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Lesotho: Lesotho Government
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Lesotho is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. King Letsie III is the head of state but has no executive authority. In 2002, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili was re-elected in what were judged to be free and fair elections. The government works to respect the civil and human rights of its citizens; ... some serious abuses were reported in the past year. Police and security forces have been known to use excessive force and torture against detainees, often with impunity. The judiciary is subject to external influences and due process cannot be guaranteed.
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Lesotho is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy and is governed under the constitution of 1993. The king is head of state but has no executive or legislative powers. The government is headed by a prime minister, who is the leader of the majority party in the Assembly. There is a bicameral Parliament. The 33-member Senate consists of the 22 principal chiefs and 11 other members appointed by the ruling party. Of the 120 members of the Assembly, 80 are elected by popular vote and 40 by proportional vote, all for five-year terms.
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Small, landlocked, and mountainous, Lesotho relies on remittances from miners employed in South Africa and customs duties from the Southern Africa Customs Union for the majority of government revenue. However, the government has recently strengthened its tax system to reduce dependency on customs duties. Completion of a major hydropower facility in January 1998 now permits the sale of water to South Africa and ... generates royalties for Lesotho. Lesotho produces about 90% of its own electrical power needs. As the number of mineworkers has declined steadily over the past several years, a small manufacturing base has developed based on farm products that support the milling, canning, leather, and jute industries, as well as a rapidly expanding apparel-assembly sector. The latter has grown significantly mainly due to Lesotho qualifying for the trade benefits contained in the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act.
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Irish Aid’s bilateral support is governed by a Country Strategy Paper, which is agreed with the Lesotho government. The current programme covers the period 2005-2007. A new programme for the period 2008-2012 is currently being designed and will be completed in mid-2008. The current bilateral programme focuses on five sectors: HIV and AIDS, Education, Health, Rural Water and Sanitation, and Governance. The programme has a clear poverty focus with particular attention paid to rural communities located in the remote mountain districts of the country where poverty is most acute.
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Lesotho’s military government allowed free legislative elections in 1993. The BCP won every seat and elected Mokhehle prime minister. However, in August 1994 King Letsie, claiming to be responding to popular dissatisfaction with the Mokhehle administration, dissolved the cabinet. After other African leaders, including South African president Nelson Mandela, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, and Botswanan president Quett Ketumile Joni Masire, criticized Letsie, he restored power to Mokhehle in September. In 1995 Letsie abdicated and restored the crown to his father, Moshoeshoe II, who pledged to uphold the constitution. On January 15, 1996, Moshoeshoe II was killed in an automobile accident on his way back to Maseru from inspecting his cattle herds.
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The government of Lesotho was initially slow to recognise the scale of the crisis, and its efforts to date in combating the spread of the disease have had limited success. In 1999, the government finalised its Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS, a diagram for addressing the education, prevention, counseling, and treatment needs of the populace. In late 2003, the government announced that it was forming a new National AIDS Commission to coordinate society-wide anti-AIDS activities. Also in 2003 the government hosted a SADC Extraordinary Summit on HIV/AIDS.
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Lesotho Government