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dam-l BBC on Lesotho corruption/LS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/from_our_own_correspondent/newsid_555
000/555995.stm
Friday, 10 December, 1999, 09:30 GMT
Lesotho's white gold
Bribery has tarnished Lesotho's white gold
By Nick Squires in Lesotho
There's a car bumper sticker popular in Lesotho these days which
reads The Big Turn On - Lesotho's White Gold Flows to South
Africa. It refers to the successful inauguration of one of
Africa's
biggest and most ambitious engineering schemes - the Lesotho
Highlands Development Project.
Work started over a decade ago and the idea is to build a complex
series of tunnels and dams in Lesotho's sparse, rugged Maloti
Mountains to provide water for export to drought-prone
Johannesburg, hundreds of miles to the north.
But "the big turn on" has proved to be a bit of a turn off,
both for
Lesotho's international reputation and for the people affected by
the building of the dam.
Bribes
A former head of the dam development authority has been found
liable in a civil court for accepting around $2m in bribes from
international construction companies. Those firms are now
themselves in the dock.
Hundreds of people have been moved from their homes, in the
bare uplands of central Lesotho, complaining vociferously to
environmental groups and the media. And many Basotho say the
agreement under which the scheme is being built is unfair, having
been negotiated back in the 80s by Lesotho's then military
dictatorship and South Africa's apartheid regime.
Lesotho's relations with South Africa touch on almost every
aspect of its affairs. It is, after all, one of only a handful of
countries entirely surrounded by another state.
Demonstrations
"Lesotho has no meaningful
sovereignty to speak of," a
political scientist at the tiny
University of Lesotho told me.
"South Africa," he said, "is
basically in charge." Stark
evidence of that came just over a
year ago, when South African
troops were sent into Lesotho.
There had been demonstrations
in the streets of the capital,
Maseru, following claims by
opposition parties that the recent
general election had been rigged.
The government feared a coup.
Pretoria called it "an
intervention" - many Basotho
viewed it as a hostile invasion. Either way, it was a
confused and
messy affair. Fighting broke out between South African and
Basotho troops, and many South African-owned businesses were
burned to the ground.
Roof of Africa Rally
Things are now slowly getting back to normal. Last month,
dozens of South African off-road driving enthusiasts descended
on Lesotho for the annual Roof of Africa Rally, which last year
had to be cancelled.
Huge crowds turned out to watch a procession of noisy,
fume-belching jeeps, motorcycles and quadbikes hurtle around the
potholed streets of downtown Maseru before heading up into the
mountains.
The event was a welcome boost for Lesotho's economy - and for
the numerous prostitutes who hang around the big glitzy hotels.
Local politics is also returning to normal. There's a healthy
number of parties in Lesotho, and they spend much of their time
squabbling with each other over - well, it's hard to say,
really.
What exactly are the issues that divide Basotho politics? I asked
one respected political pundit. "Nothing," he said. "Absolutely
nothing. It's all personality driven".
Days of independence numbered
The private sector in Lesotho is still small, he told me,
with few
opportunities. Anyone who wants to get on has to set his or her
sights on public office. Hence the bitter infighting, and
persistent
allegations of corruption and nepotism.
Sitting above all this is the 30-something bachelor King of
Lesotho, the British public school-educated Letsie III. The
king is
hamstrung by the constitution and rarely talks to the press,
but his
brother, Prince Seiso Bereng Seiso, is much more outspoken.
A dapper 34-year-old, with a penchant for designer sunglasses
and cowboy hats, he has a reputation as a bit of a playboy. The
constitution, he says, makes a mockery of his brother's position,
and should be overhauled. The king should have the power to be
able to intervene in politics in times of crisis, unlike
last year when
he had to remain silent behind the palace gates.
But the days of the monarchy, or at least of an independent
Lesotho, could be numbered. Most of the country's future elite -
the undergraduates at the university - believe that Lesotho
cannot
continue to survive alone and will, eventually, have to
merge with
big brother South Africa. Regrettable, they say - but
inevitable.
Lesotho's "white gold" - those millions of gallons of cool water
being pumped daily to the thirsty cities of South Africa -
may not,
after all, be enough to keep this small, proud country afloat.
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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