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The Lesotho General Election of 1970

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

W. J. A. Macartney
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Government and Opposition , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , 01 October 1973 , pp. 473 - 494
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Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1973

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References

1 E.g. Noel Harford, in The Star (Johannesburg), 28 July 1971.

2 Such was the reaction of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, cited in Sunday Times (Johannesburg), 8 February 1970; support for Jonathan's action came also from the Daily Telegraph (London), 2 February 1970.

3 ‘…there are among these people all the elements of a regular government, nearly allied to the representative form, which only require to be developed by the aid of Christianity, in order to furnish every possible security of justice and good administration.’ E. Casalis, The Basutos, J. Nisbet & Co., London, 1861, p. 236.

4 Sixty‐seven per cent of school‐age children were attending schools in 1967, according to The Star, 1 June 1967. A more recent estimate, taken from the 1966 census figures, was a national literacy rate of 40·7 per cent, The Friend (Bloemfontein), 6 January 1968.

5 Huntington, S. P., Political Order in Changing Societies, Yale University Press, 1968 Google Scholar, passim.

6 See Fisher, H. J., ‘Elections and Coups in Sierra Leone, 1967’, Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. VII, No. 4, 12 1969 Google Scholar.

7 The best accounts are to be found in Weisfelder, R. F., ‘Power Struggle in Lesotho’, Africa Report, Vol. XII, No. 1, 01 1967 Google Scholar; Stevens, R. P., Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland, Pall Mall, London, 1967 Google Scholar; Halpern, J., South Africa’s Hostages, Penguin, 1965 Google Scholar; and Spence, J. E., Lesotho, Oxford University Press, 1968 Google Scholar.

8 For 1965 see the SAPA (agency) report in the Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg), 30 April 1965; for 1970 see Rand Daily Mail, 27 January 1970. For the record, the only commentator to get his forecast right in 1970 was a student at the University of Botswana, Lesotho & Swaziland, J. Mbeki, Post (Johannesburg), 25 January 1970.

9 Chief Setenane Mapheleba. See Hansard of the National Assembly of Basutoland (printed), 13 July 1965, cols. 308–16.

10 See Macartney, W. J. A., ‘African Westminster? The Parliament of Lesotho’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. XXIII, No. 2, Spring 1970 Google Scholar. The government is responsible to the National Assembly alone; see the Lesotho Independence Order 1966 (hereinafter referred to as the Constitution), Section 72(4)(a).

11 Basutoland Congress Party, Summary of B.C.P. Struggle for Independence, 1912–1967, BCP, Cairo, 1967, pp. 18–23.

12 The colonial government’s defence would be that (a) the system was agreed to by all parties, and (b) if it had wanted to defeat the BCP it would have backed the MFP, which looked a stronger challenger to Congress than did the National Party. A detailed examination of all the points which caused friction can be found in P. B. Sanders (Chief Electoral Officer), Draft Report on the Basutoland General Election 1965 (photocopy in Rhodes House Library, Oxford).

13 Said to be two seats in the Cabinet. In the end one MFP member, Senator J. T. Mokotso, got an assistant minister’s post.

14 Report of the Basutoland Independence Conference, 1966, Cmnd. 3038, HMSO, London, 1966.

15 The Star, 13 August 1966.

16 Basutoland Council, Report of the Basutoland Constitutional Commission, Maseru, 1963.

17 BCP: black‐green‐red; BNP: green‐red‐white‐blue.

18 ‘Before any important public occasion it is, or was until recently, the custom for a great chief to send two specially doctored oxen driven by a naked runner through the night to the grave of Moshesh on the summit of Thaba Bosiu. At dawn the Chief himself arrives and he too climbs the mountain. The nature of the ceremony which takes place is kept secret; the appropriateness of the place selected is obvious.’ G. Tylden, The Rise of the Basuto, Juta, Cape Town/Johannesburg, 1950, p. 112. The British officer commanding the police at Thaba‐Bosiu was even likened to the Boer Commandant, L. Wepener (The Friend, 31 March 1967), who was killed in an attempt to storm Thaba‐Bosiu in 1865. D. C. F. Moodie, History of the Battles and Adventures of the British, the Boers, and the Zulus, & c., in Southern Africa, Murray & St. Leger, Cape Town, Vol. II, 1888, pp. 109–15.

19 It was a moot point whether the meeting was in fact unlawful. Post (Johannesburg), 16 July 1967.

20 Subsequently decorated by the British Queen for gallantry.

21 See Weisfelder, ‘Power Struggle in Lesotho’, loc. cit.

22 Interview with the writer, 23 February 1968.

23 See Macartney, art. cit.

24 Ibid. See also The Friend, 25 November 1967. Matete's following was concentrated in the mountainous Qacha's Nek and Mokhotlong districts.

25 Chief Mapheleba had succeeded to the leadership of the MTP on the death of Chief Matete.

26 See also R. F. Weisfelder, Defining National Purpose in Lesotho, Ohio University Papers in International Studies, Africa Series No. 3, Athens, Ohio, 1969.

27 I am grateful to the Bureau of Statistics, Maseru, for permitting access to their data.

28 Thirty‐eight of the sixty returning officers were clearly identifiable as falling within this category, Government Gazette (Extraordinary), Vol. IV, No. 55, 21 November 1969. Exactly half of the BNP parliamentary party were former Roman Catholic Mission school teachers, Weisfelder, ‘Power Struggle in Lesotho’, loc. cit.

29 1966 census figures.

30 Customs Union Agreement, Government Notice No. 193 of 1969, Government Gazette, Vol. IV, No. 58, 12 December 1969.

31 Hamnett, I., ‘Lesotho Dilemma’, New African, 04 1966 Google Scholar.

32 Molaetsa, 26 December 1969. Widely reported in the South African press, e.g. Die Burger (Cape Town), 28 November 1969.

33 Thus Chief Matete Majara, Minister of Agriculture, to a group of Orange Free State farmers: ‘Lesotho people know that if they see a White South African in Lesotho, he is someone who wants to help Lesotho.’The Friend, 28 June 1969.

34 E.g. The Friend, 25 January 1968. Two political refugees were actually handed over to South Africa in 1966, The Friend, 30 December 1966.

35 Each party is regularly accused of having received funds from the respective capital.

36 ‘Mpontše Metsoalle ea Hao’, n.d. (anon.).

37 Koena News, Department of Information, Maseru, Vol. IV, No. 10, 15 January 1970; ibid., Vol. IV, No. 11, 16 January 1970; ibid., Vol. IV, No. 16, 23 January 1970.

38 Koena News, Vol. III, No. 224, 24 November 1969, a warning repeated by A. C. Manyeli, Minister of Education and Culture, at a rally in Morija, Koena News, Vol. IV, No. 12, 19 January 1970.

39 The Friend, 18 November 1969.

40 Koena News, Vol. III, No. 226, 26 November 1969; ibid., Vol. IV, No. 1, 2 January 1970; ibid., Vol. IV, No. 17, 26 January 1970.

41 Ibid., Vol. IV, No. 6 January 1970.

42 Ibid., Vol. IV, No. 10, 15 January 1970.

43 The World (Johannesburg), 11 January 1970.

44 The Friend, 13 January 1970.

45 A fifth, S. M. Molomo, was nominated at ‘Masemouse, but withdrew before polling day, Koena News, Vol. III, No. 236, 10 December 1969. The Independent Nationalist candidate for Makhaleng, A. T. F. Foko, who was the National Party MP for the constituency before the dissolution, was formally expelled from the BNP. Ibid., Vol. IV, No. 12, 19 January 1970.

46 See Open Letter from Makotoko, ‘Lebaka la ho Lahleloa ha ka Matjoing’. (‘Why I was Deposed’), n.d.

47 This does not take account of the defection in 1967 of two BCP backbenchers to form the crossbench Lesotho Democratic Party. One of these, C. Mofeli, stood for the United Democratic Party in 1970.

48 At Thaba‐Moea the Congress candidate failed to file his nomination papers in time; subsequently BCP supporters were told to vote for the MFP candidate. (It was to be the MFP’s only gain.)

49 Passim.

50 The Friend, 18 November 1969; Sunday Times (Johannesburg), 30 November 1969; ‘In a radio broadcast yesterday Chief Jonathan… said that these rallies had confirmed that the ruling party had already won the forthcoming elections and that voting would be merely a constitutional formality.’Koena News, Vol. IV, No. 8, 13 January 1970.

51 It is noteworthy that in the three by‐elections held after the general election in 1965 the average swing from the BNP to the BCP had been 6·3 per cent. Three subsequent vacancies were never filled (Kolberg, ‘Maletsunyane and Qeme). The opposition view was that the government was afraid to test its popularity.

52 , M. H. and Stein, E. M., ‘Legal Aspects of the Lesotho Constitutional Crisis’, Ease African Law Journal, Vol. VI, No. 3, 09 1970 Google Scholar.

53 The Friend, 28 January 1970; this was after the report of the one serious incident of the campaign, the shooting of one man by the police at Bela‐Bela, Koeneng constituency, just after the polling station had closed at 5 p.m., Koena News, Vol. IV, No. 19, 28 January 1970.

54 Thus The Friend reported on 28 January 1970:‘It has certainly been the quietest election anyone could wish for, with no serious incidents reported.’

55 The Catholic Mission radio network was ordered not to relay results, as it had done in 1965, but it seems likely that it did pass them on (in French) from one mission station to another.

56 The Electoral Act 1968 provides (Section 58): ‘(1) When the counting of votes… has been completed, the returning officer shall declare by word of mouth, inside and outside the building in which the votes were counted, the candidate who has received the greater or the greatest number of votes, to be the duly elected member of the National Assembly for the constituency in which the poll was held, with effect from the date of the Polling day in respect of the election in question.… (3) The returning officer shall advise the Chief Electoral Officer and the electoral officer concerned, in the prescribed form… and shall cause a copy of such declaration to be posted on the principal outer door of the building where the votes were counted. (4) Any declaration by the returning officer under this section shall be final, subject to reversal on petition to the court that such declaration to be set aside’ (my italics).

57 Following the expression of doubts as to the impartiality of a single civil servant Chief Jonathan announced that a commission of international composition, under an internationally respected chairman, would be appointed, Rand Daily Mail, 3 February 1970. He subsequently reverted to the idea of an enquiry by A. S. Mohale, Lesotho’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Koena News, Vol. IV, No. 25, 8 February 1970.

58 Rand Daily Mail, 22 November 1966; The Friend, 4 August 1967; Weekend World, 19 October 1969.

59 The Friend, 20 April 1968.

60 Rand Daily Mail, 22 November 1966; Star, 6 February 1968; Die Beeld, 21 December 1969. The activities of the South African Police on Lesotho soil were strongly attacked by the BCP, The Friend, 27 December 1967.

61 Leselinyana, Vol. CIII, No. 4, 20 February 1970, summarizing a report in Post, 15 February 1970; and eye‐witness accounts.

62 See Stein and Stein, art. cit., for detailed treatment of this aspect.

63 If however the two government backbenchers who stood as Independent Nationalists, plus the crossbenchers, had voted against him, Jonathan would have lost the vote.

64 The full text of the press conference given by Chief Jonathan on 31 January 1970 is contained in Macartney, W. J. A. (ed.), Readings in Boleswa Government: Select Documents on the Government and Politics of Botswana, Lesotho & Swaziland, UBLS Printing Unit, Roma, Lesotho, Vol. II, 1971, pp. 134–42Google Scholar.

65 See note 28 supra.

66 The Friend, 6 February 1970.

67 On 31 March 1970, after 103 years of continuous publication; Government Gazette, Vol. V, No. 24, 10 April 1970. The banning order was lifted, on certain conditions, on 12 June 1970, Government Gazette, Vol. V No. 34.

68 Ibid., 9 February, Vol. V, No. 11. Police Commissioner Roach later appealed to white South African ex‐servicemen to help Jonathan fight communism, The Friend, 13 April 1971.

69 The Friend, 4 March 1970.

70 Ibid., 8 April 1970. The figures are not known exactly, but 200 coffins were reportedly ordered by the police, and no doctors were allowed in to the scene of the battle. It was reported that badly wounded men were given the coup de grace. See Khaketla, B. M., Lesotho 1970, Hurst, London, 1971 Google Scholar.

71 The Friend, 4 April 1970.

72 BCP publications distributed at the OAU included: The Recent Coup in Lesotho and The Banturtanisation of Lesotho– both weighty documents.

73 Thus the flag of the OAU was hoisted with much publicity by Chief Jonathan over the Prime Minister’s Office, The Friend, 13 March 1970.

74 Ibid., 15 June 1970.

75 Moeletsi, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 1799, 24 October 1970. Nevertheless, talk of a coalition government has remained the major political talking point. Ultimately, despite the combined opposition of Commissioner Roach and Chiefs ‘Maseribane and Peete, it appears that a coalition government including Mokhehle will be a sine qua non for restoring some degree of normality to the troubled kingdom.

76 One estimate ranks Lesotho as the third poorest country in the world. The per capita income has been estimated as R.42. See van der Merwe, E. J., ‘The Economy of Lesotho’ in Leistner, G. M. E. et al., Lesotho, Africa Institute of South Africa, Pretoria Google Scholar(collection of occasional papers).