Consolidating Democracy through integrating the Chieftainship Institution with elected Councils in Lesotho: A Case Study of Four Community Councils in Maseru A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Rhodes University By Motlamelle Anthony Kapa December 2010 Abstract This study analyses the relationship between the chieftainship institution and the elected councils in Lesotho. Based on a qualitative case study method the study seeks to understand this relationship in four selected councils in the Maseru district and how this can be nurtured to achieve a consolidated democracy. Contrary to modernists‟ arguments (that indigenous African political institutions, of which the chieftainship is part, are incompatible with liberal democracy since they are, inter alia, hereditary, they compete with their elective counterparts for political power, they threaten the democratic consolidation process, and they are irrelevant to democratising African systems), this study finds that these arguments are misplaced. Instead, chieftainship is not incompatible with liberal democracy per se. It supports the democratisation process (if the governing parties pursue friendly and accommodative policies to it) but uses its political agency in reaction to the policies of ruling parties to protect its survival interests, whether or not this undermines democratic consolidation process. The chieftainship has also acted to defend democracy when the governing party abuses its political power to undermine democratic rule. It performs important functions in the country. Thus, it is still viewed by the country‟s political leadership, academics, civil society, and councillors as legitimate and highly relevant to the Lesotho‟s contemporary political system. Because of the inadequacies of the government policies and the ambiguous chieftainship-councils integration model, which tend to marginalise the chieftainship and threaten its survival, its relationship with the councils was initially characterised by conflict. However, this relationship has improved, due to the innovative actions taken not by the central government, but by the individual Councils and chiefs themselves, thus increasing the prospects for democratic consolidation. I argue for and recommend the adoption in Lesotho of appropriate variants of the mixed government model to integrate the chieftainship with the elected councils, based on the re-contextualised and re-territorialised conception and practice of democracy, which eschews its universalistic EuroAmerican version adopted by the LCD government, but recognises and preserves the chieftainship as an integral part of the Basotho society, the embodiment of its culture, history, national identity and nationhood. i Acknowledgements This study could not have been successfully completed without different forms of support I received from many people and some institutions. I thank them all heartily for their invaluable contributions. I thank the government of Lesotho for paying all my fees and partially funding my field research. I thank the National University of Lesotho (NUL) for having granted me leave to study and for paying my dependants‟ allowance over the three year duration of my studies, and for having made available to me some funds for this thesis production. I am grateful to the office of the Dean of Humanities Rhodes University for allowing us (postgraduate students) to use the faculty‟s computer laboratory for our research. I also wish to acknowledge the staff - academic and administrative - of the Department of Political & International Studies at Rhodes University for their unwavering support and co-operation throughout my stay in Grahamstown. In particular, I am indebted to the Head of this Department, Professor Paul-Henri Bischoff and Professor Louise Vincent for all their personal efforts and for the support they extended to me. More importantly, I thank Dr. Thabisi Hoeane, my supervisor, for his professional guidance and reading and commenting critically and in great detail on every small part of both the proposal and this thesis. He stayed committed, at huge personal sacrifice, to seeing me through this process even after leaving Rhodes University. I am indebted to Professor F. K. Makoa, my academic mentor, lecturer and friend for his unrelenting inspiration, encouragement, motivation, and all sorts of supports he extended to me since I was an undergraduate student in the Department of Political & Administrative Studies, NUL. I also wish to thank Professor F. L. Moloi, also at the NUL, for her motherly encouragement, inspiration and motivation from my first year as an undergraduate student and editing this thesis. I wish to thank my colleagues and friends in the Department of Political & Administrative Studies (PAS), NUL, for moral support and motivation. They are: Dr. O. G. Mwangi, Mrs S. M. Hoohlo, Mr. M. Phafane, Mr. N. P. Selinyane, Mr. M. Monyake, Mrs S. R. Tšoeu-Ntokoane, (also for allowing me to use some of her books in preparation for this thesis), Mrs M. M. Mokhothu (for providing me with some material I needed for this work), and Mr T. W. Letsie for everything that he did for me and for my family and for sourcing the material that I needed for this work. ii I acknowledge all the respondents who agreed to take part in this study and shared their insights, knowledge and experiences with me. These are: government ministers, civil servants, leaders and senior members of the opposition parties, academics from the NUL, members of the civil society, councillors and secretaries in the four selected community councils and chiefs in the study area. My very special thanks go to my parents, Ntate Andreas Moea Molahlehi and `M`e Augustina `M`apinkie Kapa for having brought me up and making all the material sacrifices to see me, my brother and four sisters through primary and secondary education. My father, in particular instilled in me a strong passion for education, when I was an ordinary village boy. My pillar of strength, even during the most trying times, has been my family, my dear wife `M`e Anna `M`akananelo and our beloved sons, Charles Tšitso and Andreas Moea. I thank them for their unqualified love, unwavering support, encouragement, and inspiration and for the immeasurable emotional and material sacrifices they endured from the time when I started my graduate studies and could not be with them at home even when they needed me most. iii Dedication I dedicate this thesis to my mother (who passed away four days after I received the news that I have been awarded a PhD) and my loving wife and supportive partner of all time, `M`e `M`akananelo, our late lovely daughter, Margaret Kananelo, and her brothers, Tšitso and Moea. iv Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ................................................................................................................................ iv List of acronyms ..................................................................................................................... viii List of tables and figures ............................................................................................................x CHAPTER ONE General Overview of the Study 1.1. Introduction and context of the study ..................................................................................1 1.2. Justification for the study ....................................................................................................4 1.3. Key research questions ........................................................................................................5 1.4. Research goals .....................................................................................................................6 1.5. Research orientation and approach ......................................................................................6 1.6. Methodology and data generation strategies .......................................................................7 1.6.1. Case study ........................................................................................................................7 1.6.2. Data generation methods ................................................................................................10 1.6.2.1. Sampling methods .......................................................................................................11 1.6.2.2. Sources of data ............................................................................................................11 1.6.2.3. Sources of primary data: face-to-face interviews, observations of Community Council meetings. ..................................................................................................................................12 1.6.2.4. Focus group discussions ..............................................................................................18 1.6.2.5. Sources of secondary data ...........................................................................................19 1.7. Data processing and analysis .............................................................................................19 1.8. Ethical considerations........................................................................................................20