BTI 2020 Country Report Lesotho This report is part of the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index (BTI) 2020. It covers the period from February 1, 2017 to January 31, 2019. The BTI assesses the transformation toward democracy and a market economy as well as the quality of governance in 137 countries. More on the BTI at https://www.bti-project.org. Please cite as follows: Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI 2020 Country Report — Lesotho. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2020. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Contact Bertelsmann Stiftung Carl-Bertelsmann-Strasse 256 33111 Gütersloh Germany Sabine Donner Phone +49 5241 81 81501 [email protected] Hauke Hartmann Phone +49 5241 81 81389 [email protected] Robert Schwarz Phone +49 5241 81 81402 [email protected] Sabine Steinkamp Phone +49 5241 81 81507 [email protected] BTI 2020 | Lesotho 3 Key Indicators Population M 2.1 HDI 0.518 GDP p.c., PPP $ 3223 Pop. growth1 % p.a. 0.8 HDI rank of 189 164 Gini Index 54.2 Life expectancy years 52.9 UN Education Index 0.510 Poverty3 % 78.1 Urban population % 28.2 Gender inequality2 0.546 Aid per capita $ 70.2 Sources (as of December 2019): The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2019 | UNDP, Human Development Report 2019. Footnotes: (1) Average annual growth rate. (2) Gender Inequality Index (GII). (3) Percentage of population living on less than $3.20 a day at 2011 international prices. Executive Summary During the period under review, Lesotho held yet another general election, which was the third in five years. The election resulted in yet another change of government, as the regime of Pakalitha Mosisili lost its majority in parliament. Mosisili’s political party, the Democratic Congress, was adversely affected by the split that resulted from his then-deputy Monyane Moleleki forming the Alliance of Democrats, which joined forces with other opposition parties to raise a motion of no confidence against Mosisili. Mosisili then opted to call snap elections in the hope of salvaging more seats, as the opposition had more seats in parliament as at February 2017. The government of Lesotho continued to meddle in the running of private businesses. There were two controversial pieces of legislations that left many wondering whether the government had been captured or not. Following a successful election campaign, Tom Thabane immediately appointed one of his campaign financers Xie Yan as Special Projects Head and Trade Adviser. Yan is a naturalized Chinese and has a number of firms doing business with government of Lesotho. One of Xie Yan’s businesses was given the monopoly as sole importer of red meat into the country, as soon as he assumed the position of trade adviser to Thabane. The government also awarded a number of projects to Chinese-owned companies without following procurement regulations under the pretext that local companies did not have the capacity to implement those projects. The biggest shock was when government introduced regulations to ban exports of unprocessed wool and mohair. The regulations were meant to help another Chinese national, Stone Shi, who is Managing Director of Maseru Dawning. Wool and mohair producers, who are mostly small-scale farmers, were left addled when the government introduced the Agricultural Marketing (Wool and Mohair Licensing) Regulations 2018. The government claimed to be enforcing a contract between Lesotho National Wool and Mohair Growers Association (LNWMGA) and Maseru Dawning, according to which farmers were said to benefit more than they used to when their produce was auctioned on the auction floors in the neighboring South Africa. BTI 2020 | Lesotho 4 The period under review was also marked by a spike in the number of murders and cases going cold. One of the most shocking cases was that of Lipolelo Thabane, the wife of Prime Minister Tom Thabane. Thabane was shot at her home just outside the capital city of Maseru. The suspects in the case have yet to be arrested and brought to justice. The change of government resulted in the discovery of missing people, who had been abducted and killed during the latter days of the Mosisili regime. One police officer died in the custody of his colleagues and was buried secretly in a mass grave. Others were civilians, who were dumped in the depth of Mohale Dam by soldiers. The suspects in these two cases are being charged in the high court of Lesotho. Thabane’s regime introduced a policy whereby police were encouraged to torture suspects. Many people have been permanently paralyzed and more than 30 have died in police custody in the period of 18 months. History and Characteristics of Transformation Lesotho is a beautiful mountainous country surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. The country owes its existence to the wisdom of Moshoeshoe I, who gathered small nations running away from King Shaka in the early 1800s. It became a British protectorate in 1886 before gaining independence from the colonial power in 1966. The country has experienced enormous challenges since then, as different groups have fought for control. The 1965 general elections were won by the Basotho National Party (BNP), which formed the first democratic government that ruled between 1966 and 1970. The 1970 election results were disputed and the BNP refused to relinquish power to the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP). Then followed a 16-year rule by BNP that was marred by conflict between armed forces and the Lesotho Liberation Army (LLA), a military wing of BCP. The BNP government was toppled by military coup in 1986. The Military Council ruled the country between 1986 and 1993 when the third general elections were held. BCP won all 65 constituencies and formed the second democratic government. Lesotho has held six other general elections since 1993. The BCP spilled in 1997 and a new party called the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) was formed by Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle and parliament to become the government. In the years that followed, Lesotho experienced several internal challenges to its legitimacy of the democratic state. In 1994, King Letsie III staged a military-backed coup and appointed an interim government, after he unsuccessfully tried to persuade the ruling BCP to reinstate his father, Moshoeshoe II, who was deposed and exiled after a fallout with the military government. Civil society groups mobilized all stakeholders in and outside Lesotho in order to put pressure on the king to revert to the constitution and reinstate a democratically elected government. A negotiated settlement resulted in the reinstatement of the BCP and Letsie III abdicated in favor of his father. He, however returned to the throne soon thereafter as the result of Moshoeshoe II’s death in an automobile accident. The second democratic elections since the return to democracy were held in 1998 and won by LCD. Although international election observers described the poll as free and fair, opposition parties and their followers contested the outcome and, as a result, widespread violence and looting were experienced in the country. That led to a Southern African Developed BTI 2020 | Lesotho 5 Community (SADC) military intervention that was led by South Africa and later joined by Botswana and Zimbabwe. The Government of Lesotho invited its Southern African counterparts to intervene as the state apparatus was completely paralyzed by the protesters. Lesotho’s democracy has always been characterized by drama and double standards. On February 28, 2012, Basotho woke up to the news that then-prime minister had formed a new political party. It was highly expected that the prime minister would unite with those that followed him. The country held general elections in May 2012, which resulted in no single party winning a simple majority. The three former opposition parties, namely the All Basotho Convention (ABC), the BNP and the LCD formed a coalition government. This was the first time in the history of Lesotho that parties had to join forces to form government. However, the coalition government collapsed due to corruption and lack of trust among the coalition partners. Eventually, the military attempted to overthrow the government in a foiled coup on August 30, 2014. Lesotho held early elections on February 28, 2015, after the intervention of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), instead of waiting for 2017 as was initially set by law. Since independence, Lesotho has engaged in comprehensive planning exercises, such as the National Development Plans (NDPs), Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) and the National Vision 2020. The country has tried many strategies in an attempt to address with structural challenges and implemented public sector reform programs to improve efficiency. The success of such programs, however, remains hampered by significant financial constraints and skill deficit. The National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP), which was a five-year plan, failed to take off and the period under review marked the last two years. There is no evidence of what has been achieved in the implementation of NSDP. Lesotho is now implementing NSDP II, which is not very different from the previous plan, as most developmental targets remain the same in both documents. Lesotho has been classified as a “least developed country” since the classification was introduced by the United Nations in 1971. Remittances have been the largest revenue earner for Lesotho. This followed the introduction of a household tax by the colonial regime that forced Basotho men to trade their labor in the mines of the neighboring Republic of South Africa around the turn of the twentieth century. An estimated two-thirds of the population lives in rural areas, with agriculture being their main source of livelihood. Lesotho is one of the largest producers of wool and mohair in the world, but this industry has been in the media spotlight for the wrong reasons recently.