Lesotho's Dependency to Other Nations

In 1987, an estimated 45 percentage of Lesotho's male labor force was employed as migratory workers in due south Africa, by 1990, this proportion had fallen by seven percent (Africa 482). South Africa has repeatedly threatened to deliver all migrants, a move that would have a ravage impact on Lesotho's economy.

Lesotho has few industries of its own to support its economy. Unemployment is estimated at 22 percent of the labor force (Brophy 12). Agricultural toss off supports about 80 percent of the resident labor force, even only about 10 percent of Lesotho's land is fitting for arable agriculture (Africa 482). High quality wool and mohair be the country's major exports. Lesotho's government has been unsuccessful in its efforts to develop manufacturing and go industries. About 95 percent of Lesotho's estimated 1.8 million residents live in rural areas. Lesotho's hopes for greater economic self-sufficiency are pinned on the success of the Highlands urine Project, a development being jointly pursued with South Africa. pissing is Lesotho's major undeveloped resource. The Highlands Water Project will pump the headwaters of the Orange River in Lesotho to the change industrial areas of South Africa. The vagabond will involve dams, tunnels, and canals. An added deliver of the project is the installation of electric turbines that will make Lesotho self-supporti

Many Lesotho residents, however, are doubtful that the Highlands Water Project is in the best interests of their country. The feeling among the common throng is that the Lesotho leaders curried the favor of South African officials when the agreement for the project was sign-language(a). The people hope that their new government will be more assertive. Although the project will make Lesotho self-sufficent in impairment of electricity, few houses in this underdeveloped nation have penetration to electricity. Also, the project is expected to displace 20,000 subsistence farmers. Another inequity is that Lesotho mustiness come up with its own funding for its hydroelectric generating facility.

The policy-making leaders of Lesotho are pushing for a renegotiation of the project's treaty signed in 1986, in hopes that the new black-majority government in South Africa will be more responsive than the previous white-ruled government.

Lesotho receives orthogonal aid from several sources, including the United States. The continuity of these sources is uncertain. The end of apartheid and the preference of a black-controlled government in South Africa may swop considerable foreign aid resources to that country, leaving nations like Lesotho to avow on their own resources: "Lesotho increasingly finds its miners coming home indolent and its foreign aid threatened as donors shift fury to the needs of a new South Africa" (Kelso 43).

The military seized antecedent from Chief Jonathan in a coup staged in 1986. The South African government denied involvement in the coup, scarce opened Lesotho's border shortly thereafter. The military government pronto established a new ban on ally activity. In order to legitimize its rule, the military staged a royal coup by installing King Letsie III, the son of exiled King Moshoeshoe II, as the official monarch in 1990.

Kelso, B.J. "An unsettled Future." Africa Report, March/April 1993: 40-43.

Brophy, Gwenda. "Lesotho." Population Today, March 1990:
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