Lesotho intends to claim certain parts of South Africa
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Who would’ve thought that almost three decades later under democracy, South Africa (RSA) would find themselves having to hear about the Kingdom of Lesotho wanting claim certain parts as theirs!!!
The country which is sitting within RSA and a population three times less than the City of Johannesburg says soon after this festive season will be proposing a motion to reclaim certain parts of RSA.
A document made it’s to social media earlier this week and was heavily circulated among social media users with some of them seeing it as mockery.
Some extracts from the circular allegedly from the Kingdom’s Parliament intending to claim parts of RSA from different provinces.
“The Honourable House resolves, pursuant of Section 1(2) of the Constitution, to declare the whole of the Free State, parts of the Northern Cape, parts of the Eastern Cape, parts of Mpumalanga and parts of KwaZulu-Natal as comprising the territory of the Kingdom of Lesotho,” reads the notice.
According to a government notice of 12 December, the “reclamation of Lesotho territory” will be pursued under the United Nations Resolution 1817 (XVII), which was passed by the General Assembly at its 1 196th Plenary Meeting of 18 December 1962.
Lesotho History
(source: Wikipedia)
The present Lesotho (then called Basotholand) emerged as a single polity under King Moshoeshoe I in 1822. Under Moshoeshoe I, Basotho joined other clans in their struggle against the Lifaqane associated with famine and the reign of Shaka Zulu from 1818 to 1828.
Subsequent evolution of the state was shaped by contact with the British and Dutch colonists from Cape Colony. Missionaries invited by Moshoeshoe I developed orthography and printed works in the Sesotho language between 1837 and 1855. The country set up diplomatic channels and acquired guns for use against the encroaching Europeans and the Korana people.
Territorial conflicts with both British and Boer settlers arose periodically, including Moshoeshoe’s notable victory over the Boers in the Free State–Basotho War, but the final war in 1867 with an appeal to Queen Victoria, who agreed to make Basotholand a British suzerainty.[3] In 1869, the British signed a treaty at Aliwal with the Boers that defined the boundaries of Basotholand and later Lesotho, which by ceding the western territories effectively reduced Moshoeshoe’s kingdom to half its previous size.
The extent to which the British exerted direct control over Basotholand waxed and waned until Basotholand’s independence in 1966, when it became the Kingdom of Lesotho. However, when the ruling Basotho National Party (BNP) lost the first post-independence general elections to the Basotho Congress Party (BCP), Leabua Jonathan refused to cede and declared himself Tona Kholo (Sesotho translation of prime minister). The BCP began an insurrection that culminated in a January 1986 military coup, that then forced the BNP out of office.
Power was transferred to King Moshoeshoe II, until then a ceremonial monarch, but forced into exile when he lost favour with the military the following year. His son was installed as King Letsie III. Conditions remained tumultuous, including an August 1994 self-coup by Letsie III, until 1998 when the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) came to power in elections which were deemed fair by international observers. Despite protests from opposition parties, the country has remained relatively stable since.
