'Robbed Of An Inheritance'

(MENAFN- The Post) MASERU – IT has only taken a radical approach from a little-known Lesotho opposition leader, Dr Tšepo Lipholo, to raise into the national consciousness the issue of Lesotho's“stolen land” and the need to claim it.

That is a surprise because the issue was at the centre of“congress parties” agenda during the struggle for self-determination in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Dr Lipholo came to the national limelight last year after he filed a motion in parliament seeking the return of Lesotho's stolen land.

That motion was swiftly thrown out.

The Lesotho government has reacted angrily to Dr Lipholo's push for the return of the land. It has since arrested Dr Lipholo accusing him of plotting a violent seizure of the“stolen land” and training Basotho youths for insurgency.

Dr Lipholo is now facing a treason charge.

This week, stalwarts of the“congress parties” that fought for the return of Lesotho's stolen land, joined the fray.

They said they are disappointed by the way the Sam Matekane-led government has responded to the land claims.

They said Lesotho governments, for decades, have turned their backs on the very essence of the“liberation struggle” which centred round the return of Lesotho's land seized by the colonial governments.

The fight for freedom, they say, was always about claiming the seized lands by the British government which were later ceded to the white South Africans in the 19th century.

The leader of the United Africa's Transformation (UAT), Dr Mahali Phamotse, says she was raised by parents and“the whole community that believed in the dream to return our stolen land”.

Her parents were members of the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) whose slogan was“ea khutla naha” (the land will come back), which she believes was the main factor in the party's popularity since its establishment.

“It was my expectation that once we took government our land would be returned back to our possession,” Dr Phamotse said.

“I want to register my disappointment that the BCP did not even whisper about this dream once it took over government in 1993,” she said.

The BCP won all 65 constituencies and ruled without opposition,“which meant that no one in parliament would oppose their move to start negotiating for the return of the land”.

Dr Phamotse, who as a child witnessed how her parents were persecuted for being active members of the BCP, said the fact that the land was never claimed means“all this suffering was in vain”.

She said even after the political demise of the BCP, its successor the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), Democratic Congress (DC), and All Basotho Convention (ABC)“sadly felt no need to negotiate for the return of the land”.

All these parties are chips of the once mighty BCP and“their leadership once raised their right hands in the air making the thumb and fist gesture and shouted ea khutla naha slogan”.

Dr Phamotse said it is sad that even today the current government does not see the need to negotiate for the return of the land.

“I think there should be a referendum over the issue so that the government of the day can be directly mandated by the people to go to South Africa to negotiate the return of the land,” she said.

“I will raise this issue in parliament.”

Dr Phamotse, however, strongly warned against employing violence in the claim for the stolen land, saying“it is a delicate security issue that if not handled with care might plunge the entire region into chaos”.

Another congress movement stalwart, Sello Maphalla, who served in the BCP's military wing Lesotho Liberation Army (LLA) as a captain during the struggle, says“our hopes were dashed when the BCP secretly dumped its main reason for existence, the return of our land from South Africa”.

Maphalla, who was an MP in the BCP, LCD, and ABC governments, said“we disappointed the people, I am personally disappointed that the ea khutla naha (slogan) never materialised”.

“I was raised with the doctrine that we should fight for the return of our land and I wholeheartedly believed in the cause,” Maphalla, who also witnessed how his parents suffered during the struggle, said.

“I still believe in the dream,” he said.

He said when the late Nelson Mandela visited Lesotho soon after South Africa's first democratic government was installed in 1994,“our hopes were that the time had come for the negotiations for the return of the land but our government said nothing about it”.

Instead, he said, the then Foreign Affairs Minister Molapo Qhobela told them that claiming the land would be against the African Union's resolution that boundaries in post-colonial Africa would be left as they were during colonialism.

“I believed in what he said because of the exposure he had and I never thought he was hiding anything from us,” he said.

“But deep down in my heart I still believed that we had been robbed of our inheritance, and I still believe so.”

However, Maphalla said there is no need for a referendum“because the UN made a resolution that South Africa should return the seized lands of Bechuanaland, Basutoland, and Swaziland”.

“I understand that the AU resolution cannot supersede the UN General Assembly's judgement,” he said.

The Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) spokesman, Lesolle Phalatsi, said the issue of land has always been key in the freedom struggle“because you cannot talk about freedom without land”.

However, Phalatsi also said he doesn't think there is a need to call for a referendum“because the people made the decision before you and I were born”.

“The fact that our forefathers fought and died in the battlefield for the land is enough to say this is what Basotho as a nation wants, their land,” Phalatsi said.

He said rich nations and organisations that have interests in the stolen territories can easily finance a campaign to reject the claim for the land.

“A referendum might not be to our benefit,” he said.

“The return of our land is every Mosotho child's dream, it is a fact.”

Caswell Tlali

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