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SUMMARY
OF
EVENTS
IN
LESOTHO
Volume 9,
Number
4, (Fourth Quarter 2002)
Summary
of
Events
is
a
quarterly
publication
compiled
and
published
by
Prof.
David
Ambrose
since
1993
at
the
National
University
of
Lesotho
in
Roma.
New Sports Newspaper Appears
New Minimum Wages Gazetted
Maize Prices Continue to Soar
Privatisation Progress Reviewed
Moafrika Editor given Ultimatum; Case Against Soldiers Continues
Lesser Flamingo
Recorded in Lesotho after 101 Years
Third Morija Arts & Cultural
Festival
New Principal Chief of
Matelile Installed
Mokhotlong Connected to
the Electricity Grid
South
African High Commissioner to Lesotho Dies Suddenly
Lesotho’s
Hopes to Qualify in African Cup of Nations Dashed
Five Murdered in Border Conflict
Libya Donates 15 Tractors to
Lesotho
Appeal Court Confirms Sentences on Phakiso Molise and Five Other Policemen
Appeal Court
Increases Sentence for Senior Accountant
Thuathe Meteorite Strewn Field
Defined
Lumela
Ceases Publication as MS Prepares to Leave Lesotho
New SACU Treaty Signed
LECAWU Members Demand Wage
Increases
Sefali Appointed
Economic Adviser to Prime Minister
Hotels Close and Others Change
Hands
Acres International Fined $2.2
Million
Impoundment of Water Begins
at Mohale Dam
Increased Stock
Theft Reported on Eastern Border
New Telephone Numbers Become
Mandatory
Chief
Public Prosecutor Gaoled for Seven Years for Corruption
New Judicial Appointments
Announced
Radio Lesotho Back on the
Air in Mokhotlong
Serious Border Hold-Up at
Maseru Bridge
IEC Commissioner ‘Disappears’
BNP Secretary General
Feuds with Party Leader
Roof of Africa Rally Held
in Dry Conditions
Airport Runway Approach Lights
Stolen
Makhakhe Resigns BCP Party
Leadership
Higher Education Bill before Parliament; NUL Subject of Parliamentary Question
Sexual Offences Bill before
Parliament
More Alleged
Thieves Killed and Burned by Villagers
Free Primary Education Reaches Standard 4; Government Constructs New Primary
Schools
LIPAM Still
Homeless and Divided between Three Sites
Inflation Develops
Downward Trend after High Peak
Lesotho Revenue Authority
Recruits Staff
Tourism
Act Brought into Force and Board Members Appointed
Members of Kubung LEC Mount Protest Rally against Medicine Murder
Central Bank Recreational & Cultural Centre Nearing Completion
Fireworks Banned
2002 Another Very Wet Year
A new fortnightly English-language sports newspaper, Lebaleng, published its
maiden issue on 18 September 2002. 12 pages long and making extensive use of
colour, its editor is Khauhelo Ntseo. In her first editorial, she states ‘When
one looks from a diverse range of angles - Lebaleng could not have come at a
better time, when the country’s sporting zest has shown a slump.’
Lebaleng means ‘on the pitch’ and amongst sports covered are football,
tennis, basketball, boxing, table tennis, netball and cycling. It also includes
some non-sports news, for example photographs from the Morija Arts and Cultural
Festival as a centrespread in its second issue. It also covered, with
photographs, in its fourth issue a ‘Fuller Figure’ Contest sponsored by the
Lesotho Nurses Association at the Maseru Sun Cabanas on Saturday 2 November. The
winner, awarded a sash as Ms Fuller Figure, was Nthabiseng Lephole who won a
double bed set presented by the chainstore, Morkels.
The back page charts the fortunes of the 16 teams in the Lesotho Premier
League. After 10 games in the current season, Lesotho Defence Force with no
losses and one draw, head the table with 28 points. They are followed by Lesotho
Prisons Service with 23 points. Lesotho also has teams called Chelsea, placed
12th in the league and Arsenal, which is near the bottom in 15th place.
Advertising revenue is important for commercial success in the newspaper
world, and Lebaleng has apparently benefited in this area from the Econet
Ezi-Cel sponsorship of the football Buddie Cup, named after the new prepaid
Buddie system for cellphone users.
There had been two earlier attempts to produce a sports newspaper in Lesotho,
both of them in Sesotho. Tsa Lipapali edited by Crosby Mwanza was initially
weekly and later irregular over the period February 1990 to February 1992 during
which a total of 66 issues were produced. Selemela edited by A. B. Thoahlane
lasted for just seven weekly issues in February to March 2000. Most of Lesotho’s
regular Sesotho and English weekly newspapers also have at least one or two
pages of sports news.
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The annual review of minimum wages was published in a Lesotho Government
Gazette Extraordinary of 27 September 2002, and came into effect on 1 October
2002. The wages set a year earlier were increased by only 10% across the board,
even though the Lesotho annual inflation rate had been around 13% for much of
2002 and had remained steady at 11.3% in both the two previous months. Bread and
cereals price inflation had remained at a rate in excess of 40% for almost the
whole of 2002.
The minimum monthly wage for a copy typist is now M694 per month, for a
driver M805 per month, for a machine attendant M694 per month, for a machine
operator M805 per month, for a messenger M589 per month, for a waiter M666 per
month, for a person working in a small business (such as a village shop) M399
per month and for a domestic servant M199 per month. This last figure can be
compared with South Africa where the minimum monthly wage for a domestic worker
with effect from 1 November 2002 is M800 in urban areas and M650 in rural areas.
The state pension in South Africa increased at the same time from M620 to
M640 per month. There is no state pension in Lesotho, and it is well known that
many families in Lesotho with no wage earner have relocated to Sesotho-speaking
areas in South Africa such as Botshabelo where, if they have a sufficiently
elderly member who can manage to qualify, they can manage to survive on a South
African pension. A recent informal survey of one relatively small village area
in the Tele valley of Quthing District revealed that from that area alone, some
50 families had relocated to South Africa, and if this pattern is repeated
country wide, it must be having a significant demographic impact.
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The Lesotho Consumer Price Index is based on the spending habits of middle
class urban dwellers. Poorer people spend what little available cash they have
rather differently and for many the purchase of the staple food, maize meal or
mealie meal is their largest single monthly cash expenditure, often taking up to
50% of available funds. As reported in the Mail & Guardian of 18 October 2002,
food price inflation from June 2001 to June 2002 in South Africa had been 22%,
but maize meal price inflation had been no less than 112%. Maize prices had in
fact more than doubled. The article blamed the high price in part on an earlier
predicted shortfall in the crop for the 2001/2. This elicited the response of an
increased price, which was maintained by those with vested interests in a higher
price, even when the South African crop turned out to be sufficient for domestic
requirements.
There appears to be no immediate prospect of a drop in the maize price, and
indeed Business Report of 1 October 2002 was predicting a further 20% rise by
year end. Maize for milling could be bought for as little as R450 per ton in
2000, but by late 2002, ‘cheap’ maize at between R1200 and R1400 per ton was
exhausted, and more expensive maize bought at R1750 per ton was being milled.
The spot price on 30 September of a ton of maize on the SA Futures Exchange was
R1726.
South Africa produces an average of 8 million tons of maize per year, and an
estimate by an agrometeorologist, Johan van den Berg, quoted in the Business
Report article, is that planting for the 2002/3 season will be for a crop yield
of 9.2 million tons. This would create a surplus of between 1.5 and 1.7 million
tons, subject to normal weather conditions. The large pool of surplus maize is
in the United States which in 2001 produced 242 million tons. However, purchase
from this source is bedevilled by the need to pay in dollars at a now very
unfavourable exchange rate.
Lesotho’s annual food grain requirements of just 400000 tons annually may
seem minuscule in relation to all these figures. However, the grim reality in
Lesotho is that actual food grain production is normally in the range 140 000 to
180 000 tons, meaning that over half of food grain requirements (mainly maize
meal) have to be purchased. Those who ultimately pay for them are people who
mainly have extremely meagre financial resources.
Higher maize prices have had a knock-on effect on quite a number of other
foodstuffs. It takes about 7 kg of maize to produce 1 kg of beef and 1 kg of
maize to produce a litre of milk. Higher maize prices have also resulted in
escalating prices for eggs, chicken and cheese.
For the time being, the situation in Lesotho has been partly alleviated by
the provision of free food by the World Food Programme, which is being
distributed to areas of perceived greatest need by 26 specially provided heavy
duty lorries. The government has also attempted to keep maize meal prices down
with a 20% subsidy of the market price and gazetted maximum selling prices. As
of 14 October 2002, the maximum permitted retail prices of 12.5 kg, 25 kg and 50
kg bags of maize were respectively M29.40, M59.80 and M116.80, although
anecdotal evidence suggested that the real price in many villages was
considerably higher than these prescribed maximum prices.
However, despite these measures, people are still dying of malnutrition.
Lesotho Today of 17 October 2002 reported that of 32 children under-five
admitted to the Mohale’s Hoek Ntšekhe Government Hospital since January, 10 had
died of malnutrition. Leseli ka Sepolesa in its issue of 22 October 2002
reported that a four-year old child had died of hunger at Pitseng on 25
September 2002. Clearly there were likely to have been many similar incidents in
remote villages which would be unlikely to be reported in the press.
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A new report from the Privatisation Unit entitled Lesotho Privatisation and
Private Sector Development Project has been published dated August 2002. It
contains a frank account of the successes and otherwise of the Privatisation
Unit, dealing with each of 18 different public enterprises in some detail.
Those described range from Lesotho Airways Corporation (the privatised Air
Lesotho took over in 1997 but ceased operations in February 1999) to Lesotho
Bank, which by 1999 was requiring M240 million per year of Lesotho Government
money to keep it operational. The Bank was financially restructured at a cost of
M612 million ahead of the actual privatisation in August 1999. Amongst
enterprises for which a buyer is still being sought are Basotho Fruit and
Vegetable Canners at Masianokeng, Lesotho Pharmaceutical Corporation at Mafeteng
(a buyer has been sought since 1997) and Maluti Highlands Abattoir at
Khubetsoana near Maseru, where schemes for privatisation have been under way
since 1998. In relation to the abattoir, it is stated, ‘The divestiture of the
enterprise was obviously complicated by the record of poor financial performance
(the entity had been a loss maker since 1992 with accumulated debt of about M30
million); unresolved questions of land title; its association with the
Government’s Feedlot Property; and lack of a clear legal personality being a
body which was set up by a simple legal notice.’
More successful recent privatisations have been those of the Lesotho
Telecommunications Authority (which became Tele-Com Lesotho responsible for
fixed line services with an option to develop cellphones); and Vodacom Lesotho,
the cellphone provider which lost its monopoly in June 2001.
A new project since 2001 has been the US$39.35 million Lesotho Utilities
Sector Reform Project, financed by the World Bank, African Development Bank,
European Union and Lesotho Government. Its first task has been improvement of
performance of the electricity sector ahead of proposed privatisation.
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For a number of years the newspaper Moafrika has printed a message on the
right of its masthead which reads ‘Ntsu Mokhehle and PB Mosisili, who
assassinated SM Baholo, 435 weeks ago on April 14, 1994? Babolai ba Selometsi
Baholo ba ntse ba e-s’o tšoaroe le ho qosuoa’ (the Sesotho part of which
translates ‘The killers of Selometsi Baholo have not yet been arrested and
charged’). The number of weeks is increased by one in each weekly issue.
In fact there is now a court case in which 25 members of the Lesotho Defence
Force have been charged with the murder of Baholo, who was then Minister of
Finance and Deputy Prime Minister. The flamboyant and eccentric Candi Ramainoane,
who is the editor of Moafrika, was summoned to appear before the trial judge, Mr
Justice Semapo Peete and given seven days to remove the message from his weekly
newspaper. Ramainoane stated that he was unable to answer questions in the
absence of his lawyer. Ramainoane attended the High Court, as most newspapers
noted, rather differently dressed from most people who make court appearances.
He was wearing shorts, a short-sleeved red tee-shirt and trainers.
In fact the Judge’s demand was not complied with, and a month later the same
message was appearing with the number of weeks raised to 440. Candi Ramainoane
was required to appear in the High Court on 18 November to give reasons why the
message on his masthead should not be removed.
Meanwhile the case against the 25 soldiers has continued. In its issue of 2
October 2002, The Mirror reported on evidence given in court on how four cabinet
ministers, including the now Prime Minister, Pakalitha Mosisili, had been
rounded up by soldiers early in the morning on 14 April 1994 and roughly
handled, threatened with a pistol and had had their toes stamped on with army
boots. They were questioned as to why they were opposed to a salary increase for
the army. They were finally released in the afternoon after intervention by the
army chief, Major-General Makhula Mosakeng and a delegation including Bishop
Philip Mokuku of the Anglican Church and Chief Masupha Seeiso, Principal Chief
of Matsieng.
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Shocking pink with scarlet wings, apparently fragile, but nevertheless
elegant, flamingos are amongst the best known birds worldwide, although many
people have only seen them in zoos. Two of the world’s five species of flamingo
occur in Africa, but they remain mysterious birds, which although they occur in
much of northern, eastern and southern Africa from the Nile Delta to the Cape,
seem only to have three regular breeding sites, Lake Natron in Kenya, the
Makgadikgadi Pans in Botswana and Etosha Pan in Namibia. The migration patterns
between foraging sites and these breeding areas are not well understood.
Flamingos feed on microscopic plants and animals such as fairy shrimps in
shallow saline water. It is the carotenids in the crustaceans and algae eaten
which are converted to pigments in the birds’ livers and which provide the
colouring in new feathers as they grow.
Shallow pans of the kind favoured by flamingos only occur in a few places in
western Lesotho, so flamingos are obviously not typical Lesotho birds. Further
west in the Free State and particularly at the slimes dams of the Free State
Goldfields, flamingos are at times quite abundant. In Lesotho itself, the only
places where flamingos can be seen from time to time are pans in Mafeteng
District, particularly in the Tša-Kholo area. However, of the two African
species, it has always been the Greater Flamingo which has been recorded in
recent years. The largest number of Greater Flamingos recorded was a flock of 38
seen by David Ambrose and Sumitra Talukdar at Tša-Kholo on 22 March 1985.
Until October 2002, there had been just one record of a Lesser Flamingo in
Lesotho. It was from one of Lesotho’s earliest birdwatchers to keep records,
Inspector J. P. Murray, who was stationed for a long time at Mafeteng. His
recording methods would not meet the approval of modern twitchers, because he
actually shot the birds in order to record them as marginal manuscript additions
to his copies of ‘Stark & Sclater’ and ‘Layard’. These books were the early
predecessors of Roberts birds of southern Africa which only became the standard
book for birdwatchers when its first edition was published in 1940.
Murray shot his Lesser Flamingo at Luma Pan close to the modern town of
Mafeteng in 1901, and since it was shot, the identification cannot be doubted.
On 4 October 2002, an experienced birdwatcher from Masitise, Mark Behle, visited
the Tša-Kholo area and saw both Greater Flamingos and on a nearby pan a single
Lesser Flamingo.
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The Third Morija Arts & Cultural Festival (which has now acquired the
Sesothoized acronym Mak’hufe) took place 3-6 October 2002. Similar to the event
of the previous year, it attracted even more visitors, and the weather remained
fine, which also helped to make it a success. Financially, it was not such a
success, and while it had broken even the previous year, there was less
sponsorship in 2002 and at the end of the festival the account was some M80000
in the red.
Great efforts were made to reduce some of the criticisms of the previous
year, which had included incidents of drunkenness. Alcohol was banned from the
festival grounds, but was freely available from villagers outside. The Morija
Police, as reported in Leselinyana la Lesotho of 11 October 2002, had arrested
19 youths on a variety of offences including rape, robbery and theft. Other
offences included drunken driving and cutting the fence around the festival
grounds.
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Chief Moholobela Seeiso Joel Moholobela was installed as principal Chief of
Matelile at the village of Matelile Ha Seeiso on 11 October 2002. He replaces
his father, the late Chief Seeiso Joel Mohobela, who died in March 2002. The new
chief was born on 6 May 1969 and is unmarried. His chiefdom consists of a large
and mainly Foothills area of Mafeteng District together with a small detached
area in the Maloti, Senqunyane Ha Khotso.
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Lesotho’s easternmost district headquarters, the town of Mokhotlong, was on
Friday 11 October officially connected to the Lesotho Electricity Corporation
national grid. It will now enjoy a regular electricity supply 24 hours a day.
Previously the electricity supply for Mokhotlong had been from a minihydro plant
on the Khubelu river at Tlokoeng, supplemented by a diesel generator during
periods of low river flow, and residents were used to having the power supply
cut at 10 p.m.
The new supply is made possible by a new 33 kV transmission line from the
Letšeng Diamond Mine, which in turn is connected to Khukhune by the recently
rehabilitated 88 kV line from Letšeng. The rehabilitation of the line has been
undertaken as part of work to reopen the diamond mine shortly. Along the
rehabilitated line is the Mahlasela Ski Resort still under construction, which
is also expected to be a major user of electricity, particularly for the
machinery being installed to make artificial snow at periods when the snow cover
would otherwise be inadequate for winter sports.
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Japhet Mbongwa Ndlovu, South Africa’s High Commissioner to Lesotho, died at
Maseru Private Hospital on Saturday 12 October 2002 after a short illness. He
was 64, and had been suffering from a respiratory complaint.
Japhet Ndlovu was born on 1 August 1938 at Mbumbulu near Durban in KwaZulu-Natal,
and trained as a hospital worker in Durban. He joined the ANC in 1958, and was
an underground commander of its military wing Umkhonto weSizwe when he fled to
Lesotho in 1963 through Qacha’s Nek to escape being arrested. He remained in
Lesotho as ANC representative until members of the African National Congress
were expelled by the new military government in 1986. He then left for Zambia
where he also became ANC representative, responsible for some 8000 members then
resident in that country, and answering directly to the ANC leader Oliver Tambo
and the general secretary, Alfred Nzo.
While in Zambia, he underwent intelligence training and also visited Norway
for training in Foreign Affairs. In 1994, he became the South African High
Commissioner in Lesotho.
His stay in Lesotho had at times been far from smooth, particularly in
September 1998, when as a result of the SADC intervention, there had been a
period of intense anti-South African feeling, which necessitated the evacuation
of South African citizens, including himself and his staff. Nevertheless he had
close family connections with Lesotho, where he is survived by three children
and a granddaughter.
At Japhet Ndlovu’s request, he was buried amongst his ancestors at his home
village of Ezimwini south of Durban. His body was flown to KwaZulu-Natal in an
aircraft of the Lesotho Defence Force, and amongst those at his funeral were the
Lesotho and South African Foreign Ministers. The funeral service was held in a
huge tent on the village football field at Ezimwini, where Japhet Ndlovu had
played football as a schoolboy.
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In a match in Banjul in the Gambia on 13 October 2002, Lesotho’s national
team, Likoena, lost 6-0. The Gambian team was helped by having overseas players
who play respectively for clubs in the Netherlands and Sweden, and each of these
scored two goals. On the other hand, the Gambian team had shortly before the
match suffered the strain of having been holed up for several days in Bouake in
Côte d’Ivoire, which had become the rebel headquarters after a coup attempt.
The performance against Gambia was a disappointment for Lesotho after it had
held Senegal to a winning margin of only 1-0 in Maseru on 8 September. The
Qualifying Round Group G matches for the African Cup of Nations still to be
played are away against Senegal in June 2003 and at home against Gambia in July
2003. The best two teams will proceed to the next round. The fourth Group G
team, São Tomé & Principe has already withdrawn from the competition because of
financial problems.
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A bitter border war has been continuing for some years between the people of
Morifi Ha Rakoloi in Mohale’s Hoek District and a Xhosa-speaking farmer. On 13
October, it claimed more lives when a taxi was ambushed and its driver,
conductor and two passengers, a man and his wife returning from work in Maseru,
were killed and two others, a schoolboy and a returning miner, had a lucky
escape. The deed was attributed to one Mpomelelo Mbobo, who owns the farm
Kornetspruit in the Zastron District of the Free State. This farm is on the
opposite bank of the Makhaleng river which at this point is the boundary between
Lesotho and South Africa. Mpomelelo shot seven people at a public gathering in
Morifi in 1995, before anyone could begin to answer his complaints about fences
being cut on his farm. He was also believed to be wanted for various other
serious incidents. According to Moeletsi oa Basotho of 27 October 2002 he had on
one occasion even in front of a South African magistrate shot people who he
suspected had stolen his taxi.
The fear of Mbobo in the nearby villages which fall close to the confluence
of the Makhaleng and Senqu rivers led after the incident to the closing of both
the local primary school and the new Anglogold financed M2.5 million Morifi
Community Secondary School which had only two weeks earlier been opened by James
Motlatsi, Morifi’s most famous former resident.
The incident was also reported in Leseli ka Sepolesa of 22 October 2002. The
Superintendent of Police of Mohale’s Hoek District, ’Mampho Mokhele, said that
the police were greatly troubled by what had happened and asked that the wanted
person should be reported at any time he enters Lesotho. She hoped that his
arrest could be achieved by collaboration between the Lesotho and South African
police.
A interdenominational memorial service was held for those killed on Sunday 15
December, and was attended by the Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Tom Thabane.
After the service he spoke to the community urging them to desist from cross
border livestock theft. The Assistant Commissioner of Police for the Southern
Districts, Motlepu Makhakhe, also spoke. He stated that deportation of Mbobo to
Lesotho to face trial was not an easy task, because South Africa had abolished
the death penalty and would not allow persons arrested to be deported to another
country where they might face judicial execution.
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In a ceremony at Ha Foso near Maseru on Monday 14 October, 15 tractors and
associated implements were handed over to the Lesotho Government. The tractors
are a gift of the Libyan Government which has recently opened an embassy in
Maseru. Lesotho has also recently opened a resident diplomatic mission in
Tripoli, Libya.
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As reported in Public Eye of 18 October 2002, the Lesotho Court of Appeal
confirmed the two High Court 15 year sentences to run concurrently on Second
Lieutenant Phakiso Molise for the murder of Lieutenant-Colonel Marabe Penane and
Major Karabo Chabeli at the Maseru Central Charge Office on 31 October 1995. Two
other policemen were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, another received 6
years, and there were lesser sentences for attempted murder and kidnapping.
All six policemen were members of a group known as CODESA led by Molise,
which had been formed during a police strike earlier in 1995. The case had
arisen from a shoot-out when CODESA members, who were members of a special unit
stationed adjoining the Police Training College, went to the Maseru Central
Charge Office to protest at methods which were being used to handle a teachers’
strike. As reported, Molise himself had gone there armed with two 9 mm pistols,
a M16 carbine rifle and hand grenades. In the exchange of fire, three police
officers had been killed and three seriously wounded.
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As also reported in Public Eye of 18 October 2002, a former Senior Accountant
in the Treasury, Julia ’Maphamotse Lebina, had her original High Court sentence
increased to eight years when the Court of Appeal heard an appeal by the Crown
against the leniency of her original sentence of two years. Mrs Lebina had been
found guilty of 24 counts of theft or fraud committed ten years ago. Her
husband, Majakathata Lebina, who had been a party to the fraud, had his sentence
increased to an effective five years imprisonment.
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After a meteorite had exploded over western Lesotho on Sunday 21 July,
attempts were made to define the strewn field, the area where the stones fell.
Initially it had only been known from a police report that stones from the
meteorite had fallen near the village of Ha Ralimo on the Thuathe Plateau.
Because the Thuathe Meteorite had apparently travelled east to west, it was
suspected that the next village of Boqate Ha Majara, some 250 metres below Ha
Ralimo at the foot of the sandstone escarpment might also have experienced
stones from the meteorite. The village was visited on 8 October 2002 by three
persons from the Roma campus of the National University of Lesotho. As it
happened, the villagers were attending a pitso, a village meeting and permission
was given by the Chieftainess, ’Mabotle Theko, to address the pitso and to show
a sample stone from the meteorite. Many villagers said they had seen such stones
and in some cases they had picked them up while still hot and thrown them away.
No-one actually produced a stone, but when it was offered to return to buy them
on a return visit in a week’s time, there was an immediate interest in finding
them.
A nearby village is Ha Sofonia, and at that village, the chief himself had
had a meteorite brought to him, and had kept it in his house. Moreover the
visitors were referred to a lady living nearby, ’Malineo Mantsoe. They found her
sitting on the stoep of her house which faces east. She explained how on the
afternoon of 21 July there had been a tremendous sound overhead reaching a
crescendo in the sky behind the house. She had darted to the side of the house
to look round to the back, but there was no thunderstorm. So what could have
caused the noise? She went quickly back to the stoep to look in the other
direction, and then the totally unexpected had happened. Sssshhhhwooooo bang!
Right in front of her eyes a stone had fallen out of the sky into the low-walled
cooking area in front of her house. It had knocked over and cracked an empty
plastic water container. Then it had lain on the ground, black like no other
stone, and had sat beside her pots looking at her menacingly.
She had looked around, but there was no-one who could have thrown such a
stone at such a speed. A thokolosi (the Lesotho equivalent of a poltergeist) can
be troublesome, and throw things around, especially at night, but what kind of
thokolosi could this have been, so bold as to act in daytime, and so strong as
to make the stone whistle through the air?
Like many Basotho, ’Mè ’Malineo had not been quite sure about whether there
really was such a thing as a thokolosi, but just in case she might get troubled
by one, she had had an answer. Kept safely in her house was a bottle of holy
water, water which had been blessed by the priest in church, a guaranteed remedy
against those who might practise mischief against someone. She had quickly run
inside, sprinkled the holy water on the stone, on the cooking pots, and just to
be on the safe side, all around her house. It worked! No more stones fell from
the sky, and after a while, she had gained enough confidence to pick up the
stone and put it in a safe place in her house.
Return visits to the village of Boqate Ha Majara proved very fruitful and by
early November 2002, no less than 418 individual stones from the Thuathe
Meteorite with a total mass of some 27 kg had been recovered and catalogued,
many found with help from the children of the Boqate Lesotho Evangelical Church
Primary School in the village of Ha Majara. This school was in the strewn field
area and many stones were recovered from the village, the escarpment to the west
and from fields. The children used a magnet to distinguish between the
meteoritic stones and others which superficially resembled them. One stone was
found amongst mealie stalks stored on the roof of a house.
By November, the strewn field had expanded to embrace nine villages, and even
the Ha Sofonia Satellite Earth Station. This facility has two 13 metre dishes
which are pointed at a geostationary satellite over the Atlantic Ocean, and most
of Lesotho’s international telephone traffic passes through this facility.
Permission was granted to visit the station and the staff reported that although
the noise had been heard, nothing had fallen within the precincts. The dishes
were examined by binoculars to see if there was any sign of deformation from
stones impacting them, and the area underneath was searched, without result, for
stones which might have bounced out. However, one of the members of the visiting
team, Mamhlongo Maphisa, managed to pick up a small meteoritic stone of mass 6
grams, on the concrete apron adjoining the offices beneath the satellite dishes.
The final dimensions of the strewn field determined are shown on the map, and
indicate that the meteorite came in on a bearing of approximately 276º. The time
of the incident is known, so that the exact position of the Earth in relation to
its daily rotation and orbit around the sun is known. A reasonable estimate of
the angle of entry is available from at least one observer. These different
spatial and temporal parameters make it possible to make an estimate of the
orbit of the intruder from within the solar system before it intersected the
Earth’s atmosphere. It is very rare that enough information is known about a
meteorite to estimate its orbit. Indeed it has only previously been achieved on
about six occasions. The orbit is of some interest, because the Earth remains
under perpetual threat from meteoritic impact. In the 20th century there were
two impacts in Siberia which hit uninhabited areas, but if they had hit a major
city either of them could have caused millions of casualties. If meteorites
could be spotted well before arrival, intervention might be possible, perhaps
using a nuclear device, to divert them from a collision path with Earth. The
problem is that even a small meteorite a few metres across can have a
devastating effect, and meteorites of this size, travelling at some 100000 km/h
relative to the Earth, would be difficult to locate ahead of arrival, although
the chances of doing this are greatly enhanced if meteorites such as the Thuathe
Meteorite come from a particular direction in the sky. Studying the Thuathe
Meteorite’s orbit might therefore have some significant practical value for the
future of mankind.
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The Danish NGO MS (few people in Lesotho use or even know its unabbreviated
Danish name, Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, which simply means ‘international
co-operation’) decided in March 2002 to close its office in Lesotho which had
been responsible for MS activities in Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland since
1976. Both local and Danish staff working for MS in Lesotho waged a vigorous
campaign for MS to continue its operations, but to no avail. According to a
statement in its periodical Lumela, ‘MS works to promote understanding and
solidarity between people across national borders, political beliefs and colour
of skin’.
The final issue of Lumela, published in October 2002, was numbered 28,
although in fact the periodical (which started life as Lumela Lesotho in
November 1993) had only been formally numbered since 1997. Since the first
appearance in 1993 there had apparently been a total of 35 issues, five of them
unnumbered in 1993-4, and special unnumbered issues in 1999 and 2002. The final
issue tried to assess the impact on the region of the MS withdrawal.
Altogether in the sub-region MS had been supporting 16 subregional partners.
Of these five are considered to be so dependent on MS support that they are
‘likely to break down’. Of these, three are in Lesotho, and the others are the
Botswana Workcamps Association and Malawi’s Active Youth Initiative for Social
Enhancement. Of the three Lesotho partners most at threat, Bosele is a
self-employment association which emerged when Lesotho Highlands Water Project
workers lost their jobs after violently suppressed unrest at Butha-Buthe in
September 1996. Its projects have included stonecutting and establishment of a
health centre. A second threatened Lesotho partner is the Federation of Women
Lawyers (FIDA), a local chapter of an international organization (FIDA =
Federación Internacional de Abogadas, ‘women lawyers’ in Spanish being abogadas).
FIDA has had a small office in the grounds of the house which has been serving
as office to the Lesotho Council of NGOs, and has produced a number of booklets
about women’s rights as well as a shortlived newsletter (one issue in each of
the years 1994 to 1997). It has long been eclipsed in Maseru by a similar
organization, WLSA, or Women and Law in Southern Africa Research Trust, which
has had an active publications programme in similar areas. The third threatened
Lesotho partner is the Community Legal Resource and Advice Centre, designed to
assist poor people to get free legal advice, and therefore not of itself
financially self-sufficient. MS assistance to two of the threatened Lesotho
partners terminates in 2002, although Bosele expects assistance to continue
until 2004.
By way of contrast, four of the subregional partners were thought to be
relatively unaffected by the MS Office in Maseru closing. These were
organisations or government departments which had received some MS support but
were not dependent on it. The four are the Transformation Resource Centre in
Maseru; the Lesotho Government Department of Social Welfare; GROW (which has
support from several other donors and has horticulture and handicraft programmes);
and the Rural Self-help Development Association, with headquarters in the
suburbs of Maseru, which as a result of capacity building activities had reached
a stage where it should be able to continue.
Seven other subregional partners would be seriously affected and would have
to reduce or reorganize their activities because of MS’s withdrawal. Two of
these are in Swaziland and the others are the Lesotho Council of Mentally
Handicapped Persons (founded in 1992 by parents of handicapped children and
active in 7 of Lesotho’s 10 districts); the Lesotho Network for Conflict
Management; the Lesotho Pre-School and Daycare Association; the Lesotho Council
of NGOs; and BAG. The last of these is the Berea Agricultural Group, which began
in 1989 and has been supported by MS since 1994. The organization, which had
expanded to 44 school members in several districts by 2001, teaches young people
skills relating to vegetable production, livestock management and soil
conservation.
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A new Southern African Customs Treaty was finally signed in Gaborone,
Botswana on Monday 21 October 2002. It is a successor to the 1969 Treaty, which
in turn was a successor to the 1910 Treaty which came into being with the
creation of the Union of South Africa. Final agreement on the new Treaty is the
culmination of negotiations between the countries of southern Africa for over a
decade.
The new Treaty makes provision for the customs revenue to be shared in such a
way that the poorer states receive a proportionately greater share of the
revenue, something which will undoubtedly reduce the damage to Lesotho, which
might otherwise have lost considerable revenue under the new arrangements.
In the past, the administration of the Treaty was largely in the hands of
South Africa. However, under the new arrangements, the secretariat administering
the Treaty will be in Windhoek, Namibia.
The five states who are signatories to the new Treaty are Botswana, Lesotho,
Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.
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The revised minimum wages set for 1 October 2002 had not kept pace with
inflation and the Lesotho Clothing and Allied Workers Union (LECAWU) called for
industrial action to secure a better wage. Negotiations with the Exporters’
Association resulted in offers of wage increases of 12% for unskilled workers
and 13.57% for skilled machinists and other technicians. The offer was put to
the workers themselves at a rally attended by some 5000 LECAWU members from
Maseru, Maputsoe and Mafeteng on Sunday 27 October 2002. Most of the members
were women clad in red tee-shirts with the slogan ‘One Industry One Union’ who
sang and chanted slogans as they invaded the city on their way to Maseru’s
Central Park.
As reported in Mopheme of 29 October 2002, the offer of the Exporters’
Association (which was less than what was necessary to combat food price
inflation) was rejected and a demand was made for M1005 per month for unskilled
workers and M1184 per month for skilled workers (the current wages of these
categories are M694 and M805). The workers reached a consensus that the textile
companies should disclose their financial statements to see if they could meet
their workers’ demands. The Secretary-General of LECAWU, Daniel Maraisane, told
Mopheme that strike action was not possible at this stage because it would take
at least five months to scrutinize financial statements of each and every
textile factory in the country.
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Dr Michael Malefetsane Sefali, a former academic and Member of the Council
Ministers, was reported in Public Eye of 25 October 2002 to have been appointed
economic adviser to the Prime Minister.
Sefali, a Russian-educated economist, was Senior Lecturer in Economics at the
National University of Lesotho 1974-81; Director of the Institute of Southern
African Studies at the same university 1981 to 1986; and Minister of Economic
Planning and Manpower Development 1986 to 1990. During this last period he
became President of the Council of Ministers of the 69 African, Caribbean and
Pacific (ACP) countries and was cosignatory of the Lomé IV Convention with his
counterpart from the European Economic Commission countries, French Prime
Minister, Michel Rocher. From 1991 to 1995 Sefali was Principal Economist at the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat in Gaborone, and on
his return to Maseru, he established an economic consultancy. He later became
Vice-President of the Lesotho Senate, a position from which he was dismissed
early in 2002, after a dispute with the Senate’s President.
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In a sequel to the death of Giuseppe Florio (better known in Lesotho by his
nickname ‘Pino’), two of Lesotho’s best known hotels have closed, while two
others have changed hands.
Pino died insolvent on 17 December 2000 after a long illness. He had managed
Lesotho Hotels, a group which included the Hotel Victoria in Maseru, as well as
the Molimo-Nthuse Lodge and the Senqu Hotel in Mokhotlong. In mid-2002, both the
10-storey Hotel Victoria in the centre of Maseru and the Molimo-Nthuse Lodge on
the Mountain Road were closed. On 25 October 2002, Pino’s interests in two other
hotels, the Leribe Hotel and the Senqu Hotel on the outskirts of Mokhotlong were
sold by public auction.
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The Canadian firm, Acres International, after a six week court case, had been
found guilty on 17 September 2002 by Lesotho Chief Justice, Mahapela Lehohla, of
having paid 1.5 million French francs (R2.25 million) to Masupha Sole, Chief
Executive of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, as a bribe to secure a
contract. The money, which was paid in 24 transactions over six years, was paid
through a Lesotho engineer, the late Zalisiwonga (Wonga) Bam, who was reported
in court to have received 40% of the bribe, while Sole received 60%. Wonga Bam
died in 1999, while Sole is serving an 18-year sentence for having accepted
bribes, imposed in June 2002.
Sentencing was on Monday 28 October 2002 and the Ontario-based Acres was
fined M22 million (about $2.2 million). Similar cases against a number of other
well-known construction companies are still pending.
A London-based lawyer, Fiona Darroch, attended the trial on behalf of several
international non-governmental organisations. According to Business Report of 30
October 2002 she said that the judgment and fine were landmark decisions. ‘This
is entirely unprecedented. This has not happened anywhere else in Africa as far
as we know.’
Acres has decided to appeal against the High Court judgment. The case has
been set down for hearing in the Lesotho Court of Appeal in April 2003.
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The second major dam of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, the Mohale Dam,
was brought into use on 1 November 2002, when the diversion tunnels round the
145 metre high concrete faced rockfill dam wall were closed and impoundment
began. The Mohale Dam is now being filled by the headwaters of the Senqunyane
river, and two of its major tributaries, the Bokong and Jorotane. The capacity
of the Mohale Reservoir is approximately half that of the Katse Reservoir and
the two are connected by the 32 km long Mohale-Katse Transfer Tunnel through
which water will normally run north-eastwards from the Mohale Reservoir to the
Katse Reservoir and thereafter by the 45 km long main Transfer Tunnel to the
’Muela Hydropower Plant, from which the 37 km long Delivery Tunnel takes water
to the Vaal Catchment at the Ash River Outfall.
The Mohale-Katse Transfer Tunnel can also work in reverse, so that excess
water in the Katse Reservoir, instead of spilling over the Katse Dam wall, can
be stored in the Mohale Reservoir. This reversal of water in the tunnel may well
have adverse effects on the rare endemic fish species, the Maloti Minnow,
Pseudobarbus quathlambae. The Maloti Minnow occurs in the upper parts of the
Senqunyane Basin, where it has remained undisturbed because the trout which
flourish downstream cannot ascend the Semonkoaneng Falls some 3 km below the
Mohale Dam wall. Trout, which are known to feed on the Maloti Minnow, are
however plentiful in the Katse Reservoir, and it seems only a matter of time
before they will find their way through the tunnel. As a countermeasure,
artificial holding barriers are being constructed to protect the Maloti Minnow.
With the completion of the Mohale Dam, and the earlier completion of the
Matsoku Weir and its 5.7 km diversion tunnel from the Matsoku river to the Katse
Reservoir, Phase IB of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project is complete, and the
full 30 cumecs (cubic metres per second) of water will shortly be delivered from
Lesotho to the Vaal Catchment (18 cumecs from the original Phase IA (Katse)
augmented by 9 cumecs from Mohale and 3 cumecs from Matsoku). Although the
original project envisaged Phases II, III and IV with dams successively further
down the Senqu river, there seems little prospect of any of these Phases being
commissioned for many years to come. AIDS in South Africa has resulted in
completely revised population projections, and Gauteng is no longer expected to
need as much water in the near future as had been previously projected.
Meanwhile, the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority Annual Report for
2001/2 was published. Covering the period April 2001 to March 2002. It showed
that the total water delivered in the year was 584 million m3 (an average of
18.5 cumecs or 18.5 m3/s) which resulted in royalties of M183 million being
paid. Because of unusually wet weather in April 2001 and during the exceedingly
wet summer of 2001-2, the Katse Dam overspilled for a total of 111 days during
the reporting period (18 April - 18May2001, 24 November 2001 - 10 January 2002
and 26 January to 27 February 2002), during which 465 millon m3 of water (apart
from the required compensation water) were lost downstream. In the history of
the Katse Reservoir it had only once before overspilled, for 41 days from 10
March to 20 April 1998, when 116 million m3 were lost downstream.
The report also contained details on resettlement of households from the
Mohale area (a further 111 were resettled) and on progress on the construction
of feeder roads around the Mohale Reservoir. Three major bridges are also under
construction across the arms of the reservoir.
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Under a headline ‘Increased Stock Theft on Lesotho Border’, the Himeville
newspaper The Mountain Echo in its November 2002 issue gave figures for October:
125 cattle, 312 sheep, 15 goats and 7 horses were stolen. Of these 80 cattle,
309 sheep, 15 goats and 5 horses were recovered. Of the cattle 67 belonged to
black farmers and 62 of these were recovered.
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After a period when both new and old telephone numbers could be used, only
new telephone numbers were operational from 1 November 2002. The new eight-digit
numbers for fixed lines are the same as the old six digit numbers, but prefixed
by the additional digits 22. For Lesotho Tele-Com cellphones, the new
eight-digit numbers are also the same as the old six digit numbers, but prefixed
by the digits 58.
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The Chief Public Prosecutor in the Maseru Magistrate’s Court, Lebua Letsie,
aged 45, was gaoled on 6 November 2002 for seven years without the option of a
fine, after having been found guilt of accepting a bribe. Evidence was heard
that she had received M500 from ’Mamating Nchanyana in return for destroying
evidence against her brother Nchanyana Nchanyana, who was on trial charged with
rape, housebreaking and theft. When passing sentence, Mr Justice Tšeliso
Monaphathi stated that he was taking into consideration that Letsie was a
divorcee and single parent, but also that she had shown no remorse. A fine would
suggest or create an impression that anyone could buy himself out of trouble.
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Public Eye of 8 November 2002 reported several judicial appointments amongst
which was the appointment of Mr Justice Mathealira Ramodibedi as a Judge of the
Court of Appeal. Mr Justice Ramodibedi had been serving as an Acting Judge on
the Court of Appeal since April 2000, but his permanent appointment has now been
confirmed.
In his shuffling of the Lesotho Bench, a month after his own appointment as
Chief Justice, Mr Justice Mahapela Lehohla also announced that Mrs Acting
Justice ’Maseshophe Hlajoane, a former Registrar of the High Court, should
become a fully fledged Judge of the High Court. She is Lesotho’s second woman
judge. A further vacancy arises because Mr Justice Churchill Maqutu is still
acting on secondment as a Judge of the International Tribunal for Rwanda in
Arusha. His place has been filled by appointing Mr Thamsanqa Nomncongo, Senior
Resident Magistrate, as an Acting Judge of the High Court.
In the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Lionel Melunsky has been confirmed as a
Judge, while a new Judge, Mr Justice Johan Wilhelm Smalberger has also been
appointed. The Court of Appeal has previously been exclusively made up of South
African judges. Mr Justice Ramodibedi is the first Mosotho to serve on the Court
of Appeal.
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The Radio Lesotho news bulletin of 12 November 2002 carried a news story
about new panels being installed at its relay station on the 2811m Popa mountain
near Ha Koatake between Mokhotlong and Mapholaneng. The solar panels had been
stolen in October 2001, and the two thieves had subsequently been caught and
sentenced. After a period of over a year, Mokhotlong was again able to hear
Radio Lesotho without difficulty.
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Persons who had gone from Maseru for short shopping visits to Ladybrand on
Friday 15 November 2002 were in for a nasty surpise on their return. A queue of
vehicles had formed at Maseru Bridge which eventually stretched back half the
distance to Ladybrand. Some people in the queue waited for over four hours
before giving up and driving into Lesotho via Wepener and Van Rooyen’s Gate, a
journey taking another three hours. Although no official announcement was made,
it is understood that the cause of the delay was a decision that the chassis and
engine numbers of vehicles entering Lesotho had to be checked to try to locate
stolen vehicles. The locating of the numbers and checking them on the computer
database resulted in vehicles passing the border post at intervals of about 15
minutes each. Normally vehicles pass into Lesotho on a Friday afternoon at the
rate of at least one a minute.
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As reported in Moeletsi oa Basotho of 17 November 2002, one of the three
members of the Independent Electoral Commission, Mafole Sematlane, had
disappeared. His vehicle was found abandoned near Ha Thamae. Later reports said
that he was in Pretoria.
However, Sematlane had been due leave which was granted from 3 November 2002
to 18 April 2003, and he was apparently resting after the major task of the 2002
General Election. Later reports suggested that Sematlane had suffered a nervous
breakdown and that no credence should be given to various statements about the
past elections which various newspapers claimed that he had made.
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As reported in Public Eye of 22 November 2002, the Secretary General of the
Basotho National Party, Pius Leseteli Malefane, attacked the party leader
Major-General Justin Metsing Lekhanya, in an address to a party conference on 3
November. The report includes details of a meeting at the house of Masupha Sole
‘Lekhanya’s closest friend’ [now in gaol for 18 years for corruption] to mediate
on a dispute between Lekhanya and Malefane. The meeting did nothing to resolve
their differences because Lekhanya told Malefane ‘I cannot accept your challenge
to my authority. You must know that I am an autocrat, therefore I want things
done my way.’ Malefane in his address went on to detail unconstitutional
procedures used by Lekhanya for choosing some of the BNP election candidates; an
allegation that he, Malefane, was planning to oust Lekhanya, while there was a
counterplot to assault him and remove him from office; and a long account of
misappropriation of party funds.
The party leader suffered another blow when the party’s youth conference,
scheduled to be held at Mazenod later in November had to be cancelled because a
quorum consisting of representatives from 53 constituencies (two-thirds of the
total) was not achieved.
The party’s next annual conference, to be held in March 2003, promises to be
a lively affair.
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The annual three day Roof of Africa Rally was held in hot and dry conditions
on 21 to 23 November 2002. The Rally whose origins were a car race, is nowadays
confined to motor cycles and quad bikes. Only 51 out of over 200 starters
survived the motorcycle race, which was won for a second time by Elmer Symons
riding a 250 cc Miller Moore/AMP KTM motor cycle. The winner of the quad bike
race was Cornel de Villiers, who had also been the 2002 champion. He won on a
Traxworld Bombardier. 27 out of 50 quad bikes survived the race, compared with
the previous year when only 4 quad bikes had finished.
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Moeletsi oa Basotho of 24 November 2002 reported that four youths had been
arrested in the Maseru suburb of Ha Mabote on 12 November, after 38 approach
lights and the wooden poles on which they were mounted had been stolen on 11
November. The Chief of Airport Security at Moshoeshoe I International Airport,
Mr Selebalo Tšiu told the newspaper that the lights, which have to be ordered
from Finland and are valued at a total of M200 000, had apparently already been
disposed of by the thieves when they were arrested. The lights were essential
equipment so that safe landings could be made on cloudy days or at night.
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The leader of the Basutoland Congress Party, Tšeliso Makhakhe, announced at a
press conference on Friday 29 November that he was resigning as party leader.
Makhakhe, now 77, is a teacher by profession, and was at the time of
Independence headmaster of the then prestigious Peka High School, many of whose
pupils are now in prominent government positions. His teaching career has
included teaching inmates in the Maseru Central Prison, when he was arrested
following the coup of January 1970; heading the English department at Kgari
Sechele II High School in Molepolole, Botswana; and lecturing (in 1991-2 after
returning from exile and before returning to politics) at the National Teacher
Training College.
Makhakhe is only the third leader of the BCP, following Ntsu Mokhehle and
Molapo Qhobela. The deputy leader of the BCP, Sekoala Toloane, becomes acting
leader of the party until the next party conference. Makhakhe announced at the
press conference that he wants to concentrate on writing and is planning books
on politics and Basotho history.
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Parliament reconvened on Friday 22 November after a 10 week adjournment, and
amongst items on the Order Paper shortly thereafter was the Higher Education
Bill. Like the predecessor Education Act 1995, this Bill reached Parliament
without any preliminary White Paper. The public did not therefore have the
opportunity to express views on such important proposed legislation.
The Higher Education Bill 2002 is a response to the situation where a variety
of higher education institutions have emerged, particularly in the capital,
Maseru. While some of these are locally based, a number are local campuses or
offices of institutions in other countries. For example Newport University of
Rhode Island in the USA has a Maseru campus where teaching is undertaken; while
the Open Learning Group of South Africa has a Maseru Office where students can
register for a variety of correspondence course certificates with a body which
claims to have ‘concluded cooperation agreements’ with a number of South African
universities and technikons.
The Bill makes provision for the establishment of an autonomous Council on
Higher Education (CHE) to monitor all institutions of higher learning, both
private and public. The Bill gives the Minister of Education the power to close,
merge or create higher education institutions. Private higher education
institutions have to be registered with the Minister of Education before they
can operate.
Meanwhile, Lesotho’s National University of Lesotho was the subject of a
question in Parliament to the Minister of Education by A. C. Manyeli of the
National Independent Party, himself a former Minister of Education. Mr Manyeli
asked the Minister to apprise the House on a number of issues relating to the
administration of NUL including misappropriation of funds and lack of
accommodation for the rising number of students.
In relation to the misappropriation of funds, the Minister said that the
University Council had directed the university management to institute
disciplinary action against individuals involved in wrong doing, and also to
institute criminal proceedings where applicable. Disciplinary action had been
instituted against the Bursar and Deputy Bursar, but the Bursar had applied for
a Court interdiction to forestall action against him.
In relation to the rising number of students, it was stated that the number
had risen from 2000+ students in the Academic Year 2001/2 to 5400 in the
Academic Year 2002/3, and the plan was to increase students at NUL from 5400 in
2002/3 to 10000 by 2007/8. At present 1414 students were occupying accommodation
designed for 1194 students, an overcrowding factor of 18%, whereas the remaining
students had had to look for accommodation outside. The University
administration had been taking initiatives to secure accommodation in
neighbouring educational establishments. [In fact the actual numbers of
registered students for 2001/2 could have been provided more accurately by the
Minister of Education by reference to the NUL Annual Statistical Bulletin 2002.
In 2000/1, there were 2812 undergraduates enrolled in the six main faculties
(54.2% female, 45.8% male) with numbers over the previous five years having
rapidly increased in all faculties except the Faculty of Science & Technology
where numbers had remained virtually static (up from 349 in 1994/95 to 365 in
2000/1, compared to a rise from 187 to 293 in Law and from 63 to 379 in
Agriculture). Apart from these 2812 students in 2001/2 in the six main
faculties, a further 32 students were registered as postgraduates, and 1110 in
Certificates (312), Diplomas (677) and Degrees (121) offered by the Institute of
Extramural Services (IEMS). A further 222 students were registered in the
part-time Bachelor of Education (Primary) degree, making the ‘2000+’ enrolment
for 2001/2 in reality 4176 students.]
The question and answer did not explain the rationale behind the sudden
expansion of NUL. Whereas the University of Botswana, serving a country with a
smaller population, had recently reached a 10000 target, it had done so in a
country with a developed economy able to absorb skilled manpower. Moreover its
physical expansion had been planned ahead of each increase in student numbers.
In the case of Lesotho, the country’s shortage is not of graduates, many of whom
are unemployed or employed in positions irrelevant to their training, but of
technicians and persons with skills related to potential or actual industrial
growth areas such as textile technology. Amongst areas where there are chronic
shortages is nursing, where overseas recruiting agents have recently creamed off
some of the best nurses for employment in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and
Australia. Institutions where there is an immediate manpower need requiring a
doubling of students are therefore the Colleges of Nursing. However, many
potential entrants to nursing education had been lost to the profession. Through
the bridging course offered to students who fell short of normal university
entrance requirements, many had been diverted into degree studies which would
neither meet the shortage of nurses nor guarantee employment.
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A Sexual Offences Bill was presented to Parliament late in 2002, although it
seems to have reached there without appropriate preliminary public consultation.
Indeed, as in the case of the Higher Education Bill, there was no White Paper
issued, and the text of the bill seems not to have been published in the media.
Moreover the progress of the Bill through the two Houses of Parliament has been
difficult to follow, because the daily Hansard which reports verbatim the
debates in both the National Assembly and the Senate became unavailable in the
latter part of 2002. This was because, despite over a dozen people being
employed in preparing the Hansard, in the case of both houses the photocopiers
had broken down, and insufficient funds were apparently available for repair or
replacement.
Comment on the bill was provided by Khalaki Sello, a distinguished local
lawyer, in Lesotho Monitor for November-December 2002. He described it as ‘an
angry piece of legislation. It expresses the wrath, the desperation of our
society at what can only be described as the worst place [plague] to be visited
on mankind’. This is a reference to a provision in the bill which provides for
the death penalty for a person who knows he is HIV/AIDS and engages in a sexual
act with another person without disclosing his status. The bill makes
intramarital rape an offence, and imposes draconian sentences for rape in
general, leaving little discretion to the courts in deciding the sentence,
although Courts do have the discretion of imposing lesser sentences where
‘extenuating circumstances or the proper consideration of the individual
circumstances of the accused’ dictate. Sello is also severely critical of the
lack of sentencing discretion and the clause which leaves an escape route.
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An alternative system of justice has gradually developed in Lesotho over the
past few years, spurred on by impatience with the official legal system which is
perceived as being incapable of dealing with criminals timeously or
appropriately. Extra-judicial killings have been spurred on by common knowledge
that when villagers collectively carry out a public killing of an alleged thief
or thieves, the police fail to arrest those responsible for the killing. Indeed
the villagers on such occasions present a joint front, challenging the police to
arrest the whole village or else no-one at all.
As reported in Leseli ka Sepolesa of 5 December 2002, two cattle thieves were
intercepted at the Maseru suburb of Ha Abia on the night of Tuesday 26 November.
One of them, Letšasa Maime of Ha Meshaka near Roma was captured, beaten to death
and his body subsequently burned on a pile of maize stalks. His accomplice who
was also his cousin, Mankoe Maime, escaped according to people of his home
village, Ha Motanyane, by hiding in a water drum.
At Letšasa’s funeral at Ha Meshaka the following Wednesday, according to
villagers, Mankoe was one of the grave diggers, but was recognized by a fellow
grave digger as wearing trousers stolen from him. Mankoe was seized by villagers
and taken to Ha Motanyane, 2 km distant, where his house was searched and many
other goods belonging to villagers were recovered. Apparently spurred on by what
had happened to Mankoe’s partner in crime, the villagers beat Mankoe, and threw
him still alive onto burning bundles of grass. Mankoe in turn was buried in an
early morning funeral at Ha Motanyane on Saturday 14 December, a funeral which,
as villagers noted, lacked the normal speeches of condolence to the family.
If the people of Ha Motanyane thought that Mankoe’s death had ridden them of
criminal elements, they were rudely awaken three nights later. All the cattle of
the village, which are commonly kept overnight in a communal cattle kraal for
security reasons, vanished. The villagers followed tracks the next morning to a
cattle post at ’Malehloane high in the Thaba-Chitja Range and the cattle were
recovered, although the thieves understandably had vanished.
Cattle theft continues to be widespread throughout Lesotho, and many villages
have relocated to perceived safer sites. Funerals require the slaughter of
cattle, and many stolen cattle are sold to those arranging funerals. However, it
is not unusual for the police to interrupt a funeral and seize the meat being
prepared if they have good reason to believe that it is from stolen animals.
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Free primary education was first introduced in Lesotho in 1927 (and fully
implemented by 1929), when mission schools which reached certain minimum
standards received government subsidies, in return for which they were not
allowed to charge school fees. The move to free education was made possible in
1927 by the creation of a Basutoland Education Fund, created by a three
shillings levy on taxpayers to which was added one quarter of the basic tax then
paid by all adult male residents of Lesotho.
In time, the missions had ignored this rule and by Independence school fees
had reappeared, justified by the missions as necessary because government was
not paying the unqualified teachers which were being employed in many schools.
The earlier situation was restored with effect from the beginning of 1974, when
the non-democratic government of the time was anxious to correct its waning
popularity. In its issue of 30 December 1973, Moeletsi oa Basotho carried a
banner headline ‘Sekolofisi se shoele: thuto ke mokokotlo oa Sechaba’ (‘School
fees are abolished: education is the backbone of the Nation’). The newspaper
reported a speech in the nominated Interim National Assembly by the Minister of
Finance, E. R. Sekhonyana, which said that there would from January 1974 be no
school fees in the then 1087 government-supported primary schools and this was
being financed by increasing the R3.50 Basic Tax payable by all adult males to
R6.00, the additional R2.50 being an Education Levy, which would be used to pay
unqualified teachers. The immediate impact in 1974 was a rise in Standard I
enrolments, which jumped from 47060 in 1973 to 58743 in 1974, a rise of 24.8%.
By the year 1999, school fees had again initially covertly and eventually
quite openly been introduced in mission primary schools, largely justified
because missions were still responsible for meeting the expenses of upkeep of
school buildings. The Lesotho Government then announced that school fees were
again to be abolished (for the third time, although it did not say so) with
effect from 2000, when Standard One would be free, and thereafter Standards Two,
Three and so on until the whole seven primary classes were free by 2006. On the
two previous occasions, the abolition covered all classes at once, but the new
abolition of school fees was to be progressive, tempting poor parents to re-enrol
Standard Two pupils in Standard One, even if they had to take their child to a
neighbouring school.
The government has kept its promise of primary education being progressively
free, and over the past three years has made certain financial provision to help
schools suffering from overcrowding. In the coming year 2003, Standards One to
Four will be free.
Amongst initial government response was provision of tents for use as
temporary classrooms. More recently it has embarked on a programme to build
government-owned primary schools. The exact extent of this programme is far from
clear, because the Ministry of Education has not produced an annual report since
1996. However, information, even from remote areas, suggests the new school
building programme is considerable. As an example one can take the remote
village of Ha Chaane in the Mosafeleng valley in Qacha’s Nek District (and also
in the Prime Minister’s own Tsoelike Constituency). In Ha Chaane and the
immediately adjoining village of Ha Sepechele, are approximately 650 people and
also two primary schools less than ten minutes walk apart, Mosafeleng Lesotho
Evangelical Church Primary School and Mokholoko Roman Catholic Primary School.
These schools date from the distant past when rival denominations were allowed
to set up schools in the same village. Both schools are very poor, each having
two teachers who have to teach the seven standards of primary school, and in
both cases, only the headteacher is qualified, the second teacher being a high
school leaver who has completed no formal educational training. At Ha Chaane,
however, a new government primary school has recently been built, and is due to
open its doors in 2003. It is also within ten minutes walking distance of the
other two schools, giving Ha Chaane one of the greatest densities of educational
establishments in Lesotho. This is the more remarkable, because no wheeled
vehicle has ever reached Ha Chaane, the village does not even have a shop where
soap or paraffin can be bought, and cement and most building materials for the
new government school were brought in by helicopter. The new government school
will apparently have at least four teachers. It remains to be seen whether
government will continue to pay the teachers at the two nearby denominational
schools, whose pupils are likely to dwindle to insignificant numbers in the near
future.
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Senior posts in the Colonial Administration were largely filled by British
personnel trained outside Lesotho. Formal Government interest in local training
began in 1960, when a Training Committee was established and the post of
Training Officer established. By Independence in 1966 the Training Office had a
small staff of administrative personnel and was located in an old house on
Kingsway adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, on the corner of what was
then Nightingale Road and later became Hilton Hill.
In 1967, the Training Office was expanded under a newly created post of
Secretary for Training, who had the dual responsibility of administering
scholarships and running in-service courses at what now became known as the
Civil Service Training Centre (CSTC).
As a result of the report of a British Training Adviser, who was appointed to
the CSTC in 1972-3 a technical agreement was negotiated, and the British
Government agreed to provide funds for a new building and for the services of
three Technical Assistance Officers for a period of five years.
On 1st January 1976, the former Training Office was separated from the CSTC
and renamed the National Manpower Training Secretariat. Simultaneously, the CSTC
was renamed the Lesotho Institute of Public Administration (LIPA). It moved into
its new purpose-built premises adjoining the Lerotholi Technical Institute in
July 1977. Reflecting its increasing role in management training, LIPA changed
its name in 1995 to the Lesotho Institute of Public Administration and
Management (LIPAM).
LIPAM has in recent years fallen on difficult times, with many changes of
leadership, and the problem that many of its courses are being duplicated by the
Institute of Development Management and (particularly in the computer training
field) the private sector. Moreover, its buildings have proved not only
inadequate, but actually structurally unsound, threatening to collapse. LIPAM
had to move out of its premises in February 2002, and they were subsequently
demolished. This move took place at relatively short notice and at the end of
2002, LIPAM still does not have a permanent home. Its administration offices are
at present on the third floor of Block A of Development House in Maseru’s
Central Business District. Teaching takes place in borrowed classrooms at the
University’s Institute of Extra-Mural Studies (which fortuitously has classrooms
otherwise empty all day, because they are mainly used for part-time evening
classes); and the LIPAM library is currently accommodated in space rented from
the mine recruiting organization, TEBA, at the other end of town on Moshoeshoe
Road.
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After remaining relatively stable and diminishing fairly steadily over the
period 1993 to 2001, the consumer price index rose rapidly at the end of 2001
and in early 2002, fuelled by increasing food prices, which were the most
conspicuous component of inflationary pressures resulting from the rapid
devaluation of the rand (and therefore the loti) at the end of 2001. However at
the end of 2002, the situation looked brighter. The rand had recovered most of
the ground lost in the past 12 months (indeed in 2002 it had appreciated by more
than a third, more than any other currency against the US dollar). This led to
inflation developing a downward trend to 11.0% in November 2002 after peaking at
13.7% in March and again at the slightly lower level of 13.3% in July. Details
are shown in the adjoining chart, which is based on figures published by the
Bureau of Statistics. The consumer price index used is the one based on eight
lowlands towns including Maseru, and weights food and non-alcoholic beverages as
36.3% of household expenditure (even though in many families it is much higher
than this). The BOS also calculates a Capital City CPI based on a different
pattern of household expenditure in which food, beverages and tobacco count for
only 20.0% of the index. Because food prices have been the main influence on
inflation during the past year, the increase in the Capital City CPI has been
lower than the so-called ‘overall CPI’, and was for example just 9.6% in October
2002. There is no ‘poor families’ CPI, which should probably give a 60%
weighting to food, with a correspondingly much higher inflation rate. The
inflation rate for bread and cereals between October 2001 and October 2002 was
42.2%, and if maize meal were to be isolated within this component would have
been even higher still.
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The Lesotho Revenue Authority Act 2001 (Act no. 14 of 2001) transfers
responsibility for collecting government revenue from the Ministry of Finance to
a new statutory body, the Lesotho Revenue Authority which is a government agency
operating under a Board of eight persons, one of whom is the
Commissioner-General of the Authority, and the other seven are appointed by the
Minister of Finance in consultation with and representing each of the Ministry
of Finance; the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Marketing; the Central Bank; the
Lesotho Institute of Accountants; Lesotho Chamber of Commerce & Industry; the
Lesotho Association of Employers; and the private sector. The Authority has
power to administer the Customs and Excise Act 1982, the Income Tax Act 1993,
the Sales Tax Act 1995 and the Value Added Tax Act 2001. It also has a wide
range of functions including proposing changes to existing laws and collecting
and processing relevant statistics. It is required to submit to the Ministry of
Finance an annual report not later than three months after the end of each
Financial Year. Existing staff of the Customs and Excise, Income Tax and Sales
Tax Departments have the option of applying to join the new Authority or asking
for redeployment elsewhere within the civil service. However, the Government has
the right to retire such staff if no suitable position is available for
redeployment.
The Lesotho Revenue Authority Act 2001 was brought into operation on 11
December 2001 by Legal Notice no. 211 of 2001, although hopes that it might be
operational in 2002 were dashed. The members of the LRA Board were only
appointed by Legal Notice no. 86 of 2002 in a Lesotho Government Gazette
Extraordinary of 14 May 2002 (a notice which rather curiously reappeared
unchanged in another LGG Extraordinary of 29 August 2002). By November, four
page advertisements were appearing in newspapers inviting applications for posts
with the Authority, applications having to be sent to the Chair of the Board,
Mrs Lineo L. Tshabalala. Altogether 466 posts were being advertised, possibly
the largest ever recruitment exercise in Lesotho, those being recruited ranging
from holders of LLB degrees with relevant experience down to messengers and
drivers. The closing date was 22 November 2002, and the date for assumption of
duties was 15 January 2003.
Public Eye of 20 December 2002 reported the announcement of the top LRA
appointments by the Minister of Finance, Dr Timothy Thahane. The Commissioner
General of the LRA is Mr Kevin Donavan, a New Zealander, who has previously been
Deputy Chief Executive for the New Zealand Customs Service, has worked for the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on customs
modernization in Asia and the Pacific Regions, and most recently was
Commissioner General of the Zambia Revenue Authority, where he spent the last 5½
years.
Other appointments are Mr Thabo Khasipe as Commissioner, Customs and Excise.
Mr Khasipe is an economist and former academic, who most recently was Director
of Planning at the Lesotho Telecommunications Authority. The Commissioner for
Value Added Tax (still to be introduced) is Mr Nthako Sekome, most recently
Maseru Branch Manager of Standard Bank. The present Commissioner of Income Tax,
Mrs Maleshoane Morakabi, who has been the Commisioner since 1998, also becomes
Commissioner of Income Tax with the LRA. LRA’s new Director of Finance and
Administration, Mr Thabo Letjama, is a Chartered Accountant, who since 2001 had
been Financial Manager of Telecom Lesotho; while the Director of Human Resources
is Ms Mphamo Tente, who has been Human Resources Manager at Lesotho Brewing
Company since 1997. The LRA Director of Information Technology is Dr Litlhare
Mokitimi, currently a Lecturer in Computer Science at the National University of
Lesotho, and formerly a systems analyst and programmer for Square One Computers.
The Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Dr Seth Macheli, who has been a
Lecturer in Law at NUL since 1990. His PhD is in taxation.
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As announced in Lesotho Government Gazette no. 127 of 6 December 2002, the
Tourism Act 2002 was brought into force on 1 November 2002. The new act replaces
the old Lesotho Tourist Board and replaces it with a Lesotho Tourism Development
Board. The Chairperson of the Board is ex officio the Director of Tourism in the
Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Environment, while the Chief Executive of
the LTDB is Secretary to the Board. Other appointments are Mrs M. Molapo of the
Lesotho Council for Tourism who is Deputy Chairperson, Mr E. T. Mokhachane of
the Hotels and Hospitality Association, Dr M. Nyaphisi, Dr F. Baffoe, Mr O.
Selikane and Mrs M. Malie.
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The Lesotho Evangelical Church newspaper, Leselinyana la Lesotho of 6
December 2002, reported that members of the Kubung LEC Church in Quthing
District on Sunday 6 November had organized a protest rally. This followed the
death of one of the church members, Mrs Julia Cheka, who had been the victim of
a medicine murder on 3 August 2002. The protest rally began from the church and
went to the house of the victim, where a memorial stone was unveiled in the
garden at the spot where the corpse had been found. Further gruesome details
about the murder appeared as the lead story in Leselinyana of 20 December 2002.
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By the end of 2002, work was nearly complete on a large new complex, whose
distinctive architecture includes two buildings similar to the well known
Basotho Hat craft shop. The complex is a recreational and cultural complex for
the staff of the Central Bank and has been built at a cost of some M46 million.
According to a report in Litsoakotleng of November/December 2002, the complex
includes swimming pools, tennis courts, indoor games facilities and a gymnasium.
It is not clear why the relatively small number of staff of the Central Bank
should have been provided with this facility when such facilities are for the
most part not available anywhere else in Maseru. However, according to
Litsoakotleng, the ‘facilities will be open to the public at a cost’.
The facilities are situated on the site of the old Police Lines between the
Central Bank and the Houses of Parliament. As is well known, the Parliament
buildings, dating back to 1909, are now far too small to accommodate
conveniently the 120 Members of Parliament (a 50% rise during the past year),
and they certainly seriously lack the offices and committee rooms which are
needed for a Parliament to function effectively. The site now occupied by the
new Central Bank Recreational Centre would have seemed the most obvious site for
new Houses of Parliament, or at least for an annex to the present buildings.
However, the opportunity to use it in this way has now been lost.
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Fireworks (known in Sesotho as likerikete) have enjoyed considerable sale in
the lead up to New Year celebrations in the past few years. However both Chinese
traders and local vendors involved in this trade were warned in 2002 that their
sale had been made illegal. As a result Christmas and the New Year were quieter
in 2002. A further bonus was that hospitals had fewer firework injuries to
attend to.
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2002 was another very wet year in Lesotho. Rainfall figures at Roma, for
example, showed above average rainfall for nine of the twelve months, with only
July, October, and November below average. In May 2002 and August 2002
approximately four times the average rainfall for those months was recorded, and
September recorded over twice average rainfall.
The total for the year at Roma was 1226mm, some 43% above the average
rainfall of 856mm. Rainfall for the calendar year 2002 was, however, rather less
than the record 1337mm recorded at Roma in 2001. It nevertheless made 2002 the
fourth wettest year in some 70 years of records. Rainfall in that time has
exceeded 1200mm on only six occasions: 1950 with 1203mm; 1988 with 1221mm; 1991
with 1237mm; 1998 with1228 mm; 2001, the record year, with 1337mm; and 2002,
with 1226 mm. Calendar year rainfall has exceeded 1000mm on 16 occasions in the
68 calendar years for which there are Roma records, and these 16 years are all
shown in the chart provided below. 9 of these occasions have been in the past 15
years, perhaps suggesting that global warming is resulting in Lesotho getting a
wetter climate. However, against this one can cite the driest calendar year in
the Roma record, which is 1992, also within the past 15 years, when just 515mm
of rain fell.
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