I | INTRODUCTION |
Lesotho, formerly Basutoland, country in southern
Africa, bordered on all sides by South Africa. Lesotho is one of only three
nations in the world to be completely encircled by a single country (the others
are San Marino and Vatican City). Its dependence on South Africa for access to
the outside extends to economic reliance as well, and has deeply affected the
development of the country since independence in 1966. The kingdom of Lesotho is
mainly mountainous and has a total area of 30,355 sq km (11,720 sq mi). The
capital and largest city is Maseru.
II | LAND AND RESOURCES |
In the west, lowlands varying from about 1,500
to 1,800 m (about 5,000 to 6,000 ft) above sea level provide most of the
cultivable area of Lesotho. The land rises in the east to the Drakensberg
Mountains, with heights of more than 3,400 m (more than 11,000 ft). The Orange
River has its source in Lesotho. The climate is mild, with hot summer days in
the lowlands relieved by cool nights. Winter can be cold, particularly in the
mountains, and heavy snows occasionally occur. Precipitation falls mostly from
October through April. In Maseru, located in the lowlands, average temperatures
range from 14° to 28°C (57° to 82°F) in January and from -1° to 16°C (30° to
61°F) in July. The city averages 690 mm (27 in) of precipitation annually.
Lesotho is poor in resources. The principal
source of wealth is livestock raised on the country’s grazing land. Lesotho’s
rivers and mountainous terrain offer potential for hydroelectric development.
Some diamonds are found, although the country’s only large production mine
closed in the early 1980s.
Much of Lesotho is permanent pasture, and
there is a problem of erosion arising from unrestricted grazing. Because of the
low organic content, much of the soil lacks fertility. While there are no
forests in Lesotho, some reforestation has occurred. However, this is not enough
to keep pace with the growing demand for fuelwood, which provides a large part
of the energy requirements of the country. Less than one-half of the population
has access to safe water.
III | POPULATION |
Almost all the inhabitants of Lesotho are
black Africans, and most are Basotho (a division of the Sotho ethnic group).
There are small communities of Europeans and Asians. Only 18 percent of the
population is classified as urban; most live in small villages centered in
communal agricultural land. The traditional tribal structure of village life has
been maintained in part through land-use control by village and district
chiefs.
A | Population Characteristics |
The population of Lesotho (2008 estimate)
is 2,128,180. The overall population density is 70 persons per sq km (182 per sq
mi). The annual population growth rate stood at 0.1 percent in 2008. Life
expectancy at birth was 39 years for women and 41 years for men. The only city
of significant size in Lesotho is Maseru.
B | Religion and Language |
About 91 percent of the people of Lesotho
are Christians, mainly Roman Catholics, Lesotho Evangelicals, and Anglicans.
Most of the remainder follow traditional beliefs. English and Sesotho, a Bantu
language, are the country’s official languages.
C | Education |
Education is compulsory between the ages of
6 and 12, and virtually all school-age children are enrolled. Christian missions
under the direction of the minister of education operate most schools, which are
free at the primary level. In 2000 some 411,000 pupils attended 1,283 primary
schools, and 74,100 pupils attended secondary and vocational schools. The
National University of Lesotho (1966), in Roma, is attended yearly by about
1,400 students and has a teaching staff of more than 200. The Lesotho
Agricultural College (1955) is in Maseru. Lesotho has a literacy rate of 86
percent.
IV | ECONOMY |
The economy of Lesotho is based almost
entirely on agriculture, livestock raising, and the earnings of Basothos
employed outside the country. Due to Lesotho’s limited resources many people,
particularly men, reside outside the country for a portion of each year working
as laborers. About two-fifths of the adult male labor force works in South
Africa. Gross domestic product, which does not reflect remittances from workers
out of the country, stood at $1,494 million in 2006, or $749.10 per person.
Tourism, particularly from South Africa, has expanded rapidly. In 2004 the
estimated annual budget included revenues of $499 million with expenditures
totaling $652 million.
A | Agriculture |
Some 11 percent of Lesotho’s land is
cultivated. Maize, wheat, sorghum, and fruits and vegetables are the main crops.
In 2005 livestock included about 540,000 cattle, 850,000 sheep, 650,000 goats,
and 1.8 million poultry.
B | Currency and Foreign Trade |
The currency unit in Lesotho is the loti
(plural maloti), which is divided into 100 lisente
(6.80 maloti equal U.S.$1; 2006 average). Most trade is with South Africa, with
which Lesotho is linked in a customs union, along with Botswana, Namibia, and
Swaziland. In the early 1990s principal exports were wool, mohair, wheat,
cattle, peas, beans, corn, hides, and baskets. Chief imports were corn, building
materials, clothing, vehicles, machinery, medicines, and petroleum. In 2002
imports cost $800 million and exports earned $358 million. Remittances from
workers in South Africa were estimated at more than $300 million in the early
1990s.
C | Transportation and Communications |
Roads are located mainly in western
Lesotho, with many mountainous areas still accessible only by horse or pack
mule. Several towns have small airfields. Maseru is linked by railroad to South
Africa. In 1996 Lesotho had 2 daily newspapers with a combined circulation of
15,000.
V | GOVERNMENT |
Under the terms of the constitution of 1965,
which was suspended in 1970, Lesotho was a constitutional monarchy with a
bicameral legislature. After a coup in 1986, legislative and executive powers
were vested in the king but actually exercised by a 6-member military council
and a 20-member council of ministers. In 1993 Lesotho adopted a new constitution
that redefined the role of the monarchy and altered the legislative branch of
the government. The king, who is head of state, has no executive or legislative
authority. Executive power is held by the prime minister. The prime minister is
the leader of the majority party in the National Assembly and is responsible for
appointing a cabinet. The National Assembly, the main legislative body, has 120
members who serve five-year terms. Two-thirds of the members are directly
elected by universal adult suffrage, and the remainder are elected by
proportional representation (in which voters vote for individual parties, and
seats are awarded based on the parties’ share of the vote). The 33-member
Senate, made up of traditional chiefs and nominated representatives, is an
advisory legislative body. Lesotho has ten districts, which are subdivided into
wards and administered by hereditary chiefs.
VI | HISTORY |
The original inhabitants of what is now
Lesotho were the San. By the 16th century Sotho groups had settled in the
region. In the early 19th century, Shaka, a Zulu chief in southeastern Africa,
began to expand the Zulu empire, causing the forced migrations of many different
peoples during a period known as the mfecane. At that time Moshoeshoe, a leader
of a Basotho village, led his people to the mountain of Butha-Buthe, where they
survived several battles. In 1824 Moshoeshoe moved to a better protected site on
the top of another mountain, called Thaba Bosiu. His policy of granting
protection to refugees from other conflicts meant that he gathered an
increasingly large group of people under his authority. This group eventually
formed Basutoland.
A | Colonial Rule |
In the 1830s white settlers from the Cape
Colony, called Afrikaners, or Boers, left the colony because they felt oppressed
by British rule and began to invade Moshoeshoe’s territory. The Basotho fought
the settlers in numerous border incidents. Fighting between Moshoeshoe’s forces
and those of the Afrikaners continued until the 1860s, and Moshoeshoe lost some
of his land. In 1868 Moshoeshoe asked for British help, and Britain made
Basutoland a protectorate. Moshoeshoe died in 1870. In 1871 Basutoland was
placed under the control of the Cape Colony, but Britain resumed direct control
in 1884, after a war between the Cape Colony government and the Basotho.
Once the Cape Colony and other British
colonies were united to form the Union of South Africa (later the Republic of
South Africa) in 1910, the British government assumed that Basutoland would
eventually be incorporated into South Africa. The South African government
repeatedly requested this incorporation, but the Basotho consistently refused.
The Basutoland National Council, created in 1910, asked the British government
for internal self-government in 1955. In 1960 an elected legislative council was
established. When general elections were held in 1965, the Basutoland National
Party (BNP, which became the Basotho National Party at independence) won a
majority of seats in the legislature; the leader of the BNP, Chief Joseph Leabua
Jonathan, became prime minister. Basutoland became the independent country of
Lesotho on October 4, 1966. The king, Moshoeshoe II, attempted to enlarge his
authority, but his efforts were checked by the prime minister.
B | Independent Lesotho |
In national elections held on January 27,
1970, the first since independence, the opposition Basotho Congress Party (BCP)
led by Ntsu Mokhehle seemed to have the winning edge. Prime Minister Jonathan
then nullified the elections and declared a state of emergency. The constitution
and parliament were suspended, and Jonathan undertook to govern the country by
decree. In 1973 an interim National Assembly of nominated members absorbed the
old assembly and Senate. Supporters of the BCP staged an armed uprising in 1974.
When it failed, the leaders formed a Lesotho Liberation Army that during the
following years engaged in frequent clashes with the paramilitary police.
Jonathan accused South Africa of collusion with the rebels, and relations with
that country were consequently strained.
In 1986 Jonathan was overthrown in a
military coup led by Major-General Justin Lekhanya. Executive and legislative
powers were nominally vested in King Moshoeshoe but were actually exercised by a
military council headed by Lekhanya. After Moshoeshoe refused to approve
Lekhanya’s dismissal of several members of the military council in 1990, the
king was stripped of power and exiled. Moshoeshoe was officially dethroned later
that year, and his son, Letsie David Mohato Bereng Seeiso, was enthroned as
Letsie III.
In 1986 construction began on the Lesotho
Highlands Water Project, which will divert water from the headwaters of several
rivers in Lesotho to the Witwatersrand region of South Africa. The project,
which is scheduled for completion in 2015, is intended to boost Lesotho’s
economy through the creation of jobs, improvements in infrastructure, and
payments from South Africa for water use. It will also reduce Lesotho’s
dependence on South Africa for electricity through the construction of a
hydroelectric power plant.
C | Recent Events |
Lesotho’s military government allowed free
legislative elections in 1993. The BCP won every seat and elected Mokhehle prime
minister. However, in August 1994 King Letsie, claiming to be responding to
popular dissatisfaction with the Mokhehle administration, dissolved the cabinet.
After other African leaders, including South African president Nelson Mandela,
Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, and Botswanan president Quett Ketumile Joni
Masire, criticized Letsie, he restored power to Mokhehle in September. In 1995
Letsie abdicated and restored the crown to his father, Moshoeshoe II, who
pledged to uphold the constitution. On January 15, 1996, Moshoeshoe II was
killed in an automobile accident on his way back to Maseru from inspecting his
cattle herds. Letsie succeeded him, taking the throne once again as Letsie III.
In 1997, in the midst of a power struggle
within the BCP, Mokhehle resigned from the party and formed the Lesotho Congress
for Democracy (LCD) while retaining the office of prime minister. Mokhehle
retired from politics before the May 1998 legislative elections and was
succeeded as LCD leader by Pakalitha Mosisili. The LCD won all but two seats in
the National Assembly, which then had a total of 80 members. Mosisili became
prime minister. Opposition groups protested the election results, and political
tension intensified in August, when members of the army joined the protestors.
South African troops intervened in September to prevent a coup but met with
fierce resistance from rebels and from ordinary citizens, many of whom viewed
the intervention as an invasion. Rioting and looting swept Maseru, destroying
much of the city. LCD leaders and opposition parties worked out an agreement in
October to hold new elections to the National Assembly, expanded to 120 members.
In these elections, held in 2002, the LCD
won 77 seats in the legislature, and the Basotho National Party (BNP) won 21
seats. The LCD splintered in October 2006, with defections to a newly formed
opposition party, the All Basotho Convention (ABC), leaving the LCD with only 61
members in the legislature. However, early legislative elections held in 2007
returned 77 seats to the LCD. Opposition parties organized a general strike to
dispute the results, which they claimed were rigged in the LCD’s favor.
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