Lesotho

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History

Lesotho's known history begins between the fifteenth and sixteenth century A.D., when ancestors of what would be the Sotho and Zulu tribes settled in the area that is now Lesotho, and displaced its native Bushmen tribes. When the Zulu tribe rose to power in the early 1800's, zulu

a common Sotho peasant named Moshoeshoe united the Sotho masses, and with superior battle tactics protected his people from Zulu raids. A few decades later conflict began with other surrounding tribes and in 1868 Moshoeshoe asked for British protection. "Basutoland," as it was called after becoming a British protectorate colony, was annexed three years later by the British "Cape Colony" without Sotho approval. By 1884 Basutoland was completely controlled by Great Britain, despite Sotho resistance, and the Sotho people didn't gain independence from the British until 1966, when they became the nation of Lesotho. After a decade of independence, civil unrest grew inside the new country and two competing political groups, the Basotho Congress Party and the current leaders, the Basotho National Party (BNP), fought with one another diplomatically and militarily throughout the next fifteen years. After a military coup in 1987, the BNP and the old flag were thrown out. Lesotho finally had it's first free election in 1993, twenty-three years after their first, but it did not bring peace to the fledgling nation. Another election was held in May of 1998 after the prime m looters

inister died, but like the last, nothing was resolved and by September of that year, troops from neighboring countries were sent in to help pacify the region. In 2002 elections were held once again and the same party won control as in the last election, and thus far the impoverished nation has remained relatively peaceful with only minor conflicts.


     A Botswanan soldier looks on as looters
          emerge from a store in Maseru

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Geography

Lesotho is the only country in the world that is totally landlocked inside another country's border, lying in the east-central portion of South Africa. Being a country slightly smaller than Maryland in land area, Lesotho is a mere freckle inside South Africa. The terrain is mountainous, as the majority of the country is over 1,800 meters above sea level. The lowest point in Lesotho is the junction of the Orange and the Makhaleng rivers, which is still about 1,400 meters above sea level. The main mountain range in Lesotho is southafrica

called the Drakensberg, it contains the highest peak in southern Africa, Thabana Ntlenyana, which is 3,482 meters tall. The capital, Maseru, is located in the lowland area to the west, near one of South Africa's three capitals, Bloemfontein. Lesotho's position at the southern tip of Africa makes for cool, dry winters, and hot, wet summers. Snow is common, but it falls mostly in the highlands. flag

Population: 1,865,040
Languages: Sesotho, English, Zulu, Xhosa
Ethnicity: 99.7% Basotho, 0.3% European/Other
Religion: Christianity, other indigenous beliefs

                                                     Click for Lesotho National Flag History >

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Economy

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The economy in Lesotho consists mainly of subsistence farming and raising livestock, but it also has a handful of small industrial factories that produce clothing, footwear, textiles, food processing and construction goldminers

products. People grow beans, gourds, sorghum (type of cereal grass used to make syrups ect.), tobacco, and corn, but one suprising cash crop the Lesothians grow is cannabis. Cannabis has been used by the people in the area for hundreds of years, and now its harvested to supply the South African marijuana market. In 1995, cannabis contributed to 15% of Lesotho's GDP. Much of Lesotho's work force mines in South Africa's gold and diamond mines (although there are a water

few diamond mines in Lesotho itself), but the amount of miners has decreased over the years as some have started working in new factories. One natural resource that Lesotho has, and is starting to take advantage of, is water. In January of 1998, Lesotho started diverting some of its water from the highlands to South Africa. The exporting of "white gold" as the Basotho people call it, has helped Lesotho enter Africa's top ten performers in GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Unfortunately, recent political conflicts have stunted the economic growth of the small country.

Currency: Loti (single denomination), Maloti (plural), Lisente (fraction of Loti)

Exchange Rate: 6.15 maloti = 1 U.S. dollar
Currency Exchange Calculator
GDP: 7.3 billion maloti ($1.2 Billion dollars)
GDP per Capita: 18,462.60 maloti ($3,000)

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Government justice2

Similar to Great Britain, Lesotho is a Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy. This is a government that has a king or queen that has little legislative authority and is just a symbolic f kingletsie

igurehead. The real lawmaking power comes from the Parliament, which is located in the capital city of Maseru. The parliament is made up of the Senate, which is the majority party's elected officials; and the Assembly, in which officials are elected by popular vote. The Judicial branch is modeled after European court systems, with a High Court, Court of Appeal, Magistrate's Court, and traditional court. The Chief Justice is chosen by the monarch.
King Letsie III
mosoili

Political Parties: Basotho Congress Party (BCP), Basotho National Party (BNP), Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), Lesotho People's Congress (LPC), United Democratic Party (UDP), Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP), Progressive National Party (PNP), and the Sefate Democratic Party (SDP)
Governing Party: Lesotho Congress for Democracy, led by Pakalitha Mosisili ^
Head of State (Monarch): King Letsie III
Prime Minister: Pakalitha Mosisili
Suffrage: 18 years old, no gender/creed/etc. restrictions
National Anthem

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Communications sat2

In the past few years the Lesotho government has tried to upgrade itself technologically to better prepare the country for the information age. Lesotho has a handful of television and radio stations, most of which being educational, and is continuing to add to the list. The radio stations are

news based, with little or no music played. The main radio station, "Radio Lesotho," is state run, but the other five stations located in Lesotho are privately owned. Lesotho's government has been under pressure to turn over "Radio Lesotho" and have it become a public broadcasting station, but it has yet to happen. Besides news radio, they have religious stations, like "Catholic Radio FM" and "Joy Radio." Radio was first to expand into privately owned stations and Lesotho television has recently began to broaden. As far as the film industry goes, few movies are made in Lesotho, but Maseru does have a small number of video production and editing facilities.

"For many years Lesotho's single television broadcaster was the Lesotho National Broadcasting Service (LNBS). With the aim to improve Lesotho Television service, the Ministry of Communications signed in April, an agreement with TV Africa to enable extended television broadcasting in Lesotho. Started on April 1st, 2002, Lesotho Television broadcasts from 11:30 am to 10:00 pm. This is in line with the statement trinity

, made by the Minister of Communications when he presented the budget speech in parliament. In 1999, due to the Media Policy the government licensed the Christian station Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and the pay-TV MMDS network, Africa Pay-TV. TBN was launched in May 1999. Lesotho also receives transmissions from SABC1 and SABC2 (South African Broadcasting Corporation). Although private broadcasting has been introduced to Lesotho, the regional media watchdog, MISA, reports that the government has been slow in implementing the other elements of the media policy, such as setting up an independent regulator and liberalizing the public broadcaster." source
paper

More Lesotho citizens get their news and information from newspapers than the television, as not everyone owns a TV. Lesotho is home to sixteen newspapers, half of which are printed entirely in Sesotho. One, the Mopheme (translates to "the Survivor"), is written in both English and Sesotho, and two, the Mirror, and the Public Eye, are solely in English. Six of the newspapers are published by religious groups and political parties. All of the papers are sent out weekly.

Telephone Lines: 28,600
Cellular Phones: 92,000
Internet Users: 21,000
Internet Service Providers: 1, LEO Internet Service Provider

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Media Financing loti1

Besides the government funded Lesotho National Broadcasting Service and Radio Lesotho, media in Lesotho are financed by an

array of supporters like, religious and political groups, businesses, and private investors. Many figures in the Lesotho media are calling to "de-nationalize" the state run media outlets that still remain. The cost of building and running an independent station or press without government funds is too high for media facilities to be abundant in the country. No specific details about the funding of the independent media outlets were available.

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Media Governance arm2

"Before 1993, the government owned and controlled almost 95% of both print and electronic media. 'The Mirror' weekly was the only independent newspaper in 1986. Since 1993, Lesotho had entered a new era of multiparty democracy and has tried to maintain commitment to it. According to Section 14 of the constitution enshrined in this newly emerging democracy, freedom of expression, opinion and access to information legislation

are guaranteed. It also allows the citizenry the right to publish freely, broadcast and disseminate information and opinions without hindrance. The entrenchment of press freedom came into effect in the new constitution in 1993. A media task force was set up in 1996 to prioritize the setting up of a special media policy structure. This was also brought on by the fear that the state could impose a restrictive media policy. The policy calls for a review or repeal of existing media laws which were in conflict with the principles and practice of freedom of expression. It also recommends a scaling down of government ownership of the media, for a broadly representative broadcasting authority and for the airwaves to be freed for other players to establish their own radio and TV stations. An independent body regulating private and public media was suggested. It says however that Lesotho needed to have a government-run media to cater for the poor rural communities hut

with limited access to information. The policy was accepted in 1997. Later, the government issued a directive prohibiting ministries, departments, institutions and parastatals from advertising in 'MoAfrica', a private paper. The paper was accused of a negative stance toward the government. In 1997 four cabinet ministers used their influence and government resources to sue 'MoAfrica' for carrying critical articles about them. Without clear justification, the speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Teboho Kolane, ordered a ban of all media and members of the public form entering parliament for a period. The government however expressed some commitment to media freedom by accepting the progressive media policy to underpin future media legislation. New media culture is evolving slowly which in turn is shaping new experiences and enforcing a new work ethic. Comparing the past to the present, the press in Lesotho is enjoying relative freedom not experienced before." source

The incident with "MoAfrica" was magistrate

not a lone occurrence, the newspaper "the Mirror" has ran into trouble with Lesotho's government also. Currently many staff members of "the Mirror" are on trial in Lesotho facing charges of civil defamation. The accuser, Moeketsi Vincent Malebo, is demanding a 700,000 maloti ($112,000) compensation for an article written about him that he claims was slandering.
More about the "Mirror" trial here Lesotho Court House

The media diversity monitoring group MISA has said this regarding Lesotho's media policy: "the attitude of the Lesotho government toward media and freedom of expression is negative and out of tune with internationally accepted democratic principles." source

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Misc.

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Recent News

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