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SUMMARY
OF
EVENTS
IN
LESOTHO
Volume 12,
Number
4, (Fourth Quarter 2005)
Summary
of
Events
is
a
quarterly
publication
compiled
and
published
by
Prof.
David
Ambrose
since
1993
at
the
National
University
of
Lesotho
in
Roma.
Oldest Building on Kingsway
Demolished
LHDA
Case Heard by Appellate Committee of the House of Lords
National Accounts Published
Four Plus Ones, Minibus Taxis and Buses Now Legally Required to Carry First Aid
Kits
Agreement for
LHWP Phase II Feasibility Study Signed
Murder of Brett
Kebble has Lesotho Repercussions
Ombudsman Reports
on Conditions in Police Stations
New Schedule of Minimum Wages
Gazetted
NUL Awards
840 Degrees and 470 Certificates and Diplomas
Gandhi's Birthday Celebrated in
Maseru
LCD Wins Qalo By-election
NUL Loses Three Academic Staff
Members
Hailstorm Breaks Many Windows
Football Coach Fired
Mazenod Residents Shocked by Teenage Suicide Pact and Reports of Teacher Abuse
of Pupil
China Donates
Computer Equipment to Lesotho Parliament
Paul Boateng Presents Credentials and Later Chairs EU Meeting in Maseru
Lesotho Buys Tractors from India and Assists Purchasers; Irrigation Plan being
Developed
Death of Chief Makhaola Nkau
Lerotholi
Death of Veteran
Politician Shakhane Mokhehle
Death of Father Vital Bernier OMI
New Principal Chief of
Ramabanta Inaugurated
NUL Designates the Former St Theresa's Seminary as its `Southern Campus'
English
Schoolgirls work in Lesotho with Lesotho-Durham Link
Immigration Officers Appear in
Court
Total Print House Puts
Colour into Local Press
Maseru Hosts Tenth Commonwealth Parliamentary Speakers Conference
Death of the Chief of Roma
Lesotho Hosts Smart
Partnership Dialogue
Documentary
Slide Show on the History of Maseru Presented
Semonkong Cliffs Recognized as World's Longest Commercially Operated Single-Drop
Abseil
St Joseph's
Hospital Acquires CD4 Counter and ARV Clinic
Government Advertises 284 Vacancies for Primary School Teachers
Proposals for New Parliament Buildings Become Public Knowledge
New Limited Edition of Book on Lesotho's First Anglican Bishop Published
World AIDS Day
22 Basotho Police to Serve in
Darfur
NUL Theatre
and Drama Graduates Stage Top Girls in Maseru
Primary School
Leaving Examinations Results Published
Lesotho Defence Force Receives Helicopters and Fire Engines and its First Woman
Pilot
Death of David May, Forester and Indigenous Forest Enthusiast Extraordinary
Wedding of the Year Takes Place at Roma on Last Day of the Year
Inflation Rate Rises
Wet
Calendar Year but with One of the Driest Decembers on Record
The Old Dispensary on Kingsway, situated opposite the Secretariat Building
(later the Prime Minister's Office and now Headquarters of the Ministry of
Defence) was demolished in August 2005 to make way for a car park for the
recently completed building which will house the National Library and National
Archives on an adjoining site.
The Old Dispensary was a building of neat sandstone blocks, with an
attractive porch, constructed almost exactly 100 years ago in 1905-6. It was
neatly enclosed in metal railings, which close inspection revealed were from an
iron foundry in Brierley Hill, Staffordshire, England. (Similar railings still
enclose the Secretariat Building and the original Maseru Hospital, now part - of
Queen Elizabeth II Hospital.) For more than 50 years, the building was indeed
used as a dispensary, its original character preserved, despite an extension
built on its east side to cater for expanding use.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, the building housed the Department of
Information, and in 1966-7 the fledgling Radio Lesotho was housed in a
prefabricated building at the back. The building's most recent use was to house
the National Blood Transfusion Service.
No prior announcement was made that Maseru was to lose the oldest building on
its main street, Kingsway. The Protection & Preservation Commission, which is
the body legally charged with responsibility for historic buildings, was unable
to act or advise because, although it exists de jure, the terms of office of all
its members have all expired, and the Minister of Culture has neither renewed
the former members nor nominated new members.
With the loss of the Old Dispensary, the Secretariat Building (1911) is now
the oldest building on Kingsway, although a claim might be made on behalf of the
original Maseru Hospital building. This building is no longer accessible
directly from Kingsway because outpatients' and casualty wards have been built
between the building and Kingsway. The old two-storey Maseru Hospital as built
in 1904 with an entrance drive, had 30 beds. The building was expanded to 46
beds in 1910, and was for the time a state-of-the-art modern facility with
electric light and X-ray equipment.
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A complex legal dispute relating to additional costs incurred by companies
during Phase 1 A of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project eventually found its way
to the British House of Lords. Although appeals to the Judicial Committee of the
British Privy Council were abolished as long ago as 1970, in this case the
Appellate Committee of the British House of Lords did indeed hear a
Lesotho-relevant case, Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (Respondents) v.
Impregilo SpA and others (Appellants). The Opinions of five Law Lords were given
on 30 June 2005, and a summary by James Howells was provided in Legal Week of 15
September 2005.
In this particular case, the consortium of seven companies (from Italy,
France, Germany, South Africa and the UK) led by Impregilo, made claims for
additional costs, which in terms of a clause in their contract with the Lesotho
Highlands Development Authority, were submitted to the International Chamber of
Commerce (ICC) for settlement under its rules of conciliation and arbitration.
Three arbitrators were then appointed in accordance with the rules of the ICC.
However the parties agreed to change the seat of arbitration from Geneva and to
change the procedural law from being the law of Lesotho so that the seat of
arbitration would be London and the applicable law would be the English
Arbitration Act 1996 instead of the arbitration law of Lesotho.
The arbitrators in their award determined that the contractor was entitled to
payment for some but not all of claims. Those allowed amounted to some M18
million. However, they then applied the English Arbitration Act 1996 to
determine that the award should be made in pounds sterling and euros, which
increased the real value of the award significantly, because of changes in the
exchange rate. Interest on the sum was also allowed. The LHDA response was to
challenge this on the grounds that the issue of currency of payment was to be
determined by the laws of Lesotho which had governed the original contract.
The matter then went to the English Commercial Court and Court of Appeal
which held that the arbitrators had exceeded their powers. This led to the
consortium to appeal to the House of Lords to the effect that the arbitrators
had not exceeded their powers. The House of Lords, in a 31-page set of Opinions
by the Appellate Committee of Lord Steyn and four other Law Lords, found that
while there had been no excess of power by the arbitrators in the currency
award, there had been an error in law in their decision to make the award in
currencies other than in accordance with the original contract. However this
error was of no significance because the parties in relation to their agreement
to ICC arbitration had already agreed to exclude the right of appeal on a
question of English law!
The appeal in the matter Lesotho Highlands Development Authority
(Respondents) v. Impregilo SpA and others (Appellants) was allowed and it was
ruled that LHDA should pay the costs at each stage.
The case has attracted some interest in legal circles in the UK, because it
was the first decision by the House of Lords to provide an indication of its
approach to arbitration since the English Arbitration Act 1996 had come into
effect. The case is considered to have had far-reaching ramifications for
domestic arbitration in England & Wales as well as for international
arbitrations where the seat of arbitration is in England and Wales.
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The Bureau of Statistics has published National Accounts 1980 - 2004 in a
Statistical Report (no. 8 of 2005) dated 15 August 2005. Within this report are
tables of the Gross Domestic Product, which is the sum of values of goods and
services, and is a
measure of Lesotho economic activity. The GDP is given annually for the years
1980-2004 in constant ¬1995 prices (i.e. prices adjusted to 1995 so that the
impact of inflation is eliminated).
GDP growth rates are around 5% for much of the late 1980s and early
1990s, a time when the population growth rate was around 2.6%, so that there
was a real growth rate per person. However, the disturbances of 1998 caused a
drop from which it took four years to recover. The figures as compiled continue
only to 2004. The impact of the recession in the textile industry as a result of
the ending of the Multifibre Agreement on 1 January 2005 is therefore not shown.
Much of the growth has been as a result of the spectacular expansion of the
textile and clothing industry. This was only 0.4% of the GDP in 1980, had risen
to 1.4% in 1985, to 4.3% in 1990, to 6.9% in 2000 and to 11.6% of the GDP in
2004. A quite different trend is shown by agriculture which contributed 24.6% to
the GDP in 1980,22.8% in 1985,23.8% in 1990,17.8% in 1995,18.6% in 2000 and
17.1% in 2004. The sector with the biggest fluctuations is mining and quarrying,
which is dominated by diamonds. This sector contributed 6.8% in 1980, but only
0.3% in 1985, 0.5% in 1990, 0.1 % in 1995 and 0.1 % again in 2000. With the
opening of Letšeng Mine and other mines being planned, there has been a
resurgence to 2.3% in 2004, with a somewhat higher figure likely for 2005. The
construction industry shows the opposite trend with a peak in the middle of the
period due to the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. The construction industry's
share went from 10.8% of GDP in 1980 to 14.0% in 1985, to 16.7% in 1990, and to
20.4% in 1995, before declining to 18.2% in 2000 and 15.8% in 2004.
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The Road Transport (Amendment) Regulations 2005 published as a Lesotho
Government Gazette Extraordinary on 7 September 2005, introduce new requirements
for passenger vehicles to carry first aid kits with immediate effect. They must
now carry first aid medicines, first aid equipment including oxygen apparatus,
and rubber gloves. Gloves are now essentially items for anyone handling an
injured person because of the high incidence of HIV/AIDS. There is, however, no
stipulation that drivers or conductors have to be trained in using first aid
equipment.
The amount of equipment to be carried is stipulated depending on the number
of passengers. For example a large bus must carry five oxygen sets, and all
vehicles must carry gloves equal to twice the number of passengers.
Four Plus Ones, which seem to be given legal recognition for the first time,
are
'Sedan Cars (4 + 1)'. They now play the role in Lesotho that ordinary taxis
do elsewhere in the world, the word
'taxi', having already been pre-empted for
vehicles, commonly carrying 16 persons and running on regular routes, which
elsewhere would be called minibuses. The name Four Plus One, which is perhaps
now some five years in use, stems from the fact they accommodate four passengers
plus a driver. With effect from December 2005, 4 + 1s must carry distinctive
yellow markings along their sides.
Another regulation introduced is that schoolchildren may not be carried in an
open truck or commercial vehicle. This dangerous practice is apparently still
legal for other kinds of people. Serious accidents with many fatalities are not
unusual when a vehicle carrying, for example, workers or people hitching lifts,
is involved in an accident.
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Lesotho and South Africa on 22 September 2005 signed an agreement at Mohale
Dam for a M53 million Feasibility Study for Phase II of the Lesotho Highlands
Water Project. The study is expected to take two years and will be conducted by
the firm Consult 4 International in partnership with the Lesotho company, Senqu
Engineering, Environment & Development (SEED) Consultants.
As originally envisaged, Phase II will include a major downstream dam below
the confluence of the Senqu and Malibamatso rivers with a pumping system to
augment the Katse Reservoir. Second tunnels parallel to the present Transfer and
Delivery Tunnels were originally envisaged, but may not be necessary, now that
instream flow requirements have reduced the use of the existing tunnels.
The urgency of Phase II has been much reduced by revised and lower
projections for water need in the Gauteng and neighbouring provinces of South
Africa.
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The murder of the mining magnate, Brett Kebble, in Johannesburg on the
evening of 27 September 2005 has had ramifications which may also impact on
Lesotho's mining industry. It was not clear after Kebble's murder whether it had
been a botched car hijacking or a contract killing.
Kebble was variously described in the South African press as a
'swashbuckling
financier' and a
'deal maker extraordinaire'. Not long after graduating in law
from the University of Cape Town in 1988 he joined his father, a mining
engineer, in a series of deals, in which assets from one company were often used
to finance the purchase of shares in another, leading eventually to a Kebble
family empire built around their interests in a number of companies but in
particular in Randgold & Exploration (R & E) and in JCI, a mining and industrial
conglomerate originally founded by Barney barnato more than 100 years ago. Along
the way, Brett Kebble became close friends with a number of senior African
National Congress members and played a major role in the process of Black
Economic Empowerment.
However by 2005, all was not well with the Kebble Empire. In August 2005, R &
E and JCI were suspended by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for late submission
of results, and at the end of the same month Brett Kebble resigned as the Chief
Executive Officer of both companies and also of a third company, Western Areas.
At the time of his death, it was reported that Kebble's business and tax affairs
were being investigated by revenue authorities and that there were also
allegations of fraud.
Of relevance to Lesotho is that the Letšeng diamond mine is co-owned by JCI,
which holds 38 % of the share capital, together with the Black Empowerment
Group, Matodzi Resources (38%), and the Lesotho Government (24%). On the evening
of his death, Kebble was on his way to dinner with Sello Rasethaba, the CEO of
Matodzi Resources. Amongst rumours which emerged in the press, as reported by
Renee Bonorchis in Business Report of 7 October 2005, were that Kebble had been
killed because he was threatening to expose and end the laundering of gemstones
at the Letseng mine. By this time JCI had put its stake in Letseng up for sale.
The allegations brought strong denials both from the CEO of the Letšeng Mine,
the veteran diamond mine manager, Keith Whitelock, who has been associated with
Letseng since 1973. He pointed out that the stones being produced at Letseng
were comparable to its historical production profile, if at a slightly lower
grade. This was backed up by Catherine Telfer, a director of a specialist mining
services consultancy, Venmyn Rand. Venmyn had compared the size frequency
distribution (SFD) of recent parcels of stones with historic production and the
SFD curves were consistent. There was no
'salting or scalping'.
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The Ombudsman, Sekara Mafisa, having already undertaken surveys of Lesotho's
prisons and hospitals, and found conditions appalling, in late September 2005
released an advance report on his findings following an inspection of police
stations of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service.
The report was summarised by both
The Mirror and
The Spectator of 28
September 2005, and includes a finding that almost a1151 police cells inspected
were dirty and insanitary while in a number of police stations, those detained
were inadequately fed or not fed at all. Detainees were kept under &grading and
humiliating conditions, shackled to a variety of objects ranging from rims of
the wheels of lorries to (in the case of the Pitso Ground Police Station in
Maseru) a chain of shopping trolleys. Police uniforms had not been supplied to
new recruits, office space and furniture were inadequate, and some police
stations had neither radios nor motor vehicle transport. Where horses had to be
used in areas without roads, they were not fitted with horseshoes and therefore
could not be used extensively.
A large number of serious inadequacies is reported and for that reason the
Ombudsman had released the Advance Report to the Minister of Home Affairs and
Public Safety, Lesao Lehohla, and the Commissioner of Police, 'Malejaka Letooane,
so that urgent action could be taken.
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The annual revision of minimum wages appeared as the
Labour Code Wages Order
2005 (Legal Notice No. 132 of 2005 in
Lesotho Government Gazette Extraordinary
of Thursday 29 September 2005). It provides for new minimum wages to come into
force on 1 October 2005.
Minimum wages for agricultural workers are no long gazetted and right at the
bottom of the gazetted wages schedule are domestic workers whose minimum monthly
wage rises from M221 to M230, an increase of 4.1 % (but still less than a third
of the minimum wage for this category in South Africa). Workers in small
businesses (those, such as village shops, with not more than two employees) have
a rise of 5.9% from M440 to M466.
In manufacturing industry, the minimum wages have risen from M621to M643 per
month for a trainee and for a
'textile general worker' and from M650 to M686 for
a trained textile machine operator, respectively rises of 3.5% and 5.5%. The
latter reflects a 5.5% increase negotiated earlier in the year between the
Lesotho Textile Exporters Association (LTEA) and the Factory Workers Union (FAWU),
although it seems that trainees have received a lower increase.
Workers in the construction industry have generally higher wage increases,
for example the minimum wage for a construction worker is now M794 compared with
M722 a year ago, a rise of 10.0%, while the minimum for a construction machine
operator has risen from M1257 to M 1400, a rise of 11.4%. This no doubt
reflects the relative mobility of such workers and the need to retain their
skills. Those in the wholesale and retail sector, hospitality sector and service
sector, by comparison, have only received rises of approximately 5.0%.
Overall the
'general minimum wage' is now M673, although of course employers
are entitled to pay lower wages to several categories listed elsewhere in the
Order.
The
Order
provides some relief for those on maternity leave. They are now
entitled to two weeks paid maternity leave after one year's continuous service
with the same employer. However, this benefit is limited to two confinements.
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The National University of Lesotho held its 30th Convocation for the award of
degrees, certificates and diplomas on Saturday 1 October 2005.
Honorary doctorates were awarded to two distinguished Basotho musician
composers, Karabo Eric Lekhanya and Nkau J. Lepheana.
A record 840 earned degrees were awarded, a 43% increase from the previous
year. All but five of the degrees were bachelor's degrees. Of these the
overwhelming majority 593 (71.0%) received Second Class Second Division Passes
(commonly known as Lower Seconds, 2: 2s or 'Desmonds'). There were 23 First
Class Passes (2.8%); 102 Second Class First Division Passes (Upper Seconds or 2:
1s) (12.2%) and 122 managed just a Pass degree (14.0%). The largest number of
First Classes (10) were in the BA in the Faculty of Social Sciences, followed by
8 in the BEd (Primary Education), 4 in BEd and 1 in BSc.
The five graduate degrees included four Master's degrees (one in Humanities,
one in Social Sciences and two in Economics), and also the University's first
PhD degree, awarded to Richwell Leutloela Nkoale in the Faculty of Education's
Department of Language and Social Education. His thesis topic was
Management of
the subject panels responsible for the formulation of syllabus innovation
packages for the secondary and high schools in Lesotho.
The large increase in the number of degrees was to some extent accounted for
by the award for the first time of the BEd (Primary) degree to 169 head teachers
and senior staff of primary schools. They had pursued a part-time programme of the Faculty of Education coordinated by
the Institute of Education over a period of some six years, and there will not
be another graduating cohort
in this programme for some time.
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Lesotho has an Indian Association, which has gained in strength as the result
of an increasing number of linkages between Lesotho and India, including aid in
the form of a Indian Army Training Team of some 15 officers who work with the
Lesotho Defence Force. Amongst their achievements have been the training of a
pipes and drums band, and the preparation of Basotho soldiers to participate in
peacekeeping duties elsewhere in Africa. There are also many teachers from India
in Lesotho schools, including the international school, Machabeng College, which
has an Indian Principal, Mr Christopher Philip, who is currently President of
the Indian Association of Lesotho.
For a number of years, the observance of India Day has become an important
celebration in Lesotho, but in 2005 the occasion was moved to coincide with the
136th anniversary of the birth of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The all-day
celebrations for
Gandhi's Birthday took place on Sunday 2 October in the banqueting hall of the Maseru Sun Hotel, and amongst the
guests of honour was Dr Sumitra Talukdar, a retired Associate Professor
of Biology at the National University of Lesotho. She was the only one present
who had actually met Mahatma Gandhi. She told how she had marvelled how the
Mahatma could, according to his regular daily schedule, lie down on the floor
and take a nap in the middle of a Congress Working Committee Meeting. Afterwards
he looked quite refreshed. When he spoke to her, and found she was a schoolgirl,
he urged her to share her education with those who did not have the same
opportunity. She had tried to do this throughout her life.
After Sumitra Talukdar had lit the ceremonial lamp before a portrait of
Gandhi, it was garlanded by tile Chief Guest, Lesotho's Chief Justice, His
Lordship Mahapela Lehohla. Justice Lehohla spoke at some length about Gandhi's
remarkable life and ideals.
The programme which followed included a variety of entertainment, some of
which would have amazed the Mahatma, including not only Indian classical song
and dance, but re-enactment of Bollywood dance routines and a fashion show of
both Indian and Lesotho
haute couture. There were some 300 guests present and
there was something for every taste, including the many children present, many
of whom also performed.
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The by-election in the Qalo Constituency to find a replacement for the late
Mopshatla Mabitle was held on Saturday 8 October 2005. It was won by the Lesotho
Congress for Democracy candidate,
'Makhaketla Leipa, who received 986 votes. She
becomes the 12th woman member of the National Assembly, so that women now have
exactly 10% of the seats.
Second place in the election went to an independent candidate, Gilbert
Mapulutsoane Hanese, with 461 votes. Only two other political parties contested
the by-election, the Patriotic Front for Democracy whose candidate, Thabang
Linus Kholumo, received 291 votes; and the National Independent Party whose
candidate, Mazenod Serame Khampepe received 161 votes. There were three other
independent candidates, Amos Haleokoe Tshabalala with 269 votes; Motseki
Nephtali Lenyeta with 34 votes; and Temoho Joseph Kata with just 5 votes. Those
who voted were 30.9% of registered voters in the constituency.
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A memorial service was held at the National University of Lesotho on Thursday
20 October 2005 for three members of the academic staff who had died within a
few days of each other.
Artwell Gumbo, a Lecturer in Law from Zimbabwe, had died on 29 September 2005
after a relatively short illness. He was 43 years old, and had only relatively
recently joined the university.
Sam Maqelepo, a long time Senior Lecturer in Physics, affectionately known to
students as 'Mosuoe' (the teacher), had been with university since 1977. He died
on 4 October aged 63, after several years of intermittent illness, and was
buried at his home at Thuathe in Berea District on 22 October.
Robson Silitshena, Professor of Geography, died on 5 October 2005 in
Bloemfontein, where he was being treated for a heart condition. His association
with the University had begun in 1972 when he joined the Botswana Campus of what
was then the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. He remained in
Botswana until 1997, and then worked at Africa University in his own country of
Zimbabwe, before joining NUL in 2004. He was buried at his home near Bulawayo on
8 October 2005.
At the service, tributes were paid to all three staff members who in
different ways had made significant contributions to the life and work of the
university.
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A severe hailstorm on the afternoon of Friday 7 October 2005 swept across the
south-eastern suburbs of Maseru, parts of the Thuathe Plateau and on to villages
west of Thaba-Bosiu such as Boqate Ha Majara. The stones were described as the
size of golf balls, and smashed windows in many houses. Many of the houses
affected were the same ones that had lost roofs in the windstorm of Wednesday 6
September. Large numbers of cars had their bodywork dented, and some had their
windscreens smashed. Some livestock on the Thuathe Plateau are reported to have
been killed by the hail, but there were no reported human casualties. As
reported in
Public Eye of 14 October 2005,
'more than 513' Maseru houses lost
their windows creating a minor boom for hardware stores in providing replacement
glass.
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As reported by nearly all Lesotho newspapers in headlines, the German
football coach,
Tony Hey, was finally dismissed as the Lesotho national soccer
coach after a disciplinary hearing on Friday 7 October 2005. The hearing found
Hey guilty of insubordination, absence without leave and misconduct. Hey did not
attend the hearing, and had refused to attend any meetings until his salary,
which had been frozen, was released.
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The settlement of Mazenod, 13 km south of Maseru, is named after Eugene de
Mazenod, the early nineteenth century founder of the missionary order of Oblates
of Mary Immaculate. A large site was allocated to the Catholic Church in 1931
adjoining the village of Ha Paki. It has subsequently been developed into the
headquarters of the church in Lesotho, the site including a printing press,
retreat house, bookshop, training college (today a high school) and the oblate
cemetery. With the growth of employment opportunities, Mazenod has today become
a small town. The French pronunciation
Ma-si-noh' has long been abandoned
locally, and the town is pronounced as if it is spelt in English, or in a
Sesothoized form, as
Masinoto.
In October, the Mazenod community was shocked by two events which received
wide coverage in the Lesotho media. In the first incident on 10 October, two
girls aged 16, who were close friends, committed suicide by drinking poison. A
large joint funeral was held on Saturday 5 November.
In the second incident, it was reported by newspapers that two female
teachers at the Catholic Mazenod High School had been arrested under the
Sexual
Offences Act 2003. It was alleged that they had kidnapped a boy from the school,
aged 15, and held him for two days over the weekend 29-30 October, during which
time they had showed him a pornographic video and then forced him to carry out
similar sexual activities on themselves. The matter had come to light when
another teacher had asked the boy why he was so tired in class on the Monday
morning. According to the newspapers, the teachers were arrested, charged and
released, and according to the principal of the school, Sister Rosalea Khanyane,
both teachers resigned their positions at the school within a week.
Newspapers treated this second incident with banner headlines such as
'Rape'
(for example,
Public Eye of 11 November 2005). However, the reality of what
happened seems to have been very different, and is set out in a newspaper with a
much smaller circulation, the police newspaper,
Leseli ka Sepolesa, in its issue
of 18 November 2005. The newspaper's reporter, Thabiso Thaanyane, interviewed
the boy, one of the teachers, the high school principal, and the woman police
officer in charge of the investigation. The boy is an orphan who only recently
lost both his parents. According to the police newspaper report, the boy
admitted to having had a love affair with one of the teachers. He had been
invited by her to a party at the home of another teacher, and had stayed there
for the weekend until on the Sunday night, when all three were sleeping under
blankets, the teacher who had invited him kissed him, after which they had
sexual relations while the other teacher was sleeping. When he arrived at school
the morning after, other teachers, apparently suspecting something was wrong,
questioned him until he agreed to tell them what had happened. There was no
question of his having been shown any indecent pictures as had been reported in
newspaper articles.
The teacher who had seduced the boy independently confirmed what was
essentially the same story. She said that indecent films only appeared on
television on Saturday nights and that what had occurred had been on Sunday
night. She said that she was ashamed that what had happened had come out, and
had not known that the boy was much younger than she thought. There was,
however, no question of rape. What had happened was consensual sex.
The headmistress largely confirmed this same story had been reported to her,
and said that what had happened had occurred not long after the pupils had been
warned that they were more interested in love affairs than school work.
Finally Sergeant 'Mamojela Letsie of the police unit dealing with sexual
abuse added that a case had been opened against one teacher because of the boy's
age. She indicated that after news of the incident had become known, the school
pupils had toyi-toyied against the boy and the teacher and had even planned to
kill them by setting them on fire. However, the school management had defused
the situation.
While the teacher central to the incident has certainly breached the Teaching
Service Regulations her guilt within criminal law would seem to depend on the
age of the boy. While most newspapers reported it to be 1 5 years, the police
report stated 16 years, while the boy himself said he had told the teacher that
he was 19 years because the teacher was 9 years older than him. Under the
Sexual
Offences Act 2003, and on the basis of the admitted facts, the teacher would
have only committed an offence if the boy was under 16.
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As reported in
Mololi
of 20 October 2005, the Ambassador of the Republic of
China, Mr Qiu Bohua on 14 October 2005 presented to the Lesotho Parliament for
the use of its members and staff 48 desktop computers, 4 laptops, together with
printers, scanners and projectors.
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The British High Commissioner to South Africa,
His Excellency Mr Paul Boateng,
presented his credentials as High Commissioner to His Majesty King Letsie III on
20 October 2005. Britain no longer has a High Commission in Lesotho and is
served from Pretoria.
In mid-November Paul Boateng was back in Maseru, chairing a meeting of
ambassadors and other representatives of European Union missions. In an
interview, reported by
Public Eye of 25 November 2005, Mr Boateng indicated that
reform was needed for poverty reduction in Lesotho, and that Britain was working
with Lesotho to get a positive outcome from the World Trade Organization meeting
in Hong Kong, so that it makes provision for Africa to be able to trade
globally.
The EU representatives were also addressed by the Minister of Finance,
Timothy Thahane and the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mpho Malie. Points made
were that Lesotho was streamlining procedures to attract foreign direct
investment, and that Lesotho was experiencing problems from the Southern African
Customs Union, which was negotiating a Free Trade Area agreement which would
result in Lesotho losing the advantage of its one-way trade preferential
advantage under the US
African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
During his second visit, Paul Boateng signed a bilateral UK-Lesotho agreement
on prisoner¬related issues. Neither the text nor a summary of this Agreement was
reported by the press, and like other bilateral and multilateral treaties and
agreements will be hard to access, because such agreements and treaties are not
printed in the
Lesotho Government Gazette.
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The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security,
Dr Rakoro Phororo, was
reported in Public Eye of 21 October 2005 to have announced in Parliament that
Government had bought 200 tractors from India. 100 would be used by soldiers
trained in tractor use and agriculture, and the other 100 would be sold at
subsidized prices. The tractors were estimated to be worth some M240 000 and
would be sold at M100 000 less to
bona fide farmers.
The Minister also announced the preparation of an irrigation master plan,
being developed with assistance from Indian experts. To be successful this plan
will need to come up with some new and hitherto unthought of approaches.
Irrigation in Lesotho so far has had a long and chequered history since
Independence, with many donor-funded projects but little to show for the money
invested.
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Chief Makhaola Nkau Lerotholi, a former diplomat and Basotho National Party
politician, died after a long illness at his home at Baruting on the Thuathe
Plateau on 25 October 2005. He was 69.
The son of Chief Moiphepi Lerotholi, Makhaola Lerotholi grew up in the family
of his father's older brother, Chief Nkuebe Nkau Lerotholi, who was the Chief of
Hloahloeng Ha Nkau, a remote part of the Phamong Ward of Mohale's Hoek District.
It was this ward of Hloahloeng and Topa, near to the confluence of the Senqu and
Senqunyane, that Makhaola Lerotholi was himself later to administer, although
mainly while residing elsewhere.
Makhaola Lerotholi attended primary school at Hloahloeng, and later attended
Morija Training College, Basutoland High School, and the University of
Basutoland, Bechuanaland Protectorate and Swaziland at Roma. His leadership
qualities at Roma were recognized by his fellow students who elected him
President of the Students Representative Council. However, in the heady days
leading to Independence he led the students into a confrontation with the
university administration. There was a strike and major disruption of normal
activities. A Commission of Inquiry recommended his dismissal.
However, this turn of events did not significantly disadvantage Makhaola
Lerotholi, because his close relationship with the then Basotho National Party
resulted in his being nominated for a course at Oxford University, in
preparation for a diplomatic career. On his return, he did indeed serve as High
Commissioner to Kenya and as Lesotho Representative at the United Nations.
Subsequently he served in the government of Leabua Jonathan in a number of roles
including as a cabinet minister.
In later years Chief Makhaola Lerotholi farmed on the Thuathe Plateau,
benefiting, as also did some military councillors, from goods and services
freely available through Coop Lesotho which had lax controls over payments. The
corrupt practices within Coop Lesotho came to an abrupt end when Coop Lesotho
itself collapsed on 19 March 1993. The subsequent Report of the
Commission of
Inquiry into Co-operatives headed by Mr Justice M. L. Lehohla provided evidence
of what had gone wrong and implicated amongst others Chief Makhaola Lerotholi,
although there was no subsequent legal action.
Although he distanced himself from the subsequent leadership of the BNP,
Makhaola Lerotholi remained politically active to the extent that he stood in
the Maseru Constituency as an Independent in the 1998 General Election. He
received only 28 votes, 0.3% of the total.
One of his more recent activities was to write
'The politics of instability:
the effect of party politics on nation-building in Lesotho'. This article, which
largely defended the historical role of the Basotho National Party, was
published in the British periodical,
The Parliamentarian, vol. 83, no. 3 (2002),
pp. 272-276.
A man of urbane disposition and polished manners, Chief Makhaola Lerotholi
was married in 1963 to Motheba Matlanyane of Mount Moorosi. Amongst four
children, one of his two daughters was uniquely named 'MaOxford, commemorating
her father's translation from UBBS to a more august academic institution.
As reported in Leselinyana la Lesotho of 23 November 2005, the funeral was
held at Thuathe on Saturday 5 November 2005 and was attended by His Majesty King
Letsie III and Queen 'Masenate Seeiso; by the Prime Minister and his wife; and
by numerous ministers, chiefs and friends.
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One of the founder members of the first modern political movement in Lesotho,
the Basutoland African Congress,
Shakhane Robong Mokhehle, died on 26 October
2005 at the Maseru Private Hospital after collapsing in a coma in his garden at
Teyateyaneng. He had suffered from diabetes for some years and was aged 78.
Shakhane Mokhehle was born on 14 September 1927 to a family of the
bahlalefi,
the group of Basotho in the colonial period who had embraced and benefited from
western education. His father, Cicerone Mokhehle, commonly known as 'Mohlahlobi'
from his occupation, was one of the first two Basotho education inspectors (the
other was Stephen Pinda) and amongst things he is remembered for is the
introduction of sundials in schools that had no clocks. Cicerone Mokhehle had
five daughters and five sons, of whom the first, Maoba William Mokhehle
(1911-69), a World War II veteran, became the first Mosotho magistrate in the
1960s; while the sixth child and third son, Ntsu Mokhehle (1918-99) became
founder and leader successively of the Basutoland African Congress (BAC), the
Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) and the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD).
Cheated of victory in the 1970 election when the outgoing prime minister seized
power, he spent a year in gaol and then many years in exile before returning to
Lesotho in advance of the restoration of democracy. He became Prime Minister
after a BCP landslide victory in the 1993 elections.
Shakhane Robong Mokhehle, as his middle name suggests, was Number Nine (later
a popular designation which he suffered from the press) in the family sequence.
He was separated from Ntsu Mokhehle by three older sisters, two of whom became
nurses in South Africa while the third, 'Malejapoli, trained as a domestic
science teacher at St Matthew's, Keiskammahoek, worked at the well-known Langa
High School in Cape Town, and later married the prominent and successful trader
E. Lesoli of Ha Sekake in Qacha's Nek District.
Shakhane, also known to friends as
'Shakes', spent much of his early life in
South Africa. After primary education at Ha Mokhehle and Peka Intermediate
School in Lesotho, he attended high school at the Methodist Healdtown
Institution, near Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape, and became a bookkeeper. He
worked briefly for the colonial government in Basutoland before joining his
sister, 'Malejapoli, in Cape Town, where he got a job in a factory and gained
trade union experience. Shortly after becoming a founder member of the
Basutoland African Congress in 1952 (his brother Ntsu was the Leader), he formed
a Cape Town branch of the BAC, to which he recruited as member, G. M. Kolisang,
who was a colleague of his sister's teaching at Langa High School.
Back in Lesotho, Shakhane became active in the fledgling trade union
movement. It had only been in 1952 that the first trade union, the Basutoland
Typographical Workers' Union had been registered. The third such union,
registered was the Basutoland National Union of Artisans in 1953 and Shakhane
became its secretary in 1956. In 1962, when the Basutoland Federation of Labour
was formed to coordinate the by then seven trade unions, Shakhane Mokhehle
became its secretary.
Meanwhile, Shakhane had been appointed to the Executive Committee of the BAC
at the end of 1958, and also became Treasurer of the Fundraising Committee of
the party. Together with G. M. Kolisang who was secretary, Jack Mosiane who was
Chairman and some prominent lady members, the Fundraising Committee embarked on
concerts and stockfels (fundraising cooperatives), and had soon raised £2000, a
handsome sum at the time. Shakhane's success in this venture, together with his
bookkeeping experience, made him a few years later a natural choice as party
treasurer, when Charles Chakela, the then treasurer defected to the Marematlou
Freedom Party.
Meanwhile with constitutional changes, new District Councils and the
Legislative Council were elected in 1960. By this time the BAC had renamed
itself the BCP and Shakhane became a BCP member of both the Maseru District
Council and of the Legislative Council, where he was party spokesman on labour
matters. In 1965 he was elected Member of Parliament for the Maseru constituency
with 4669 votes, his labour associations helping him to convincingly defeat the
BNP candidate who received 876 votes and the former BAC politician, B. M.
Khaketla, who received only 223 votes. He was re-elected to Parliament in 1970,
this time for Malubalube Constituency, only to suffer the same fate as other
successful BCP candidates, namely to be arrested and held without trial after a
state of emergency had been declared by Leabua Jonathan on the flimsiest of
excuses, indeed for no other reason than that he had been defeated in the
election.
Shakhane spent much of 1970-1 in gaol and was arrested again in 1974 when an
attempt to reverse the 1970 coup failed. For most of the next 15 years he was in
exile, but in anticipation of the restoration of democracy he returned to
Lesotho in 1989. He became MP for Teyateyaneng (near where the village of Ha
Mokhehle is situated) in 1993, and was re-elected with a large majority in 1998
(he got 69.9% of the votes, despite competition from a former cabinet colleague,
now in opposition, Khauhelo Deborah Raditapole).
In the period 1993 to 2001, Shakhane played a pivotal role in party politics
which shaped Lesotho's political history. His cabinet posts were Minister of
Trade, Industry, Labour & Employment (1993-4); Minister of Trade & Industry
(1994-6); Minister of Natural Resources (1996-8); Minister of Works & Transport
(1998-9); and Minister of Justice & Constitutional Affairs (1999-2001).
However, it was within the party structures that he played a larger and more
controversial role. At the time of the restoration of democracy in 1993, he was
party General Secretary, but was relieved of the post in favour of G. M.
Kolisang in December 1994, after problems of accounting for funds. His
replacement by Kolisang led to an uprising by younger members who supported
Shakhane, and in September 1995 there was a rebellion which led to their taking
over the BCP office in Maseru. The rebellion was only quelled by the Prime
Minister, Ntsu Mokhehle, himself.
The Shakhane faction appeared to have regained control of key party positions
at a party conference in March 1996 (but the elections were later annulled by
the High Court), and the party divided into two factions, popularly known as 'Majelathoko',
led by Shakhane, and the 'Maporesha' or
'Pressure Group', then led by Molapo
Qhobela, who opposed him. Matters came to a head in January 1997 when at the
party conference, the Maporesha view prevailed and the party voted to expel Ntsu
Mokhehle from the party leadership. This led to a split where Ntsu Mokhehle and
most of the parliamentary members of the BCP survived by creating a new party,
the Lesotho Congress for Democracy.
Meanwhile, Ntsu Mokhehle, was in poor health, and indeed so ill that in July
1996, Shakhane Mokhehle had for a time been appointed Acting Prime Minister. At
the end of 1997, when Ntsu Mokhehle indicated that as a result of ill health he
could no longer continue as party leader, he also indicated that he favoured his
brother as successor. However, the February 1998 Party Conference chose
Pakalitha Mosisili as Leader of the Party (and consequently Prime Minister).
Shakhane was appointed the party General Secretary.
However, even LCD party unity became strained. It became clear that it too
had a Shakhane faction popularly known as 'Lesiba', in opposition to the
Mosisili group known as
'Sehlopha'. After Shakhane lost the General
Secretaryship of the LCD by a few votes in January 2001, and also lost his
cabinet position in July 2001, the stage was set for further party fissiparity.
He became one of its leading members when the Lesotho People's Congress (LPC)
under Kelebone Maope, the former Deputy Prime Minister, was registered in
October 2001. Such is the voters' allegiance to parties rather than to candidates that Shakhane lost his seat in the 2002 elections by just 9 votes
to the LCD candidate in the same constituency. This led to the LCD party
newspaper sporting the headline
LCD e
hlola Robong ka robong ('LCD beats Nine
by nine'). Shakhane (like Maope, who
did retain his seat) was so confident that
he would win that he was not on the LPC's roll of proportional representation
candidates. Thus the 2002 election resulted in enforced parliamentary
retirement.
As a person, Shakhane Mokhehle was characteristically forthright even to the
extent of being abrasive. However, he nevertheless had the knack of working with
colleagues and even opponents.
A memorial service for Shakhane Mokhehle was held at the Anglican St James
Cathedral in Maseru on Wednesday 26 October, and his funeral and interment were
held at St Agnes Mission, Teyateyaneng in wet weather on Saturday 29 October
2005. Many of the arrangements for these services were undertaken by the tenth
of Cicerone Mokhehle's children, Rev. Thaele Mokhehle, who had become first a
teacher and then an Anglican priest. (In naming his last son, Cicerone had
chosen for him the name of one of the first Basotho graduates, James Thaele, who
completed his degree at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in the USA in 1917.)
Shakhane Mokhehle is survived by his wife, 'Malisema (the former 'Matsie
Makhoalinyane) by whom he had two sons and two daughters. He is also survived by
one of these sons, by his two daughters and four grandchildren.
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One of the few remaining Canadian oblate missionaries,
Father Vital Bernier
OMI, died at the Maseru Private Hospital on 28 October 2005. He was 77.
Father Bernier came to Lesotho in 1955 and served for many years (1956-66) at
St Augustine's Seminary, Roma, where he was Rector, 1961-66. He later served at
Gethsemane Mission in Berea District and at St James Mission in Mokhotlong
District, 1968-70. In 1970, Archbishop Morapeli made him Bursar of the
Archdiocese and Rector of Our Lady of Victories in Maseru, positions which he
held for more than 30 years. As the Catholic Church's
économe, in charge of
finances, he held a key position in the administration serving in the same
capacity also under Archbishop Bernard Mohlalisi.
His funeral was held at Mazenod on Saturday 5 November 2005 and was attended
by some seventy priests. As reported in
Moeletsi oa Basotho of 13 November 2005,
Bishop Evaristus Bitsoane spoke at the funeral on behalf of the Lesotho Catholic
Bishops' Conference and stated
Baa fokola ba mofuta oa Moprista Bernier
(People
like Father Bernier are now getting very scarce). He went on to say that when he
tried to look everywhere for the Canadian missionaries, both priests and nuns,
who had lived with them in the past, he found that they were no more there.
Father Bernier was interred in the oblate cemetery where indeed for the past
50 years many fellow French Canadian oblate priests have been buried. Most
earlier oblate missionary priests and brothers were French rather than French
Canadian and were buried in the missions where they died, including 18 at Roma,
3 at Sion (Mapoteng), 3 at St Gabriel (Sebapala), 3 at St Joseph (Koro-Koro) and
one each at eight other missions.
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Bereng Seeiso Griffiths Api was installed by His Majesty King Letsie III on
Friday 28 October 2005 as the new Principal Chief of Ramabanta. He replaces his
father Chief Seeiso Griffiths Api who died on 13 September 2004. His older
brother, Leshoboro Seeiso Griffiths Api might have been expected to succeed to
the Principal Chieftainship, but he predeceased his father in 2003.
The Principal Chief of Ramabanta (or Kubake and Ha Ramabanta as it is
officially known) presides over one of the smallest and least developed of
Lesotho's Principal Chieftaincies. The area has no tarred road and no
electricity supply.
The Ward has also one of the highest turnovers of Principal Chiefs. Principal
Chief Mathealira Api died in October 1999. He was succeeded first as Acting
Principal Chief by his widow, 'Mantšebo Mathealira Api until his nephew Seeiso
Griffith Api was installed by King Letsie III on Friday 12 October 2001. Chief
Seeiso reigned for less than two years before he died, and almost three years
after his installation, his younger son has now been installed in his place.
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A sign which was erected on the main road through Roma during the first week
of November 2005 reads NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LESOTHO SOUTHERN CAMPUS. It leaves
no doubt that the National University of Lesotho has acquired the full use of
the grounds and buildings of the former St Theresa's Seminary, although it seems
possible that at present it is leasing them from the Catholic Church rather than
having acquired the site through purchase. So far NUL's use of the site has been
for agricultural activities such as cultivating fields and grazing its herd of
cows. Some of the better kept buildings have also been adapted and brought into
use as student hostel accommodation.
St Theresa's, although replete with religious imagery and including a shrine
re-enacting St Bernadette's vision at Lourdes, was secularised once before in
the past. It was leased to the film company making the film American Ninja IV in
December 1989. The statues of the Madonna were covered up and barbed wire
unrolled all around, and the seminary was reincarnated briefly as the
'Dragon
Fort'.
The problem for the university authorities now will be whether they can make
modifications or repairs to the site if it is merely being leased. A great many
of the 20 or so buildings have potential uses, but are in a bad state of repair.
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The Durham-Lesotho Link had its origins in 1965 when the Principal of St
Hild's College, Durham, Nina Joachim, spent a sabbatical 6 months at the
Institute of Education at the then University of Basutoland, Bechuanaland
Protectorate and Swaziland in Roma. St Hild's was then a teacher training
college for women reading for degrees at Durham university, and
arising from
this first contact, a UK Ministry of Overseas Development project supported an
annual visitation of Durham tutors. In conjunction with the Lesotho Ministry of
Education, they undertook upgrading courses for primary sc,hool teachers
(1966-73); headteachers' orientation courses (1968-71); an Experimental Schools'
Project involving 12 strategically located primary schools; and eventually in
1975 the initiation of teachers' centres in Hlotse, Maseru and Mohale's
Hoek.
Because St Hild's (which since 1975 has become the Durham University College
of St Hild and St Bede) was an Anglican foundation, the early contacts resulted
in close ties being developed between the Anglican Dioceses of Durham and
Lesotho. Amongst the St Hild's staff who had worked in Lesotho since 1973 was Dr
Peter Green, Vice-Principal of St Hild's, and he was instrumental, in
conjunction with the Bishops of Durham and Lesotho, in creating the formal
Lesotho-Durham Link in May 1986. Since that date, there has been a wide exchange
of people between the dioceses, and at the Lesotho end Link-sponsored projects
have included a new Village Health Centre at Popa near Mantšonyane; a Community
Education Centre at Ha Mohatlane in Berea District; and a Youth Activities
Project involving all sorts of ventures ranging from kayaking on rivers and
creating a fibreglass workshop to working with street children and establishing
cricket in high schools. From November 1990 to March 2002, the Link sponsored a
newsletter, 'Moho Together, which ran to 23 issues.
More recently, Link news has been featured in the brightly coloured newspaper
of the Diocese of Durham, Durham Newslink, and in the November- December 2005
issue, the story is told of a recent month-long visit to Lesotho by eleven
sixth-formers and three teachers from Durham High School for Girls. During their
time in Lesotho, the girls worked with AIDS orphans in Leribe and Maseru,
participating with them in the learning of new skills such as abseiling and
canoeing. The link has an annual service, held this year at St Alban's Church,
Gateshead. A photograph taken after the service shows the Bishop of Durham;
Lesotho's new High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, HRH Prince Seeiso Bereng
Seeiso and his wife, Princess 'Mabereng Seeiso; and five of the Durham High
School sixth-formers.
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As reported in
Public Eye of 4 November 2005, four immigration officers
appeared in the Maseru Magistrate's Court on Friday 27 October 2005. Their
appearance was a sequel to arrests in August, which took some days to effect
when the police arrived with warrants, but the staff in question, although
suspended from work, refused to leave their offices.
The four who appeared were Pule Kamohi, 30, of Abia, a senior accountant; '
Mamorena Oliphant, 41, of Sefikeng, also a senior accountant; Thakane Kotelo,
40, an immigration officer, of Upper Thamae; and Tanki Josiel Letsie, 33, an
assistant immigration officer, of Menkhoaneng Ha Letuma. The charge relates to
illegal collection of a levy from Chinese citizens who were issued with
residence permits, a levy which was in fact not passed onto the government.
The four accused were released on bail of M2 000 each.
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A web offset press was installed at Mohalalitoe in Maseru late in 2004 by
Bethuel Thai, owner of
Public Eye. It initially had teething problems due to
lack of operating skills, and these took some months to sort out. However, by
mid-2005 all was well, and not only was
Public Eye being printed in full colour
inside Lesotho instead of in South Africa, but other newspapers were taking
advantage of what was now called Total Print House (Pty) Ltd. Amongst papers
which adopted colour for the first time were
The Mirror,
Mopheme and a
short-lived free advertising publication called
Business Voice.
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The Tenth Conference of Commonwealth Speakers and Presiding Officers of the
African Region was held in Maseru from 2 to 5 November 2005. The Conference was
attended by representatives of 17 African countries including Lesotho's Speaker
of the National Assembly, Ntlhoi Motsamai and her South African counterpart,
Baleka Mbete, who are the only women speakers in Africa.
The National Assembly adjourned on Tuesday 1 November 2005, and did not
resume until Monday 14 November, the long break not only allowing the Speaker
and Deputy Speaker to attend the Conference but also allowing parliamentarians
to participate in the Smart Partnership Dialogue in Maseru on 10 to 12 November
2005.
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The death occurred on 5 November 2005 at the age of 77 of
Chief Alexander
Maama Mafefooane Maama, the Chief of Roma. His area, known as Qhobosheaneng,
extended from Mahlanyeng where the Trading Post Guest House is situated, to the
village of Ha Mafefooane itself, and included the National University's main
campus, its new Southern Campus, and a large number of Catholic mission
institutions including Roma Mission, St Mary's High School, Christ the King High
School, three seminaries and St Joseph's Hospital. The village of Ha Mafefooane,
was Moreneng, the residence of the chief, but it has been known to generations
of particularly earlier male university students as City Mafefs, a traditional
entertainment centre just some 2.5 km from the university gate.
The village of Ha Mafefooane was originally known as Ha Tsunyane and Ha Chopo,
from two Bahlakoana headmen, father and son, who administered adjoining parts of
the first small settlement there some 100 years ago. The name Ha Tsunyane
survives for the farther part of Ha Mafefooane, but since 1918, when Mafefooane
was placed there as chief, the part closer to the mission area became known as
Ha Mafefooane. Mafefooane himself was the fourth son in the senior house of
Chief Maama Letsie, who in turn had been placed in the Roma area, at the village
now known as Popa Ha Maama Aupolasi, about 1878. Mafefooane was one of the 32
male children born from the 15 wives of Chief Maama, and he owed his name
`someone who is blown about a little [by the wind]' from his delicate
disposition as a child. Nevertheless he survived to a good age and was Chief of
Qhobosheaneng until his death in the early 1960s. His choice of Qhobosheaneng as
the name for his chiefdom was influenced by his wish to ensure that the whole
western part of the valley was included in his chiefdom, an area which included
the original Qhobosheane ea Mohale, 'Mohale's fortress', now commonly known as
Sehlaba-sa-Roma or the Roma Plateau. Mohale, the brother of King Moshoeshoe had
occupied this area c. 1829-34 towards the end of the Lifaqane, and the grooves
in the sandstone rocks where his warriors had sharpened their spears can still
be seen on the plateau.
Maama Mafefooane Maama, who had the same name, Alexander, as his warrior
grandfather, Chief Maama, was born in 1928 at his great-uncle's village,
Matelile Ha Seeiso in Mafeteng District. He attended school at Roma College, the
forerunner of the present Christ the King High School. He later worked in South
Africa, and on his return to Lesotho worked for the postal service at both Morija and Roma, where he was Postmaster. He also later worked for the National
University of Lesotho as Transport Officer. He assumed the Chieftainship of
Qhobosheane in the late 1950s, when his elderly father handed over the
responsibility to him.
In 1986 he was one of a group of Basotho, including principal chiefs, who
were chosen to visit the United States. Also, when the mayors of five towns
called Roma or Rome around the world were invited on 21 April 1997 to celebrate
the 2750th anniversary of the foundation of Rome in Italy, those who represented
Roma in Lesotho were both the traditional Chief, Chief Maama Mafefooane
Maama,
and the Chairman of Roma's Village Development Council, Mr Tefo Moeketse.
Chief Maama Mafefooane Maama was buried at Roma after a large funeral on
Saturday 26 November 2005. Of three children, only the older son, Seeiso,
survives, the younger son, Matete, having died tragically in a car crash some
years ago. Chief Maama is also survived by four grandchildren and 2
great-grandchildren.
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`Smart partnership' is a concept pioneered in Malaysia in 1993 in which all
parties - government, labour, industry and neighbouring countries - are meant to
benefit from development. Malaysia has been keen that other countries might
replicate the success achieved there, and as a result a series of conferences or
`dialogues' have been held to which heads of state have been invited in
attractive venues.
Lesotho has sent a high level delegation including its Prime Minister to many
of these dialogues, for example the Victoria Falls Conference in Zimbabwe, which
coincided with Lesotho's Independence anniversary celebrations in October 1999.
The South African President, Thabo Mbeki, who was present at the same
Conference, made the point at that time that the conferences were becoming
talking shops without action on implementing decisions.
Concerned that smart partnership dialogues were being held outside Lesotho
with little happening inside the country, on 10 November 2003, Lesotho launched
its own 30-person
'Smart Partnership Hub'. At the launch, the Prime Minister
stated that
'Smart Partnership is based on sharing visions and values, ethical
commitment, trust, transparency and a sense of community and cooperative
competition'. The subsequent achievements of this Hub do not seem to have been
made widely known.
In 2005, it was Lesotho's turn to host the 16th dialogue. The chosen venue
was a special
'Dialogue Village' erected on open land to the south-east of the 'Manthabiseng
Conference Centre adjoining the Maseru Relief Road and the main south road out
of Maseru. With M26 million budgeted for the Dialogue (some M2 million of which
came from the local private sector), preparations included engaging a South
African contractor to erect a series of 18 large marquees, and the construction
of thatched rondavels to give the event a Lesotho flavour. At the same time,
some of the defects of central Maseru were remedied, so that Makoanyane
(Hobson's) Square was given a face-lift and the much potholed Orpen Road to the
Maseru Sun Hotel was resurfaced.
The Lesotho Dialogue which took place on Thursday 10 November to Saturday 12
November 2005 was variously described as the
'Global 2005 International Smart
Partnership' and also the
'Southern African International Dialogue (SAID)'. Its
theme was
'Towards a Smarter Globe ... Resourcing for Growth through Smart
Partnership'. The event attracted a number of distinguished visitors including
the President Amando Emillio Guebuza of Mozambique, President Hifikepunye
Pohamba of Namibia, President Seri Abdullah bin Haji Badawi of Malaysia and the
Prime Minister of Swaziland, Themba Dlamini. Also present were former presidents
Sir Ketumile Masire of Botswana and Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, and the
former prime minister of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir Mohamed. President Mugabe of
Zimbabwe managed to get Air Zimbabwe to fly him to Maseru just a few days before
a shortage of aviation fuel grounded Air Zimbabwe's entire fleet. South Africa
sent its Vice President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, no stranger to Lesotho because
she had spent four years at the National University of Lesotho as a student.
Amongst events at the dialogue were sessions on
'Networking through
Dialogue';
'getting to know you' lunches;
'coffee with media smart partners'; a
fashion show; and on the Friday
'dialogues in the field' in which participants
could choose to visit one of a series of venues such as Liphofung Cave
(Tourism); Maseru & Mafeteng Industrial Estates (Manufacturing); ' Muela
Hydropower Station (Energy Creation); Mohale Dam (Water Resources); and Maluti
Hospital at Mapoteng (Medical Frontiers & Social Challenges). A newspaper,
Lehlaahlela Smart News, was produced for distribution at the Dialogue.
In parallel with the dialogue, the occasion was celebrating a parallel
initiative, the Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management (CPTM), which
was celebrating its 20th anniversary. Two of the lunches were scheduled for CPTM
Fellows to meet Heads of State and Government and hold `private dialogues'. CPTM
also sponsored an 88-page booklet
Hints and tips- `networking with people and
ideas with a purpose'
to be used in conjunction with the Dialogue Activities.
Other literature was scarce, and the only Lesotho contribution seems to have
been a paper by the veteran lawyer, G. M. Kolisang, 'Resourcing for growth', in
which the writer argues for a new economic order in which the most subsistent
citizen is able to change from subsistence to self-sufficiency.
And what, you may ask, is
'smart partnership' in Sesotho? It is generally
translated as
seahlolo se babatsehang which if translated backwards might become
'wonderful sharing'. It seems a little difficult to translate the word
'smart'
in this context into Sesotho.
A good time seems to have been had by all participants, and many friendships
were made or renewed. A lot of ideas were also exchanged, while Lesotho was able
to showcase its achievements and attractions. Over the period of the dialogue,
every available unit of accommodation in Maseru was fully booked, including its
small number of relatively new bed and breakfast establishments. The positive
outcomes in terms of meeting the country's biggest challenges such as HIV/AIDS,
poverty and employment creation are more elusive and difficult to quantify.
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On 18 November 2005, the journalist-photographer Tsebo Matsasa presented a
documentary slide show on the history of Maseru at the Transformation Resource
Centre in Maseru. In more than 100 slides he depicted historical buildings, but
also noted how little the public knew about their city and its potential to hold
the interest of tourists. Slides ranged from rock art still to be found on
cliffs overlooking Maseru to the view across the capital which now includes the
striking new pitched green roofs of the National Library & Archives Building.
The programme advertising the show depicted on its cover the Balfour Monument
near the Basotho Shield Tourist Information Centre. However, almost no-one in
the audience knew what this monument was called or who it commemorated. The
brass plates explaining its purpose (commemorating the first Bishop of
Basutoland) seem to have gone missing at the time of the disturbances of 1998.
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As reported in
Public Eye of 18 November 2005, the cliff face adjoining the 'Maletsunyane
Falls at Semonkong have been recognized by the
Guinness Book of Records as the
World's longest commercially operated single-drop abseil. This recognition
followed the initiative of the Manager of the Semonkong Lodge, long time Lesotho
resident, Jonathan Halse, who operates the 204 metres long drop, and has so far
trained 110 visitors `from all over the globe' in abseiling. It is not recorded
in the article, however, how many of the 110 trained visitors actually had the
courage to undertake the `big drop'.
The Semonkong Lodge goes back to 1963, when it was established as a small
prefabricated hut beside the ‘Maletsunyane river by Sydney Chaplin of
Maluti
Treks. It was later managed by Frasers, owners of the Semonkong Store. Taken
over by the Halse family in 1990, today it has 12 double rooms with en suite
bathrooms and two 8-bedded backpackers dormitories, as well as a bar and dining
room.
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A news release in November from P. M. phahlane, Deputy Hospital
Administrator, indicated that St Joseph's Hospital in Roma had received a CD4
Counter, an essential item of equipment for monitoring HIV/AIDS patients. The
equipment is the gift of the Swiss Government through SolidarMed, an
organization based in Zurich which supports medical services in Lesotho,
Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Apart from the counter, money has been
received so that the first 50 patients needing the new Antiretroviral Clinic
will receive free therapy for AIDS in the first year.
The development is an important one, because previous hospital policy Lad
been to provide training for those nursing terminally ill patients. However,
with antiretroviral drugs, AIDS is a disease, like diabetes, which can be
managed, allowing patients with care to live for similar life spans to those who
are uninfected.
The new therapy, while welcome, goes only a small way to meet the enormous
health problems faced by hospitals. In the Roma Health Service Area, for
example, there are an estimated 20 000 people who are HIV-positive.
St Joseph's is apparently the sixth institution to have a CD4 counter,
following Maluti Hospital at Mapoteng, Makoanyane Hospital, Senkatana Clinic,
Queen Elizabeth II Hospital and Motebang Hospital at Hlotse.
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Newspapers in late November carried advertisements for 284 teachers in some
95 government primary schools. Government primary schools are a relatively new
phenomenon, but as a result of a World Bank project a large number of new
primary schools has been built, some being still under construction. Many are
situated in remote areas without road access. The advertisement is for 35
primary school principals, 10 deputy principals and 239 teachers, all to be
appointed for the coming school year which begins in January 2006.
It will be of interest to see how many qualified teachers apply for these
posts, most of which seem to be newly created. Planning for adequate numbers of
primary schools has been woefully inadequate. The Lesotho College of Education
has been allowed to produce secondary teachers in large numbers, when the
greater need is for primary teachers. Unlike in the past, when there were seven
teacher training colleges, all of which trained primary teachers with six of
them exclusively devoted to this work, LCE is now the only primary teacher
training institution in Lesotho. Botswana, with a smaller population than
Lesotho, nevertheless has four teacher training colleges concerned with primary
work.
The Lesotho situation has recently become critical as free primary education
has increased pupil numbers, while HIV/AIDS is resulting in considerable losses
to the trained teacher force. As a result the proportion of untrained teachers
in schools is the highest for at least 50 years. Moreover the untrained teachers
are often
very untrained, particularly those serving in remote schools. Many do
not even have the academic qualifications to enter the Lesotho College of
Education.
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New buildings for the Lesotho Parliament are proposed, and Chinese assistance
is being sought to build them. This became generally known in November, and at
the end of the month the Prime Minister was
part of a delegation which went to China to negotiate funds for the project.
The proposed site is on top of Mpilo Hill, overlooking central Maseru and above
the present Lesotho Sun hotel. The proposed buildings will possibly occupy the
saddle between the two smaller of the three hills which in the Gun War had been
known as The World, the Flesh and the Devil. (The Devil was the largest of these
hills, an attempt by an Anglican deaconess, Maria Burton, to rename them Faith,
Hope and Charity was unsuccessful.) Currently the hills are only conspicuous for the various
telecommunications masts which they support.
The two houses of the present
Lesotho Parliament are at present housed in an
inadequate green¬roofed complex at the end of what was once intended as a
ceremonial avenue linking them with Maseru's once most important building, the
Secretariat Building, which currently houses the Ministry of Defence.
After it had been proposed for some years, the first meeting of Lesotho's
first Parliament, the Basutoland National Council or Lekhotla la Sechaba, met on
6 June 1903, an event now so little remembered that the modern Parliament forgot
to celebrate its own centenary. This first Parliament met in buildings belonging
to Maseru's Paris Evangelical Missionary Society school, which were then
situated on the same site as the present Parliament. When the Lerotholi
Technical School opened in January 1906 (it should therefore be about to
celebrate its centenary), its Selborne Hall provided an appropriate venue for
the Council. In the meantime action was taken to secure the PEMS site, which was
eventually made over to the Basutoland National Council in exchange for a new
site where the Sefika Primary School, High School and Church are situated today.
This exchange made it possible to build the first purpose-built premises for the
Basutoland National Council and these were brought into use in 1909.
This green-roofed octagonal sandstone building proved adequate until 1959,
when a new Constitution came into force and the buildings were extended. The
present building has the date 1959 on the outer entrance, while 1909 can still
be read inside over the entrance to what is now the National Assembly debating
chamber. The 1965 Constitution required a Senate Chamber which was duly added,
but otherwise the buildings are essentially unchanged, even though the 60-member
Parliament in the year of Independence has grown to one of 120 members and the
buildings have consequently become inadequate.
If the new complex is constructed, the present Parliament Buildings would
provide an excellent site for the long proposed but never implemented National
Museum. Not only could the History of Parliament be exhibited in the buildings
themselves, but the Parliamentary compound contains sufficient space for a
second more modern building to be constructed to display the wide variety of
scientific, cultural and historical exhibits appropriate for a national museum.
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Irish born
Francis Richard Townley Balfour
(1846-1924) arrived in the
Bloemfontein Anglican Diocese to work at Kimberley in 1876. His life is
documented in some detail in a 1922 biography by H. H. Montgomery,
Francis
Balfour of Basutoland, evangelist and bishop, and from this one can learn that
much of his work was in Lesotho from 1877 onwards until he resigned in 1922.
Balfour was the founder of Sekubu Mission in Butha-Buthe District in August
1877, but thereafter he undertook numerous short periods in many places in the
diocese. In 1890-2, he was also the Anglican Chaplain to the Pioneer Column
which invaded Mashonaland and established Fort Salisbury, the modern Harare.
In 1911, Balfour was made Assistant Bishop of Bloemfontein with special
responsibility for Lesotho. His
'Bishop's Palace' was in fact two rondavels
(recently demolished) in the grounds of the Rectory at Hlotse. From there he
undertook his many journeys on horseback into the Maloti conducting
confirmations. Earlier he had also ridden extensively through the Maloti on many
occasions. It is recorded that in 1887, while near Mount Moorosi in southern
Lesotho, a message came that he had been appointed Rector of Harrismith. He
undertook the journey there by what to him was the quickest route, via the upper
Senqu Valley, Namahali Pass and Witzie's Hoek.
The biography of Francis Balfour by H. H. Montgomery had become such a rare
book that at the time of the compilation of
Lesotho: a comprehensive
bibliography
in the late 1970s, not a single copy of the book could be located
in Lesotho. A facsimile reprint of 30 copies has now appeared with the House 9
Publications imprint and dated November 2005.
It includes an introduction by
David Ambrose with some additional details about the author of the book, a
contemporary of Balfour at school and university who became the Bishop of
Tasmania. The reprint also includes a full index and a map showing places in
Lesotho associated with Balfour.
The memorial in Maseru to Balfour stands at the junction of Kingsway and
Orpen Roads, on the edge of the grounds of the Basotho Shield Tourist
Information Centre. The memorial cross has lost its original brass plaques and
it is hoped that republication of the book will create sufficient interest to
have them restored. The new edition of the book includes the texts of the
plaques as they originally appeared in English and Sesotho, although it is also
noted that the dates on the plaques were wrong and should be corrected when they
are replaced.
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World AIDS Day is now celebrated internationally on 1 December, and in
Lesotho World AIDS Day 2005 was significant for two reasons. One was the opening
of a new HIV/AIDS Treatment Centre for Children at Botsabelo, near Maseru. The
Centre is a joint project of the Ministry of Health & Social Welfare, the
pharmaceutical firm Bristol Meyer-Squibb and the Texas Medical Centre in
Houston, USA. The two storey building has an attractive decor with many pictures
of children or drawn by children. It was officially opened by the King in a big
ceremony attended by large numbers of members of the public and civil servants
who left their offices for the day.
The second significant event on World AIDS Day was one which had been
rumoured for some time. John Donnelly of the
Boston Sunday Globe had already
run a feature on AIDS in Lesotho in the newspaper's 23 October 2005 issue. It
had included various grim statistics which included that Lesotho with a life
expectancy of just 34.5 years (compared with 77.7 years in the USA) was ranked
175th out of 177 countries. What was new, however, was that the Minister of
Health, Dr Motloheloa Phooko, would announce on World AIDS Day a
'door-to-door'
HIV testing plan to cover the whole country.
As indeed happened. Lesotho is to become the first country in the world to
offer HIV testing to every male and female above the age of 12. The plan,
costing M72 million, is intended to expand the present
'Know Your Status'
campaign, and will refer every individual tested and counselled to post-test
services according to their status. Some 3 600 community health workers will
need to be trained in both HIV testing and counselling, and five community
members from each village, including people living with AIDS, will be trained in
on-going counselling and HIV education. The testing will not be imposed, which
might be a weakness in the plan, because currently the majority of persons
offered testing decline it. However, chiefs will be involved and public meetings
(lipitso) will explain the objectives of the
'Know Your Status' campaign.
Nothing is said about antiretrovirals. At present the supply seems unlikely to
meet the needs of more than 10% of those found positive.
At the end of December, in preparation for the campaign, roadside signs
sponsored by the Positive Action Society and the Lesotho Planned Parenthood
Association were changed. Instead of promoting condom use they were being
replaced with new signs reading in large letters in somewhat orthographically flawed Sesotho, NA U TSEBA BOEMO BA HAU BA HIV? HLAHLOBA U
PHELE HA LELELE!! (Do you know your HIV status? Be tested so that you can live long!!).
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As reported in the police newspaper,
Leseli ka Sepolesa of 1 December 2005,
22 members of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service are to serve on peacekeeping
duties in Darfur, Sudan. The policemen and policewomen chosen are expected to
serve for a period of six months or a year in Sudan.
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On 14 and 15 December 2005, there were performances at the Maseru Sun
Convention Centre of the play
Top Girls by the noted British feminist dramatist,
Caryl Churchill.
Top Girls explores the interconnection between female
emancipation and use and abuse of power, with both contemporary and historical
characters. For the Lesotho production the play was adapted to incorporate a
part for the 19th century Mosotho prophetess, 'Mantsopa. The cast of five - all
female - were recent graduates of the Theatre Unit of the National University of
Lesotho. All but one of them took on multiple roles, demanding radically
contrasting characterization, and were 'Makoali Ramashamole, 'Matumahole Phafane,
Mpinane Klass, Limakatso Ntelele and Kekeletso Motanyane. The audience responded
enthusiastically to this challenging play, as they did to performances by the
Maseru-based dance troupe, Crossroads, which occupied the two intermissions.
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In November 2005, 35 097 candidates sat for the
Primary School Leaving
Examination. The results were published on Friday 16 December 2005. The actual
number sitting the examination was 13.6% lower than the year before, and the
most plausible explanation for this drop in numbers is connected to the
introduction of free primary education. Many children in the age cohort writing
this year's examination had in fact been diverted to the following year so that
they could benefit from the free primary education which has ben edging its way
up through the primary system. It will finally apply also to the top class,
Standard Seven, next year, when there is likely to be a bulge in PSLE numbers.
The PSLE examination is not criterion referenced, and as a result
approximately the same numbers of candidates pass each year. Nevertheless the
report on the results says that there has been a drop in performance at all
levels, reflecting a drop in passes from 88.1% in 2004 to 85.5% in 2005. Of the
total in 2005, 15.3% achieved a First Class pass, 20.9% a Second Class pass, and
49.3% a Third Class pass.
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As reported in
Moeletsi oa Basotho of 25 December 2005, the Lesotho Defence
Force has received three new helicopters and two new fire engines, an event
which was marked by a small celebration on 20 December 2005. The three
helicopters had in fact been received over a year earlier, and one of them was a
replacement for the helicopter which had been lost in an accident when it
crashed into the Katse Reservoir on 20 May 2003. The new helicopters have been
given the names Qiloane, ' Maletsunyane and Mphosong. The fire engines are a
more recent acquisition.
At the same occasion, awards were given to members of the Air Wing. Amongst
those receiving her wings was the LDF's first woman helicopter pilot. She is
2nd
Lt Metsemmeli Malefane of 'Moteng in Butha-Buthe District. She had joined the
LDF in 2003, and had recently graduated from flying school in Port Alfred.
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The death occurred in hospital in Bloemfontein on 21 December 2005 of
Edward
David May, who had worked as a forester in Lesotho for some 20 years. He was 68
and had been ill for some time.
David May, although born in Stoke-on-Trent, England, had many connections
with Scotland. He graduated from Edinburgh University in Forestry, and later
married a Scottish nurse, Moira Stewart.
After serving in several widely separated parts of Tanzania as a Forest
Project Officer in the period 1961-70, David May moved to Malawi, where he
worked for 15 years, eventually becoming Conservator of Forests for the country.
He
came
to
Lesotho
in
1985
to
join
the
Woodlot
Project,
which
had
been
started
in
1973
and
had
already
had
success
in
creating
stands
of
exotic
trees
particularly
throughout
the
Lowlands
and
Foothills.
David
May
eventually
became
Director
of
the
Woodlot
Project,
and
later,
when
the
project
became
the
Forestry
Division
of
the
Ministry
of
Agriculture,
he
was
Forestry
Adviser.
However, while exotic trees, mainly pines and eucalypts were the standard
trees of the woodlots and tree nurseries, David May became increasingly
interested in indigenous trees, and he spent much of his spare time walking with
his dogs in remote areas discovering the species composition of patches of
natural forest. Two major sidelines developed: the establisnment of an arboretum
of indigenous species on land adjoining his house at the Maseru Agricultural
Research Station; and the measurement of indigenous trees so as to find out the
tallest specimens.
David May lived for trees and detested social events and formality. He was
not easily approachable because he always seemed to have fierce dogs around him.
However, those who got to know him found him to be a person of integrity,
passionately dedicated to his work. He could be a contentious disputant on
matters biological, and he often published his views in privately circulated
memoranda.
His wife died in 2001, and David May leaves a son and two grandchildren. His
son, Derek Stewart May, who was educated at Machabeng College, Maseru, is an
airline pilot flying intercontinental jets. He currently lives in Perth,
Australia.
At his own request, David May was cremated without any religious ceremony.
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Saturday 31 December 2005 was the day chosen for the celebration of a very
large wedding which included a service at the Chapel of Pius XII College House,
Roma, followed by a reception held at Thoteng, Roma. The bridegroom was
Likoebe
Maruping of Roma, Lesotho and the bride,
Miyuki Chiba, daughter of Masahide and
Yuriko Chiba of Yokohama, Japan.
The bridegroom, a recent graduate student in Canada, is the son of Dr Mothae
Maruping, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Lesotho, and of Dr Arabang
Raditapole, a medical doctor and specialist paediatrician who has worked for
UNICEF in a number of African countries, as well as having her own clinic, Bana
Pele ('Children First') in Ha Mafefooane, Roma.
It appears that the bride first met Likoebe's parents when they were visiting
Japan and she was plying them questions to satisfy her curiosity about Lesotho.
When the questions increased she was referred to Likoebe, with whom she was at
first in e-mail contact before they finally met in Japan.
At the reception, Japanese and Lesotho flags decorated the tables, and Miyuki
was supported by her parents, brother and cousin who had all flown in from
Japan. In the speeches, Likoebe even managed a considerable passage in Japanese,
while Miyuki's father raised cheers when he began his own speech, ` which was
mainly in English, with
Bo-ntate le Bo-mme!
Those invited to the wedding included not only members of Lesotho's
establishment, but also a very cosmopolitan group of guests from southern
Africa. They were received by members of the bridegroom's family wearing a
common uniform of blue
seshoeshoe print styled in numerous variations. The
guests were also entertained in numerous ways, for example by girls in imitation
grass skirts who performed litolobonya; by a large troupe of dancing children
wearing shirts bearing the names Likoebe and Miyuki; and by a fearsome group
with ochre skins from Maseru who style themselves
Malimo (cannibals). The Malimo
have a repertoire of dances and mock assaults performed in traditional dress and
with traditional weapons, urged on by female members of the group. At a certain
point the married couple, Japanese guests and young women from the Maruping
family changed into kimonos and entertained the guests with Japanese dances.
The Maruping-Chiba wedding is believed to be only the third between a Mosotho
and a person of Japanese descent. The first Japanese to marry a Mosotho was
Arthur Shimidzu who lived at Khutlo Secha near Kalime in the Taung Ward of
Mohale's Hoek District from 1896 to 1950. His daughter Elizabeth 'Manteta
married William Mokete of Hermon in Mafeteng District.
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Lesotho's Annual Inflation Rate, reached its lowest since 1968 when it fell
to 2.9% in August 2005. This was a drop from the figure of 3.3% for July 2005,
and was surprising because in the same period from July to August 2005,
inflation in South Africa, as measured by the CPIX, rose from 4.2% to 4.9%. The
difference can be explained by the different weightings used in the compilation
of the two indices. The Lesotho Consumer Price Index is calculated for seven
towns (Lowlands District Headquarters + Roma) and gives a 22% weighting to bread
and cereals, but a relatively small weighting to transport (7.8%) and very small
weightings to electricity (0.2%) and telephones (0.1 %), all of these weightings
having been fixed since the last household budget survey in April 1997. Since
1997, it seems certain with the growth of commuter traffic and vehicle ownership
as well as the electrification of suburbs and the widespread use of mobile
phones that these last three weightings are too small. The impacts that these
larger weightings have on the Lesotho Consumer Price Index are significant. For
example the price of bread and cereals actually declined by 0.4°% over the 12
months (August 200Y - August 2005), because maize prices had risen to very high
levels a year earlier after a shortage which had necessitated the chief
supplier, South Africa, importing maize from outside the region. Transport costs
w ent up 4.6 % over the previous year, mainly because of rises in costs of
vehicles (5.8%) and costs of operation of personal transport equipment (5.3%),
this to some extent being offset by transport services costs (only 1.3% rise),
because no increase has recently been allowed in taxi and bus fares. Although
electricity went up by 18%, its negligible weighting did not impact
significantly on the CPI.
The situation is quite different with the South African CPIX where grain
products have only a 4.3% weighting (0.4% decline, as in Lesotho, over the year
August to August); but transport has a 13.7% , weighting (8.9% rise, petrol
prices having risen faster in South Africa in August than in Lesotho). The CPIX
has one or two items excluded altogether from the Lesotho CPI, such as domestic
workers' wages with a 3.2% weighting. These rose 12.5% over the 12 month period.
The gap between the two inflation rates narrowed in September, with Lesotho
recording a rise to 3.2% inflation and South Africa recording a slight drop from
4.9% to 4.8%. In October, the gap narrowed further with Lesotho recording
another rise to 3.4% inflation, while South Africa's CPIX dropped to 4.4%,
apparently as a result of fuel prices stabilizing. The Lesotho November CPI,
although normally expected to be available at the end of the following month,
was expected to be published only by mid-January 2006, because of delays over
the Christmas holiday.
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The Calendar Year 2005, was generally wetter than average in most parts of
Lesotho. In particular, based on Roma rainfall figures, the eight months of
January, February, March, April, August, September, October and November had
rainfall significantly above the mean. As a result, the start to the
agricultural growing season of 2005-6 was promising.
However, December rainfall was very low throughout Lesotho. After 15 mm at
Roma on
3 December and 2 mm on 5 December, there was no significant rainfall at Roma
until 16 mm fell on the last two days of the month. Promising thunder clouds had
developed on the 10, 14, 15, 18, 21 and 25 December and resulted in showers in
some parts of Lesotho, but in Roma they resulted in no more than what is
commonly known as mathe a lintsi-ntsi `fly spittle', rainfall which does not
even dampen the dust.
The overall total rainfall for the calendar year was nevertheless high at
1033 mm. There was a similarly high calendar year total of 1031 mm in 2004, and
in both years rainfall was some 19% above the calendar year mean of 867 mm.
Although December was mainly a drought month, the third driest December in 70
years of records at Roma, good soaking rains on 30 November (39 mm were recorded
at Roma) helped to ensure that crops did not begin to suffer heat and drought
distress until late in the month. They were largely rescued by the soft soaking
rains of New Year's Eve 2005 which continued into New Year's Day 2006.
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