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.