on Thursday called for a complete
stayaway from Maseru the following Monday by all workers. Minibus taxi owners
were warned that their vehicles would be attacked if they did not heed the
stayaway. The call for a stayaway puzzled many people, because an indefinite
stayaway had already been effectively forced on Maseru for the whole of the
current week. However, by Thursday, barriers blocking the roads had been mainly
moved and traffic, other than public transport, was moving throughout the city.
Some public transport was, however, by this time being allowed to reach the
Maseru bus station, so that journeys between Maseru and nearby towns could in
some cases again be made. Death of Albert MohaleA former well-known educator and diplomat, Albert Steerforth
Mohale, died on Friday 7 August. Born at Ha Maphohloane in Mohale’s Hoek
District in 1928, he was a graduate of Pius XII College, and after further
studies in Canada was later an extension educator at the same institution.
Shortly after Independence, he was appointed Lesotho’s first Ambassador to the
United States of America, and was simultaneously Permanent Representative of
Lesotho at the United Nations. He later served the government of Chief Leabua
Jonathan in a variety of capacities, and for a time after the 1970 coup was
Minister of Education. He was later Permanent Secretary for the Interior. His
last diplomatic posting was as Ambassador to Iran in the early 1980s. He later
retired to Vervroening Farm, near Thaba Nchu in the Free State, the residence of
his second wife, Cathy (née Setlogelo), who survives him.. Basotho Recruited as Asparagus WorkersMore than 2000 Basotho, mainly women, were to be recruited in
August as temporary agricultural workers harvesting asparagus in fields in the
Ficksburg and Bethlehem districts of the Free State. According to The Mirror of
31 July, the workers were to be paid M13.50 ($2) per five-hour day, seven days a
week, and the workers would leave Lesotho on 17 August. A different version of
the story was given by the Government newspaper, Lentsoe la Basotho of 30 July.
This stated that the number employed would be more than 3000, and they would be
paid R15.86 for a ten-hour working day with double pay on Sundays and public
holidays. Death of Principal Chief of RotheThe death was announced during August of the Principal Chief
of Rothe, Chief Mohlalefi Bereng. As Principal Chief of Rothe, Chief Mohlalefi
had administered a considerable area of the Lowlands from Masite to Kolo, and
also had jurisdiction over three other detached areas in the Foothills and
Maloti, including a substantial area around the town of Thaba-Tseka. Chief
Mohlalefi who was 73 years old, was buried in his home village of Rothe on
Saturday 29 August. The funeral was attended by King Letsie III and the Prime
Minister who might have normally been expected to attend sent a letter of
condolence that was read out at the funeral. Experts from Troika Countries Arrive to Scrutinise Election ResultsOn Friday 14 August, Radio Lesotho announced that the first of the team of electoral experts had arrived in Maseru shortly after lunchtime. They consisted of four persons from South Africa and three from Botswana. Zimbabweans were to join the team shortly together with an observer from the Commonwealth and one from the United Nations. The team was to be headed by a South African judge, Justice Pius Langa. The arrival of the experts coincided with two different headline stories broadcast on SA FM Radio. At 1400 the radio announced that it had been revealed that a company in Pretoria had been paid to print extra ballot papers for the Lesotho Election by the ‘Technical Intelligence Fund’. At 15 00 there was a different story to the effect that the South African company (OF & A) that had audited the election results (at the behest of the opposition) after the results in May had declared them unfair and said that they were manipulated. This second report was a repetition of a story now some two and a half months old, so was hardly current news. However, the timing of the two separate news stories to coincide with the arrival of the electoral experts was seen by some to have a possible purpose. It might be designed to persuade the youths paralysing Maseru that there was indeed something for the electoral experts to investigate, so that they might call off their action until the experts had reported. It was not known whether SA FM could be subject to South African Government manipulation in this way, or indeed perhaps manipulation by certain of its news compilers. However, despite the stories, the youths were not likely to desert the city very easily. Many had had their journeys to Maseru facilitated from other Lesotho towns with party funds, and while in Maseru they were being fed by lorries of food brought daily from Ladybrand. A request for condoms had gone out from the campers. A return home to unemployment (coupled with possible danger from the LCD youth en route and at destination) was not likely to be an immediately attractive option. In its evening bulletin on Friday, Radio Lesotho broadcast a
statement from the alliance of two of Lesotho’s smaller political parties, the
Patriotic Front for Democracy and the Communist Party of Lesotho. The statement
rejected any unconstitutional change of government, stated that there was no
evidence known to them of election irregularities, but welcomed the arrival of
the team of experts coming to Lesotho to investigate any irregularities that
there might have been. Demonstrators Killed in Shooting IncidentSporadic violence between rival groups of political demonstrators had already led to some deaths and injuries in the first ten days of political protest. The most serious incident so far took place shortly after dawn on the morning of Monday 17 August. Various versions of what happened came from different sources. The most reliable appears to be the account in phonetic Sesotho English printed in NewsWire of 18 August 1998. The NewsWire reporter observed that on the morning of 17 August the police had surrounded the protesters outside the Palace gates, and only allowed him through because he had a press card. Immediately afterwards a man with a BCP ‘scuff’ tried to force his way through, and was trampled on with ‘batons, boots and riffle buds’. The crowd reacted with insults, whereupon the police ‘corked’ their rifles. There was then ‘a hail of gun fires’ for almost thirty minutes, apparently with the police initially firing into the sky. When fire was apparently returned by the protesters, the police fired into the crowd. At the end of the incident two people had died and some 30 were injured, a number of them seriously. Amongst those who died was 16-year old Tlaleng Pasane, a fervent BNP supporter of Boinyatso, near Roma. The back of her head was shattered by a bullet, and a photograph of her body being removed from the scene of the shooting was featured on the front page of Moafrika of 21 August 1998. Police reports of the incident differed in some detail, but the fact that six policemen were amongst the injured suggested that there had been some exchange of fire. The protesters were said to have been particularly angry because before dawn when the protesters were still asleep, police had collected clothes of the protesters with BNP colours which had been washed and hung to dry. They had then burned them. Police denied this report. Another version of the incident which gained credence was that after the police fired towards the Palace gates, soldiers on guard inside returned the fire. Protesters were then killed or injured in the crossfire. The NewsWire report did not support that version of the story. NewsWire issued a list of those killed and injured in its
issue of 19 August. As expected, a significant number were young people who had
been encouraged to come to Maseru to demonstrate from other parts of Lesotho.
Approximately half those injured were from outside Maseru, a number of them from
districts as far away as Thaba-Tseka and Quthing. Disturbances have Serious Impact on Tourist Industry; on Education; and on the PressSerious losses as a result of the unrest in Maseru were reported by the Lesotho Sun and Maseru Sun hotels each of which reported that it was losing M200000 per day. Many people who were planning to visit Lesotho cancelled their trips. This included a party of 22 American students, teachers and administrators who had been due to pay a 5 day visit to Lesotho as part of an African familiarisation tour. Schools in the Maseru area were particularly badly hit. Many of them were effectively closed for a period of two weeks or more at the height of the troubles. Drivers of minibus taxis were also badly affected. For many days taxis in and out of Maseru were unable to run. The University at Roma was also almost at a standstill for two weeks because significant numbers of staff and students who live in Maseru were unable to use the Maseru to Roma road. Meanwhile newspaper proprietors were complaining of heavy
losses. The stayaway resulted in most weeklies missing one or two issues, and
thus unable to insert advertisements in time to meet deadlines, with consequent
loss of revenue. British Schools Exploration Society Visits LesothoOne group which was not seriously affected by the disturbances was the British Schools Exploration Society. With a headquarters camp at Morija, a party of 80 ‘Young Explorers’ in the 16 to 20 year age group from Britain spent six weeks in July and August in remote parts of Lesotho. Divided into six ‘fires’ (campfires), each group spent the time under canvas with a scientific leader and a mountain leader. The six different projects undertaken were a spiral aloe census, a rock art survey, a survey of vulture nesting sites, the measuring of the heights of Lesotho’s waterfalls, the recording of fossil footprints, and a water quality survey in mountain streams. Those engaged in the projects spoke with enthusiasm about their travels in parts of Lesotho where there are no roads. The spiral aloe fire found a site in a remote part of Mokhotlong District with over 10000 aloes, the largest site ever recorded. Its exact location will be kept a well-guarded secret. There are now believed to be between 14 500 and 17 500 spiral aloes (a spectacular plant indigenous to Lesotho) in the country, a considerably higher figure than previous estimates, although almost all sites close to roads are now extinct. The rock art fire also was also very pleased with its finds. 27 rock art sites hitherto unrecorded were found on the west bank of the Senqu between Sehonghong and Lebakeng. These were photographed and drawn by expedition artists. The area where they were working is in a remote part of the Maloti where no systematic search for rock art had been previously undertaken. The ’Maletsunyane Falls at Semonkong, the highest in southern Africa, were measured by a group led by a surveyor from the Royal Engineers. The height was found to be 186 metres. This compares with the figure of 189 metres obtained 99 years ago when it was last measured by a group from Switzerland, their results being published in the Bulletin de la Société Neuchâteloise de Géographie. The surveying fire also produced heights for Qiloane Falls (37m), Ribaneng Falls (117m) and Ketane Falls (134.5 m). The geology fire which concentrated on fossil footprints documented several sites at Roma and then moved to Qacha’s Nek where they discovered the first fossil footprints recorded for the district. The census of Cape Vultures revealed how vulnerable they are
and how many colonies are threatened. The colony at Semonkong, about which many
articles have appeared in Vulture News, was found to be extinct. Apparently a
policeman had shot the birds (a legally protected species!) over a period of
five days. Thus a thoughtless act had irreparably destroyed Lesotho’s most
accessible colony and damaged a major ecotourism attraction. In the past in the
early morning sunlight one could sit on the west bank of the gorge and wait for
the birds to rise on the thermals from their roost below. They passed by just a
few metres from where one was sitting, an ornithological experience available
nowhere else in southern Africa. New Maseru By-Pass OpensThe new Maseru By-Pass was brought into use in mid-August. It
provides an improved route from Masianokeng to the Maseru Railway Station via
Likotsi, Ha Thetsane and parts of Pioneer Road and United Nations Road (the
former Lagden Road). The new road passes below the Maseru Sun Hotel, between the
hotel and the Mohokare River. When it joins Kingsway near the American Embassy
it forks with reconstructed roads leading both to the Railway Station and the
Border Post. The road has been funded by the Lesotho Highlands Development
Authority as part of the infrastructure needed to provide access to the Mohale
Damsite. Traffic lights have been installed on the road near the American
Embassy, at the Pioneer Road Junction, and at Masianokeng where it joins the
existing road and where the road to Roma forks from the main south road.
Operation of National Convention Centre Open to Private Sector BidsThe Lesotho National Convention Centre (LNCC), a gift from the People’s Republic of China is a massive building situated in an area known to most people as the former ’Manthabiseng Bus Stop, although older people might refer to the site as the former Agricultural Showgrounds. The LNCC occupies land which had been earmarked for the National Archives and National Museum, institutions which many might argue are more needed by Lesotho than the LNCC, the apparent functions of which are already well catered for by the Lesotho Sun and Maseru Sun Hotels. Final touches to the LNCC building were completed many months back, although informed sources indicated that the building had been built with a major flaw: it had air conditioning (a comparative luxury in Lesotho) but no heating (a necessity for half the year). Rectification of this deficiency was going to be an expensive additional undertaking. With the new building standing empty for a long period, there
was speculation about how it could be usefully used. Government was evidently
wondering along the same lines. By advertisement in the media, private sector
operators were invited to apply ‘to operate the Centre as a self-sustaining and
profitable commercial entity without recourse to government subventions’. Bids
were to be submitted by 21 September 1998. Death of Dr W. J. A. MacartneyAllan Macartney, Scottish Nationalist Party Member of the European Parliament for Scotland Northeast, and a former staff member of the University at Roma, died suddenly from a heart attack on the morning of 25 August 1998. He was 57. William John Allan Macartney, surprisingly for someone with the cause of the Scottish nation so close to his heart, was born in Ghana, spending some of his earliest years in the north-east of Zambia, where his father was a Presbyterian missionary. Allan was apparently equally fluent in English and Tumbuka at an early age. His father also taught at Lovedale, and is remembered by a number of former Basotho students who studied there. Allan Macartney arrived in Lesotho in 1967 to join the University of Botswana, Lesotho & Swaziland as Lecturer in the then Department of Government & Administration. He was the author of a number of articles on Lesotho politics (and on the Lesotho parliament until its suspension in 1970). He also compiled the three volume series Readings in Boleswa Government which continued to serve as a student text for many years after he had left. He began his political career by fighting British parliamentary elections as an SNP candidate, these elections always fortuitously seeming to coincide with vacation leave periods from the University. In 1971, Allan Macartney moved to Botswana, where he was the founder member of the University’s political science department at the Gaborone campus. He was eventually to complete his doctorate on the foreign policy of Botswana. After moving to Scotland in 1974, he worked for the Open University in Edinburgh until elected as Scottish National Party Member of the European Parliament for Scotland Northeast in June 1994. Scottish National Party not Scottish Nationalist Party. It was said that Allan sought to have the Scots recognised as one of a group of equal peoples. His politics were those of a social democrat who believed in the right of peoples to self-determination. He travelled widely and met leaders of other peoples in Europe with similar aspirations, such as the Catalans of north-eastern Spain. Allan was an Honorary Fellow of Edinburgh University, and in 1997 was elected Rector of Aberdeen University. In 1986, he was responsible for organising a notable conference in Edinburgh University on ‘Self-Determination in the Commonwelath’. As an MEP, Allan had an extremely punishing routine which involved weekends in Aberdeen (the chief city within his constituency), weekdays in Brussels, and regular monthly visits to Strasbourg for meetings of the European Parliament. However, he was always keen to promote Lesotho’s interests within the European Union, and played a significant role in formulating EU policy towards the illegal Lesotho government following the August coup of 1994. This revived with variations a role that he had covertly played after the coup in Lesotho in 1970. The Macartneys revisited Lesotho and Roma after many years in March 1996, when Allan was a member of a European Parliamentary Delegation visiting a number of African countries and having discussions with senior members of the Lesotho Government. He leaves his wife, Anne, three children, and a number of
grandchildren. One of the Macartneys’ sons, John, was born in St Joseph’s
Hospital, Roma. Langa Commission Issues Interim ReportThe Commission headed by Justice Langa of South Africa had by
Tuesday 25 August produced an interim report. Although not issued to the press
it was made available to the ruling party and the opposition parties at high
profile meetings on the evening of 25 August. At these meetings, South Africa
was represented by its Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki, Botswana by its Minister
of Natural Resources, Dr M. N. Nasha, and Zimbabwe by its High Commissioner to
South Africa, Nelson Moyo. Following separate meetings with the two sides, there
was a joint meeting with both government and opposition parties which lasted the
whole night and the greater part of the next morning. Newspaper reports stated
that the interim report had found widespread irregularities in the May 23
election. However, Thabo Mbeki, in a public statement, said that any suggestion
that the Commission had found evidence of fraud was untrue. The Commission was
organising a recount of votes on the following Saturday and Sunday, and was
proposing to use South African students (as neutral persons) to undertake the
work when the ballot boxes were reopened. Lesotho Government representatives
were reported to have walked out of the meeting with Mr. Mbeki. The extent of
the irregularities became a hot issue on Radio Lesotho on 26 August. The early
morning news reported them to have been ‘98%’, (a figure ‘from sources close to
the talks’ according to Moafrika of 28 August). The figure was denied by the
Acting Minister of Information, Monyane Moleleki, in a special broadcast in the
evening of 26 August. The Lesotho Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Tom Thabane,
was also at pains to deny (in a BBC interview on 27 August) that he had earlier
rejected the interim report. National Assembly Elections (Amendment) Act PassedIntroduced into the National Assembly on 24 August, the
National Assembly Elections (Amendment) Bill was passed by Parliament in record
time, receiving Royal Assent on 26 August, and coming into effect on publication
in the Lesotho Government Gazette on 27 August 1998. The Act (Act 13 of 1998)
allowed the Langa Commission to undertake activities such as the rescrutinising
of ballot papers, which were necessary for it to play its agreed role in
adjudicating on the fairness of the 23 May elections. Election Recount Undertaken: Final Report DelayedStudents from the Universities of the Free State and the QwaQwa campus of the University of the North began a recount of ballot papers at the Cooperative College in Maseru on Saturday 29 August. After two days the work was incomplete and there were grumblings that they were not being paid for their work and were only reluctant volunteers. They were therefore replaced by some 100 personnel from the South African Defence Force. The Langa Commission Report which on 11 August had been
originally promised to be ready in two weeks was apparently only finally ready
on 9 September. The South African Vice-President visited Maseru on that day and
there was a general expectation that the result would be released. However,
Thabo Mbeki, merely came to say that the Report had still to be given first to
the Heads of State of the three ‘troika’ nations, and it would be released at
the SADC Heads of State Summit the coming weekend in Mauritius. Director of Elections ReinstatedKhothatso Ralitsie, who was suspended as Director of Elections
in March was finally reinstated by the Independent Electoral Commission on
Thursday 3 September. It was reported, without details being given, that no
substantial evidence had been found against him. At the time the suspension,
according to NewsWire of 14 July 1998, was because of ‘conduct not compatible
with the purpose of his office’. At the time of the 23 May voting, his place had
been taken by his deputy, Mphasa Mokhochane. Further Violence at Palace Gates: Demonstrators take over Palace GroundsShooting incidents again took place involving the crowd of demonstrators outside the Palace gates on the evening of Thursday 3 September and on the morning of Friday 4 September. The first incident was apparently sparked off by demonstrators surrounding a police vehicle and this led to police who were rescuing their colleagues firing on the crowd, resulting in one demonstrator, Makalo Kobeli, being killed and 13 demonstrators being injured. In the second incident the following morning, police tried to recover the vehicle abandoned the previous day, and they were then fired on by army personnel on guard inside the gates. This resulted in the death of one policeman and two others being injured. The soldiers at this point opened the Palace gates, allowing the demonstrators to take refuge in the Palace grounds, to which they subsequently had free access. There was speculation as to why the army should defend and
take the side of the demonstrators in this way, and there was a talk of a split
in the army, and indeed on Radio Lesotho news at 07 00 on 5 September, the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tom Thabane, was reported as saying that the
Government was working on the conflict within the army. However, quite apart
from the army’s natural sympathies for the BNP because of its origins under a
BNP governments, a plausible additional explanation was that the month long
demonstration at the palace gates had enabled soldiers to become friendly with
the many teenage girls who were far from home and had become semi-permanent
demonstrators. It was said that after duty, the soldiers changed into civilian
clothes and enjoyed the company and other favours from these girls. When the
girls were fired on by the police and some were injured (indeed one 16 year old
girl had been killed), the soldiers fired back in their defence. From Friday 4
September the Palace Grounds were open and demonstrators and soldiers free to
fraternise day and night. King Endures a Noisy PalaceIt might be wondered how the King was enjoying the endless
songs and speeches throughout day and night outside his Maseru home. Although he
had the option of retreating to his country home at Matsieng, it seems he did
for most of the period stay at the Palace in Maseru. On Sunday 6 September the
King was able to take a brief break in Swaziland to enjoy the celebrations for
the 30th Anniversary of Independence. On 19 September, he had been expected to
leave Lesotho with the Minister of Foreign Affairs for a 10 day State Visit to
China. This was postponed because of the political situation in Lesotho.
Rumours about Zimbabwean Mercenaries Circulate in MaseruThe Prime Minister, Pakalitha Mosisili, attended the
Non-Aligned Summit in Durban on Thursday 3 September. He in fact had to make the
shortest journey of all the visiting Heads of State, shorter even than that of
the South African President. Following his return, opposition sources were
claiming that in return for Lesotho supporting Zimbabwe’s intervention in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho would get a detachment of Zimbabwean
mercenaries who would take armed action to end the Palace demonstration. On the
BBC Focus on Africa programme of 8 September, Mamello Morrison of the Marematlou
Freedom Party alleged that 240 mercenaries from Zimbabwe were in Lesotho, and a
kombi had been seen without a registration plate full of white mercenaries
wearing ‘woollen hats’ (balaclava helmets?) Army MutinyLate in the morning on Friday 11 September, there was gunfire at Ratjomose Barracks. Apparently this was an attempt to resist arrest by certain army officers who were to be detained for refusing to obey orders: they had refused orders to clear the Palace Grounds. It was said that 9 of them had subsequently surrendered and been arrested. However, this apparently brought an immediate response from another section of the army who marched the Head of the Lesotho Defence Force, Major-General Mosakeng to Radio Lesotho where, as a reprisal for his action, he was forced to read a message over the radio dismissing 28 senior army officers including 3 colonels, 7 lieutenant-colonels, 5 majors, 6 captains, 2 lieutenants, 2 second lieutenants and 3 warrant officers. Following this, he announced his own resignation and handing over to his second-in-command. Apart from this message which was broadcast several times over the next 24 hours, there was a message by an unidentified soldier which said that what was happening was internal to the army and civilians should continue with their everyday business. This message was also broadcast several times. The absence of any statement by any member of the cabinet led to speculation that they had been detained by the soldiers, although it appeared in due course that they had not been detained but were constrained from making statements by the passage of events. The army rebellion resulted in the South African Defence
Minister, Joe Modise, hurrying to Lesotho. He met Major-General Mosakeng,
representatives of the rebel soldiers and also the Prime Minister. However,
although he secured the release of the 28 dismissed officers (who had been
detained following their dismissal), he failed to resolve the army crisis, nor
to secure the reinstatement of Mosakeng. Most of the dismissed officers in the
meantime fled to South Africa fearing for their safety, and were housed in a
former primary school in Ladybrand. Funeral of Makalo Kobeli leads to Further ViolenceA football coach from Sefikeng, Makalo Kobeli, who was a BCP
demonstrator who had been killed by police outside the Palace on 3 September,
was buried at his home village on Saturday 12 September. The funeral was
attended by large numbers of his fellow demonstrators who were by now living in
the Palace grounds. Depite an appeal at the funeral by Kobeli’s father that no
more blood should be shed, after the funeral some of his fellow demonstrators
went on the rampage looking for supporters of the ruling LCD in nearby villages.
Many people were injured after assaults with sticks and stones and some others
were shot. A 20-year old man (according to Radio Lesotho news of 17 September)
was shot dead and the post mortem showed he had died from seven gunshot wounds
in the back. Langa Commission Report Further Delayed: Demonstrations in Maseru Disrupt GovernmentThe Report of the Langa Commission, which was to have been released in Mauritius at the meeting of SADC Heads of State was not in fact released. Opposition leaders who had been invited to go to Mauritius declined the invitation, and it was stated that it had to be submitted to the Presidents of the ‘troika’ countries (Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe) before release. The Prime Minister who left for Mauritius on Sunday 13 September and returned on Tuesday was generally believed to have seen the report, but none of the opposition parties had had access to it. This encouraged their followers to make increasingly bold demonstrations against the government. On Tuesday 15 September more than 30 vehicles with Government
number plates were hijacked by demonstrators (including some ministerial cars)
and driven into the stronghold of the demonstrators and their soldier allies in
the Palace Grounds. The following day, Wednesday, the demonstrators added a
bulldozer and some lorries to their collection. They also managed to prevent a
large number of civil servants from going to work by barricading the entrances
at the Government Office Block, Lesotho Bank, the High Court and the Lesotho
Highlands Development Authority as well as other buildings. Parliament also had
to be suspended. The blockade of government offices continued the following day.
That these actions could take place without police intervention suggested to
many that the Government had not only lost control of the army but also the
police. Langa Commission Report on 23 May Elections Finally ReleasedThe long-awaited Langa Commission Report was finally released on the afternoon of Thursday 17 September. It was brought to Maseru by a delegation of seven representing the three ‘troika’ countries who had undertaken the exercise. The delegation was headed by the South African Minister of Safety and Security, Mr Sydney Mufamadi. The Report’s principal findings were of no surprise to most impartial observers of the elections: although there had been many irregularities in the elections of May 23, mainly caused by administrative inefficiency and inexperience on the part of the Independent Electoral Commission, there was no evidence of fraud and no justification for a repeat election. The crowds of demonstrators appeared to welcome the appearance
of the report although at this stage none of them had read it. Indeed, since it
was in English most could not read it. It was agreed that the leaders of the
political parties would study the report and there would be a meeting on Sunday
at 10 a.m. to study its implications. Lesotho Marathon Runner Wins Gold Medal in Commonwealth GamesA contingent of Lesotho athletes and sportsmen represented
Lesotho in the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, held from 11 to 21 September
1998. The Lesotho team consisted of 9 athletes, 7 boxers and 3 squash players,
as well as 5 coaches. There was one spectacular success by the marathon runner
Thabiso Moqhali who won a Gold Medal, the first time that Lesotho has won a
medal in either the Commonwealth or Olympic Games. Lesotho Government Totally Loses Grip as Anarchy PrevailsThe meeting of the various parties with the South African Minister of Safety and Security, Sydney Mufamadi, to discuss the Langa Report failed on Sunday 20 September because the government delegation failed to turn up. They said they could not safely travel to United Nations House (the new UN Headquarters near the Maseru Club), and it now seemed apparent that the Government (or former Government) had lost its credibility in that the police would no longer provide escorts for ministers. The opposition parties waited until 7 p. m., and then announced that they were not going to cooperate should any other meeting be called the following day. The demonstrators took the cue and resorted to further acts of indiscipline. They closed down Radio Lesotho with effect from 8 p. m. on the Sunday evening, and the following day sent gangs of gun-wielding blanketed thugs in bakkies to the districts to close down businesses, banks, educational establishments (including the University) and totally prevented civil servants from going to work. Meanwhile the number of senior army officers who were refugees in Ladybrand as a result of the army mutiny (which would have been a serious enough crisis in itself, without other events) continued to grow. Throughout Monday, the whereabouts of the Prime Minister were not known, and the government (if it still existed) had no means of issuing any statements without access to the national radio station. Having exhausted Maseru as a source of government vehicles, the demonstrators cast their net wider to the districts, where any X-registration vehicles which could be found were captured and driven to Maseru to the Palace Grounds. The Palace surroundings were now a hive of activity, with the apparent success of the rebellion providing impetus for the vast numbers of jobless youth to join something which offered excitement, even if it had no clear ideology nor moral justification. Radio South Africa sought to contact members of the Lesotho
Government to find out what was going on, but with government offices all closed
down, at first failed to find any. Eventually Radio South Africa managed to get
the Minister of Foreign Affairs Tom Thabane on a cell phone, and he claimed to
be speaking from a place in Maseru which he could not disclose for safety
reasons. Spokespersons in the Palace grounds (who, unlike government spokesmen,
were not in short supply) claimed he was in Ladybrand. Thabane said that he was
in fear of his life with just one bodyguard and admitted that the government was
having ‘some difficulties’. However, he said that it was still in power, and
rumours of a coup were false. He confirmed that the LCD party representatives
had been unable to reach United Nations House for the meeting with the South
African Minister of Safety and Security because it had been unsafe for them to
do so. SADC Troika States Sponsor Intervention ForceAt approximately 0555 on Tuesday 22 September, Radio Lesotho woke up briefly from its enforced slumber. The National Anthem was then played, and there was a brief announcement in English and Sesotho by an unidentified young person. It stated that there was now no government in Lesotho and called on the King to amend the Constitution and to form a Government of National Unity. It then went off the air. The radio announcer was apparently unaware of what was happening elsewhere. An armoured column of 600 South African troops supported by helicopters had already entered Maseru from 0500 onwards. Radio South Africa announced that the intervention force was a joint South African/Botswana operation on behalf of the troika states of Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, who in terms of the 1994 Memorandum of Understanding (which had followed a coup in Lesotho and a subsequent restoration of democracy) had undertaken to be guarantors of democracy in Lesotho. The intervention force had now arrived as ‘Operation BOLEAS’ [BOtswana, LEsotho And South Africa] in response to two written requests by the Prime Minister, Pakalitha Mosisili. In fact only South African troops were present in the initial move into Lesotho. The 200 Botswana troops had to drive across South Africa and arrived in the late afternoon. The failure to synchronize arrival was a crucial error, particularly if the Botswana forces were (as reliable sources suggest) intended to play the role of ensuring the security of business and government premises during South African attacks on targets in Maseru. The military operation apparently initially had three specific
objectives. These were to recapture the Royal Palace, to quell the army mutiny,
and to secure the Katse Dam. Text of Prime Minister’s Letter to SADC Heads of StateText of letter, dated 16 September 1998, of Prime Minister of Lesotho, Pakalitha Mosisili, addressed to President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, President Festus Mogae of Botswana and President Joachim Chissano of Mozambique. [This letter was reproduced in NewsWire of 27 September 1998, following its being read out in the South African Parliament by Acting President Mangosuthu Buthelezi (President Mandela was in North America and Vice-President Mbeki in Malaysia).] ‘In my capacity as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho, I wish to urgently request your Excellencies, Heads of State of Botswana, Mocambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, to come to the rescue of the government and people of Lesotho. The only intervention I can and do request urgently is of a military nature. Since returning from the SADC (Southern African Development Community) meeting in Mauritius, I have come back into a city and a government held at ransom by the demonstrators of the BCP, BNP and MFP (opposition parties), with their leaders urging them on. Yesterday before my arrival in Lesotho, over 80 government vehicles were taken by force from civil servants and impounded in the Palace premises. Several others, including ministers’ vehicles, were stoned by the rampaging demonstrators. This morning the situation has worsened. Most workers, civil servants and employees of parastatal organisations, are being stopped from going to work. More vehicles have been confiscated. The rampaging demonstrators are congregating at various offices literally denying workers entry and threatening to occupy government offices. They have made public statements that they are closing parliament and all government business from today. Further serious threats being made include abducting ministers, killing the prime minister and foreign minister any time. Ministers are not able to enter offices safely for obvious reasons. The most serious tragedy is that the police, and in particular the army, are at best spectators. The mutiny in the LDF (Lesotho Defence Force) is taking root. The brigadier who has forced to be commander, has had to go into hiding, because the mutineers have attempted forcing him to announce a coup. He has so far refused and fears for his life. In this instance we have a coup on our hands. It is against this background that I submit a formal and urgent request for your excellencies in accordance with SADC agreements to put together, quickly, a strong military intervention, to help Lesotho to return to normalcy. I will appreciate your Excellencies’ timely intervention before it is too late. Sincerely,
P. B. Mosisili (MP), Prime Minister
Palace Grounds Recaptured: Demonstrators Escape and Burn Maseru CBDThe capture of the Palace Grounds was relatively easily
achieved, although apparently the intervention force had inadequate maps and
poor intelligence, and initially had difficulty finding the Palace. At first it
appears that they attempted to capture the Lesotho Sun, a hotel of palatial
proportions overlooking Maseru, which is a more conspicuous landmark than the
Royal Palace. Once the Palace Gates had been identified at about 0700, it was a
simple matter for eight ratels (six-wheeled armoured combat vehicles) to burst
through the gates. South African Defence Force soldiers apparently fired blanks
to disperse the demonstrators, who fired back resulting in one South African
soldier and a press cameraman being injured. It appears that the SADF soldiers invading the Palace Grounds
were unaware that the Palace had two other entrances. There were two
consequences of their action. The opposition leaders and some 800 of their
immediate followers joined the King inside the Palace building. The large number
of unruly opposition youth supporters from the far corners of Lesotho as well as
Maseru itself, incensed by what they saw as a South African invasion (the flying
of the South African flag from the Palace hardly helped to prove otherwise),
spilled out into the main street of Maseru. There they targeted vehicles with
South African registrations, and shops which they considered as South African
owned. Within a short time, not only South African shops but almost all shops
along a 2.5 km length of Kingsway right up to and including the ‘Bus Stop’ area
were being looted and the majority were subsequently set on fire. Many Maseru
residents joined in the looting which went on unopposed as the intervention
force concentrated on its military objectives. The police, equivocal at best in
their support of the government, seemed to be uncertain of their role, and did
not challenge the looters. According to NewsWire of 23 September, the police
actually joined in the looting and used ‘service vehicles to loot things to
their homes’. As a result, the destruction of Maseru’s Central Business District
continued until the arrival of the Botswana Defence Force in the evening. After
that, some attempt was made to inhibit looters by handling them roughly, as
appeared in some television coverage, although it seems that the BDF was under
instructions not to open fire on them. NewsWire of 23 September, however,
reported that the Botswana forces joined in the looting. Intervention Force Encounters Resistance at Military BarracksTo quell the army mutiny, the intervention force needed to capture the two army barracks within Maseru. The Ratjomose Barracks near the Race Course and only 2 km from the centre of Maseru fell within a few hours, although it appears that many soldiers escaped through holes in the back fence. The intervention force was able to make the Barracks a temporary headquarters. The estimated 800 soldiers in the Makoanyane Barracks about 7
km east of central Maseru, put up serious resistance, and the attack was
apparently complicated by many of its soldiers having taken their guns home for
the night so that they could attack the invaders from the rear. Helicopters
flying overhead were damaged and returned fire. The crew of one Oryx helicopter
were wounded and the helicopter damaged and it had to return to base. It appears
that the Barracks were being pounded with mortars, and explosions audible as far
away as Roma could be heard all day on Tuesday and the following morning.
Soldiers inside ignored an ultimatum to surrender. When the barracks finally
fell on Wednesday morning, it seems that only 15 prisoners were taken. Most
soldiers escaped with their weapons along the cliffs at the back of the base.
They left behind more than 20 tons of explosives, ‘between 7000 and 10000
rifles’ (the intervention force clearly did not have time for a precise count)
and an underground bunker system, which proved, however, to be empty of
soldiers. Intervention at Katse becomes a Mass Slaughter and a Disaster for Public RelationsThe activities of the intervention force at Katse on the morning of Tuesday 22 September went initially unnoticed by the press, but news eventually trickled out of a truly terrible tragedy for the Lesotho Defence Force garrison, as well as a public relations disaster for what is supposed to be a shared international project. Four helicopters were sent to Katse, and landed on the ground
near the small army garrison which guards the 185 metre high Katse Dam, the most
important single component of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. Sergeant
Jeremy Sax of Cape Town, not a Sesotho speaker, walked to the base unarmed to
say that the intervention force was taking over the garrison. The soldiers
inside told him that this was their responsibility, and that he should leave.
When he did not do so, he was shot, and apparently died almost instantly. A
medical doctor with the intervention force, Captain Johan Nel, went to the aid
of Sergeant Sax, and was also shot dead. There was then an exchange of fire
between the two sets of troops in which a further South African was injured. The
helicopters then took off, leaving their injured comrade on the ground and
strafed the Lesotho Defence Force garrison. 16 out of 17 soldiers in the
garrison were killed, there being just one survivor who was eventually taken for
treatment at the trauma unit of the project at Motebang Hospital, Hlotse. It is
said that four other soldiers survived, simply because when the attack took
place they had gone out jogging. When they returned nearly all their comrades
were dead. Orgy of Destruction Fans Out from MaseruMeanwhile on the same Tuesday morning an orgy of destruction was fanning out from Maseru led by both uniformed soldiers and gangs of youths. The South African High Commissioner, Japhet Ndlovu and his staff were taken out of Maseru for safety by armed escort. By 0900, houses of Ministers were being raked by bullets by soldiers and then set ablaze together with their private cars. The house of Kelebone Maope, Deputy Prime Minister, which was one of the most luxurious in Maseru, was one of the first to be attacked and the garage with two cars was burnt. It was followed by the burning of the house of the Foreign Minister, Tom Thabane, in the Maseru suburb of Makhoakhoeng. By 1020, uniformed soldiers had reached Roma, where they shot into both the new and older houses of the Prime Minister, Pakalitha Mosisili, then set them ablaze, hijacking a university vehicle to carry locally looted gas cylinders to complete the task. Mosisili’s herd of dairy cows was spared, although one was injured by a bullet. The nearby house of the Minister of Finance, Victor Ketso, went next, followed by the house of the local Member of Parliament, Thabiso Melato. 24 hours after the intervention force had entered Lesotho, fires were still raging in the Central Business District of Maseru, and the truly enormous scale of the damage had become apparent. Almost all Maseru branches of South African chain stores had been attacked and looted and most of them set on fire, with wholesale destruction of offices and small business premises on their upper floors. The Oxford Furniture building, a six floor structure, was completely gutted. Ackermans, Beares, CNA, Edgars, Ellerines, Fairways, OK Bazaars (the biggest supermarket in Maseru), Pep, Sales House and Smart Centre were all reduced to smouldering ruins. Woolworths, at the base of the modern Agricultural Development Bank building was looted, but the building survived. Attempts to burn down the new multi-storey post office building, opened early in 1998, were thwarted by the sprinkler system, and perhaps also by the fact that with little of it yet rented out, the contents were not very combustible. The old 1925 sandstone post office next door was not so lucky. It was reduced to a charred ruin. Along with the many shops, well known restaurants went up in flames including Auberge and Boccaccio. Perhaps the best known of all Maseru landmarks, the Basotho Hat Craft Shop, also burned, leaving only the central spine which had carried the decorative flourish on top of the hat. Lancers’ Inn suffered severe looting of its bottle store and rooms, but its main buildings were not in fact set on fire. A few shops did survive, in particular those at the BNP Centre. Also for some reason, the Mafafa Supermarket survived burning, although the Ministry of Local Government next door (the former TEBA Headquarters) was largely destroyed. Also although the Fairways Supermarket on Kingsway and all the associated offices (including that of Moafrika newspaper) were destroyed, the second Fairways Supermarket adjoining the new Lesotho Evangelical Church Bookstore survived. However, these were in a small minority, and Maseru had lost some of its most useful and much needed shops. Amongst these was the Husteds Pharmacy, dating back over 60 years, and managed by the Ntabe family for over 20 years. Another was Maseru Hardware & Agencies, owned by Alaskan-born Kal Basin and his Mauritian wife, Shanta. Manonyane Centre survived along with the offices of The Mirror and Mopheme. However, the offices of Southern Star, Thebe, and The Sun were all burned. Epic Printers, which prints most Maseru newspapers, irrespective of political persuasion, survived. Particularly hard hit was the Chinese community. They had no
association with any side in the political conflict, and there was no way in
which they could be associated with the countries of the intervention force. Yet
their buildings were systematically targeted and destroyed, so that for 3 or 4
kilometres out of Maseru on the main south road, it seemed that as many as half
the premises had been burnt, some spray-painted with offensive slogans. The
looting youth betrayed their sympathies with their spray paint, and many a
wrecked vehicle or gutted building had the letters BNP sprayed on it.
Youths Spread Mayhem to the DistrictsBy Wednesday 23 September, although Maseru was theoretically under the control of the intervention force, gun-toting youths had moved outwards in stolen vehicles to other areas to spread similar terror. The Metro Wholesale in Maseru had already burned, and another large enterprise, the Chinese-owned Masianokeng Wholesalers followed on Wednesday. After being looted, in part by people with wheelbarrows and scotch carts, most of the business district of Mafeteng was burned. Mohale’s Hoek was also severely damaged. Some damage was sustained in many other centres, although Teyateyaneng organised its own defence force which largely saved its businesses. At Maputsoe, shopowners transported their goods in lorries across to Ficksburg to escape looting. Youths erected barricades on all main roads, from which they
hijacked vehicles including vans and lorries. With few driving skills, they soon
crashed them and then burned them. The main highways were soon littered with
burnt out vehicles. |