Two Historic Kingdoms in Southern Africa

Henry Srebrnik, [Summerside, PEI] Journal Pioneer

Two historic native kingdoms, Lesotho and Swaziland, are virtually embedded within South Africa. Along with Botswana, they were known as High Commission territories when under British protection.

Lesotho, formerly known as Basutoland, was a landlocked country, oval in shape and an enclave within South Africa. Swaziland was one of the smallest countries in Africa and apart from sharing a short border with the Portuguese colony of Mozambique it too was completely surrounded by South Africa.

Moshoeshoe I of Lesotho in 1868 petitioned Britain to protect his people from the encroaching Afrikaaners after losing a large part of his territory to the Orange Free State.

After the Union of South Africa was created in 1910, the British government appointed the Governor-General of South Africa as High Commissioner under a separate commission. After apartheid South Africa left the Commonwealth in 1961, the office was abolished.

The two protectorates were relatively isolated, and only limited funds were made available for the provision of social services, education, soil conservation, and infrastructure development. This assistance did little to reduce the territories’ dependence on migrant labour to South Africa.

An important reason for this neglect was the assumption made by successive British governments that their future status was uncertain, particularly in view of South Africa’s repeated claim that the territories were geographically part of the country, largely dependent on the latter’s economy, and therefore should be transferred to South Africa’s jurisdiction.

However South Africa’s segregation policies and the opposition of local chiefs halted the possibility of annexation. Lesotho gained its independence in 1966 (as did Botswana) and Swaziland two years later.

The Kingdom of Lesotho is just over 30,000 square kilometres in size. A constitutional monarchy under King Letsie III, virtually its entire population of more than two million is Sotho.

The economy of Lesotho is based on agriculture, livestock, manufacturing and mining, and depends heavily on inflows of workers’ remittances.

Lesotho has had a somewhat turbulent history since 1968. The Basotho National Party (BNP) was founded in 1959 and led by Leabua Jonathan, who was prime minister from 1965 until a coup in 1986.

Led by Justin Lekhanya, who was commander of the army, the new regime sought to improve relations with South Africa, which were strained due to Jonathan’s support of the African National Congress.

Lekhanya was ousted in 1991 and in the 1993 legislative elections the Basutoland Congress Party won a landslide victory; its leader, Ntsu Mokhehle, became prime minister.

The party was rent by internal quarrels, though, and Mokhehle left in 1997 to form the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD).

The new party won the election of 1998 under Pakalitha Mosisili, but opposition political groups rejected the results and rioting left much of Maseru in ruins.

The LCD remained in power but prior to the 2012 vote it split apart, with Mosisili forming the Democratic Congress. He lost to his former colleague, Thomas Motsoahae Thabane, who had formed the All Basotho Convention.

Last year an abortive military coup took place, forcing Thabane to briefly flee to South Africa. This resulted in an early election, which Thabane lost to Mosisili this past February.

The Kingdom of Swaziland’s 1.25 million people are ruled by a absolute monarch. King Mswati III ascended to the throne in 1986. He rules with the assistance of a council of ministers and a national legislature and appoints the country’s prime ministers. Political parties are banned from taking part in elections.

The country and its people take their names from Mswati II, the 19th-century king under whose rule Swazi territory was unified.

In 1881 the British government recognised Swazi independence. However, in 1903, following the Boer war, Swaziland became a British protectorate.

The 1990s saw a rise in student and labour protests pressuring the king to introduce reforms, culminating in the introduction of a constitution in 2005. The first election under the new constitution took place in 2008, and Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini was appointed prime minister by the king.

Mswati has been criticized for his lavish lifestyle, in a country where 80 per cent of the people live on less than two dollars per day.

As well, human-rights problems in Swaziland include extrajudicial killings by security forces; police use of torture on detainees; and restrictions on freedoms of assembly, speech and the press.