Lesotho: Emergence of political parties and leaders

Extracted from: "Lesotho" IN Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa (2002), edited by Tom Lodge, Denis Kadima and David Pottie, EISA, 90-91.

By 1950 calls for self-determination and equality, reverberating throughout Africa, were heard in Lesotho too. South African politics continued to influence politics in Lesotho. The possibility (since 1910) of Lesotho being incorporated with South Africa remained a political bugbear (as in Botswana and Swaziland) until it became a non-issue after South Africa's adoption of a republican constitution and the country's withdrawal from the Commonwealth in 1961. Many Basotho supported the defiance campaign against South Africa's apartheid regime.

Basotho migrant workers, in particular, had firsthand experience of apartheid. They were forced to work on the mines and on farms in South Africa as a result of deteriorating socioeconomic conditions in their country. Population pressure had led to over-use of both arable and grazing land, resulting in extensive soil erosion. As agricultural resources declined the Basotho farmers became increasingly unable to compete with the state-subsidised commercial farming sector in South Africa. The country came to be seen as a ready source of cheap labour by both the South African industries and the British authorities. Apart from its disruptive effects on family life, the migrant labour system discouraged agricultural and industrial development in Lesotho. Consequently, the bulk of the population subsisted in abject poverty.

Discontent and desire for change gave birth to a nationalist movement, the Basutoland African Congress in 1952. The founder-leader was Ntsu Mokhehle, a 34-year old teacher, who had obtained an MSc degree at the University College of Fort Hare in the Cape Province. At Fort Hare he had also joined the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League. His party was later renamed the Basutoland Congress Party and, more recently, the Basotho Congress Party (BCP). Following the break away of the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) from the ANC in 1959, Mokhehle switched his support to the PAC, led by Robert Sobukwe. Both the PAC and the BCP eventually obtained some financial assistance from Communist China. Joe Matthews, a member of both the ANC and the SA Communist Part (SACP) opposed Mokhehle's break with the ANC. Matthews was a South African lawyer who had fled to Lesotho in the late 1950s where he became involved in politics. In 1960 he helped to set up the Communist Party of Lesotho (CPL), which maintained close links with the SACP and the ANC. By the mid-1960's Matthews had left Lesotho but the CPL has existed to this day. It participated in an election only once, in 1970.

Having brought together the intense and uncompromising nationalism of the ruralist Commoners League and the more sophisticated strategies of the elitist Progressive Association, Mokhehle nevertheless demanded immediate self-government rather than independence. The BCP attracted most commoners and some chiefs, but Mokhehle's antagonism towards the Basotho monarchy caused concern among the royalists. In 1957 they left the BCP to form the Marematlou Party. Five years later they merged with the Basutoland Freedom Party, which had also hived off from the BCP, to form the Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP). The party supported Moshoeshoe II, the new paramount chief (born in 1938), who was inaugurated on 12 March 1960 after two decades under the regency of Chieftainess Mantsebo. Its objective was to fight for a constitution that would give the future king of an independent Lesotho real powers.

Another split in the BCP came about as a result of Catholic concerns about Mokhehle's radical socialist rhetoric and his admiration for Red China. In 1958 Catholic chiefs and teachers formed the Basutoland National Party (later renamed Basotho National Party (BNP)) to counter what they perceived as communism on the part of the BCP. Chief Leabua Jonathan, a member of the National Council and an adviser to the regent, led the BNP. Jonathan descended from Malapo, the second son of King Moshoeshoe I, and was therefore a lesser chief. Jonathan was more concerned about the interests of this group of chiefs, than the future role of the king. Moreover, his willingness to work within a framework of good relations with South Africa made him popular in conservative circles, including the South African government.