Life in Mandela's South Africa

On South Africa's invasion of Lesotho

What was probably a blip on the radar screen as far as the rest of the world is concerned has caused an outcry down here in South Africa -- the invasion of Lesotho by South African Development Community (SADC) troops on 22 September 1998.

The supposed reason for the invasion (or "intervention", depending on your point of view) was to prevent a coup d'etat and to restore order. The result was the complete opposite -- Lesotho citizens went on an orgy of looting and burning while the invaders were shelling the Lesotho Defence Force.

The trouble started in May, when the opposition parties in Lesotho refused to accept an election result which gave the Lesotho Congess for Democracy (LCD) 79 out of 80 parliamentary seats. The opposition organised protests and a sit-in at the palace of King Letsie III, and eventually forced the leaders of the military to resign at gunpoint, forced the radio station to cease broadcasting and started hijacking government vehicles. South Africa became involved when one of her Constitutional Court judges, Justice Pius Langa, was tasked with investigating the outcome of the elections. The resultant Langa Report was withheld from the opposition parties, and differences of opinion as to who exactly should release it began to emerge. When it was finally released (2 weeks after its due date), it stated that irregularities had taken place, but did not go so far as to say that a new election should take place. In addition, it appeared to have been tampered with -- the index did not tally with the pages in the report.

Not surprisingly, both the LCD and the opposition parties claimed that the report vindicated their position. It was at this point that SADC (supposedly, but in reality only South African troops were involved -- Botswanan troops were added 24 hours later) launched its invasion, much to the embarrassment of the diplomates who were still trying to forge a solution. Reminds one of Pearl Harbour ...

There was no ultimatum of any sort -- just a casual Here We Are We're South Africa And Everyone Loves Madiba So Just Surrender. Needless to say, the resistance was "stiffer than we expected" (read: we didn't do our homework and marched in like a bunch of amateurs) and 9 South African soldiers and a still-unknown number (estimated at 60) of Lesotho soldiers died perfectly needlessly.

So much for the background. What this episode serves to illustrate is the hypocrisy of the South African government:

• South Africa condemned Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia for sending troops into the Democratic Republic of Congo

• The supposed purpose of the intervention was to prevent a coup d'etat, but South Africa has awarded the Order of Good Hope to Presidents Suharto of Indonesia and Gadaffi of Libya and invited President Castro of Cuba to speak in its parliament -- hardly the most democratic of countries!

• The ANC government has consistently accused the old (apartheid) government of destabilising neighbouring countries -- only to go the whole hog and destroy one itself !

• The opposition parties were trying to ensure that their democratic rights were being upheld ! Does any election, no matter how fraudulent, guarantee democracy? In Cuba and South Africa that seems to be the case!

This episode only serves to show that after 4 years in power, the ANC knows less about what it is doing with each passing day. Lives have been lost needlessly, and all Mandela can come up with is that South Africa "did the right thing" and that Lesotho citizens have "only themselves to blame". Can this truly be the Nobel Laureate who has just received the US Congressional Gold Medal? I think not!

The latest chapter in this sorry tale is South African deputy president Thabo Mbeki announcing on South African television on 2 October 1998 (1 day after fresh talks chaired by South African Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi started) that the parties had agreed to fresh elections and that the LCD would stay in power until then. The next day, Lesotho opposition coalition spokesman Mamelo Morrison stated that this was "a lie" and that no such agreement had taken place! In any other country, this government would have been sent packing a long long time ago, but , this being South Africa, I suppose we'll just have to lurch from one crisis to the next.

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