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The Kingdom of Lesotho is one of the poorest countries in the world. In order to get more money into the state coffers, the government exports water to neighboring South Africa. Lesotho’s ecosystems and local village communities suffer as a result.

Cool spring water flows from two metal pipes that protrude from a concrete block. A shepherd is watering his sheep here, two girls are filling buckets and canisters with water. It comes directly from the mountains that surround the village of Ha Lejone in the Lesotho highlands. Transporting it is arduous: the girls bring it home in wheelbarrows and balancing it on their heads.

Access to clean drinking water is limited, as in many areas of Lesotho. But here it stands in stark contrast to the masses of water in the valley. Right next door, the huge Katse Dam glistens in the sun – the heart of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. It consists of dams, tunnel systems, pumping stations and power plants. The water is not intended for Lesotho, but for export to South Africa.The supply of food to her village has not improved, says Mammpole Molapo. On the contrary:”Before this project, we had an abundance of water here. But the road and dam construction work damaged many of the pipes that used to bring water to our village. There were promises that they would be repaired, but that has not happened in all these years. And so our village is short of water.”Molapo is the traditional village leader in Ha Lejone, a female chief. Her home village is located at an altitude of around 2,300 meters on the northern shore of the Katse Dam.

The villages have not benefited from water exports

Here, small shops line the streets and men load sheep onto a pickup truck. Some houses are traditionally built from natural stone, covered in grass and round. Modern, rectangular houses with corrugated iron roofs can also be seen in the landscape.

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Leonie March in conversation with the village head of Ha Lejone: Mammpole Molapo. In the background is NGO employee Mothusi Seqhee.© Roger Jardine

Ha Lejone used to be difficult to reach via unpaved mountain passes. Since the tarmac road was built in the 1990s as part of the dam project, it has become easier to travel to the lowlands. The road construction is being touted by Lesotho’s government as an advantage, as are hydroelectric power and water charges, which brought around 58 million euros into the small kingdom’s coffers last year alone. Part of this should go towards the development of villages like Ha Lejone.But that is not the case, says village mayor Molapo. The bottom line is that her life has not improved. The small-scale farming life of her childhood no longer exists.”We used to have a decent life. We were subsistence farmers and grew enough to feed our families. But many fields and pastures have been flooded for the project. Natural resources that we used are now under water too. For example, medicinal plants. They are now only available in a botanical garden, but that is at the other end of the reservoir. It is a long, expensive journey for us. We also have to pay for the medicinal plants there.”Molapo looks out over the steep, rocky mountain slopes. Shepherds drive their cattle across the landscape on foot and on horseback: cows, sheep, Angora goats. There are no fenced pastures. The land is traditionally used by everyone. Since the valley was flooded, only the slopes remain.

Dams change ecosystems

In many places they appear to be terraced and erosion is increasing. This is also fatal for the water supply: wetlands, which play an important role in the alpine ecosystem, storing and filtering water, are increasingly under pressure, says ecologist Peter Chatanga.”Some of the roads lead through such wetlands. This changes their hydrology, for example they become more easily silted and can no longer fulfil their function as water reservoirs. The dams also change the ecosystem and reduce the pastureland, which in turn leads to overgrazing. Since these areas in the highlands have become more accessible, the population has also increased. This also increases the man-made pressure on the wetlands.”

The Katse Dam near Ha Lejone filled the valley with water.© Roger JardineAdd to that climate change: in the face of a drought, Lesotho had to reduce water exports to South Africa in 2020 for the first time in ten years. And this trend could continue. More droughts, more floods, a less predictable rainy season.Climate change will manifest itself in more extremes in Lesotho, says Henrik Hartmann of the German Society for International Cooperation, GIZ, in Lesotho. However, a study also shows that climate change is not the only reason for the steadily falling water levels in reservoirs over the past 20 years.”There is strong evidence that it is due to the destruction of ecosystems. And this study that we have carried out also shows the consequences that would have. If you assume that the water transfer to Johannesburg could be interrupted by 50 percent, that would have enormous effects on the metropolis itself. You can assume that there will be a ten or eleven percent economic contraction. You can assume that a million jobs will be lost. You can also assume that in Lesotho itself, due to the loss of income, enormous savings will have to be made – in the areas of health and education. In that respect, this is a relevant problem, not just ecologically, but also economically and socially.”

50 to 60 percent of people live in absolute poverty

The income from water exports accounts for a significant portion of the national budget in Lesotho. The country is one of the poorest in the world. If income falls, the resources for poverty reduction also shrink. However, this is crucial for protecting ecosystems, explains Henrik Hartmann of GIZ.”The root cause of ecosystem damage in Lesotho is poverty. It is because people have no other sources of income than subsistence farming. We see this in some of the areas where we work: According to the official definition of absolute poverty – US$1.90 – 50 to 60 percent of people are below that. This means that we are dealing with people who are chronically food insecure. And you cannot approach this with a protection approach where you say: it is now only about protecting the ecosystems.”Therefore, it is not just about establishing new protected areas, but about using natural resources more sustainably. These can be simple solutions, such as growing new crops that require less water than maize, which has dominated until now. Or building drinking troughs on the edge of wetlands. This allows herders to water their livestock without entering the sensitive ecosystems. Environmental protection, poverty reduction and economic development must go hand in hand.Villages like Ha Lejone on the edge of the large dams had also hoped for a better life, a way out of poverty. The responsible government agency, the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority, had promised tourism projects and the establishment of fishing businesses, among other things. But the results are sobering.

Villagers’ legal battle against the government

The village committee of Ha Lejone has gathered in a small room to discuss what to do next. Men and women sit on wooden benches wrapped in blankets and listen to the news that Mothusi Seqhee brings from the capital, Maseru. He works for the Seinoli Legal Centre – a non-governmental organization of lawyers that represents the interests of the rural population and reports on the long struggle of the villagers.”The contract was signed by Lesotho and South Africa in October 1986, and construction work on the dam began about three years later. The people here and in the other affected areas were promised a better life and compensation. For example, for the loss of pastureland. At first they received animal feed, regardless of whether they had livestock or not. After that there was financial compensation, but only until 2004. Then no money was paid for years, even though annual payments had been agreed. So we went to court and won in 2015.”But the fight is not over yet. The Lesotho Highlands Development Authority said it had stopped payments due to cases of mismanagement in the communities. Now the villagers are obliged to set up committees, document their expenses precisely, have them approved by auditors and even submit business plans.”The intention may have been good, but the implementation is a problem. The responsible authority did not support the committees as intended, for example in drawing up business plans. The people here did their best. They proposed various projects, including a trout farm for the local market. But all their ideas were rejected – and without giving any concrete reasons. In other words: the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority is not interested in the development of these communities. At the same time, it is keeping money that does not belong to it.”NGO employee Mothusi Seqhee alludes to both the lack of compensation payments and the corruption scandals of recent years: funds were embezzled, bribes were paid, and even prison sentences were imposed. Corruption is also considered to be the reason why the completion of the second phase of the bilateral project between Lesotho and South Africa has been delayed by years. In this case, the South African side is under suspicion. Instead of 2019, more water will now only flow to South Africa in 2026. For Lesotho, this means that revenues will not increase. And for South Africa, it means that water is becoming scarce in the Gauteng economic region around Johannesburg, where twelve million people live.

Construction work for another dam

Clean drinking water is already rare in Masakong. The small village is located on a bend in the river, where another dam is to be built as part of the second phase of the project. Heavy construction machines drive over the new tarred road, dust blows over the former pastureland and fallow fields of small farmers. A fence has been built around their village, and the path to the river is also blocked. Residents like Lebohang Lengoasa have been waiting for years to be relocated.”We lead a miserable life. We are literally surrounded here and have lost our livelihood: our fields and our livestock. My animals died in the last drought, others ate plastic waste that was not here before. But we are still waiting for the promised compensation, jobs and relocation of our village.”Lengoasa takes a few steps towards a water tap that protrudes from the ground between his fenced-in village and the large construction site. The villagers used to get their drinking water from a spring, but it was contaminated by wastewater from the construction workers’ settlement. The project management therefore installed this communal water tap.”They first pump the water from the river into the plastic tanks over there. They say they filter it before it comes out of the tap here. But we have doubts about that: when it rains, the water is brown, it smells and tastes strange. Some of us boil it because of that, but not all of us. Children regularly get diarrhea. But when I denounce these abuses, they try to intimidate me.”What will happen next? Lengoasa shrugs his shoulders helplessly. Some of his neighbors have already moved to the city, others are holding on to the hope of somehow building a new life for themselves here in the highlands.

Renegotiate water project?

The government of Lesotho is trampling on the rights of its own citizens, says NGO worker Mothusi Seqhee. The original contract for the cross-border water project was signed in the 1980s, when apartheid was still in place in South Africa and a military regime in Lesotho. He would have expected more from today’s democratically elected governments.”They have the same mentality and approach to the affected citizens as before. Our politicians are not thinking about how the project could actually benefit our country. We should at least be allowed to use the water from the dams for irrigation so that we can produce enough food for the nation. The government should appoint experts to develop viable and sustainable projects to provide new livelihoods and replace the land that the people here have lost.”And of course every citizen has a right to clean drinking water. But the authorities are stubborn, says Mothusi Seqhee, who will soon be going back to court with his NGO’s lawyers.

This research was funded by the European Journalism Centre as part of the Riffreporter project ” Countdown Nature “.

Lesotho exports water to South Africa, although citizens complain about a lack of drinking water. The condition of wetlands shows that the problem could become even more serious. Photos: Roger Jardine

The Katse Dam nestles picturesquely into the mountain slopes, meandering through several valleys, the smooth surface of the water reflecting the clouds in the Lesotho highlands. The small kingdom in the mountains, which is surrounded by neighboring South Africa, is considered the water tower of the entire region. The dam has been supplying the South African economic center around Johannesburg with drinking water since 1998.

It is the heart of the so-called Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which consists of dams, tunnel systems, pumping stations and hydroelectric power plants. It is one of the “most successful cross-border water management systems in the world,” says the responsible authority, the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), proudly.

“The water belongs to South Africa and no longer to us”

But when Mothusi Seqhee looks at the huge, glittering expanse of water, he sees something different: “The water belongs to South Africa and no longer to us,” he says. “We cannot use it as we want. That is a problem.” Seqhee works for the Seinoli Legal Centre – a non-governmental organisation founded in 2010 to represent the interests of villagers who were relocated or dispossessed because of this major project. 

MASERU, Lesotho, Apr 3 2024 (IPS) – In the journey towards gender equality and justice, recent decades have seen strides made, yet the road ahead remains treacherous. In the race to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, attention is turning to the role that over five hundred public development banks worldwide could play.

Public development banks are increasingly exploring how to promote financial inclusion more effectively, as an important vehicle for women’s economic empowerment. Financial inclusion transcends mere access to capital; it is a radical shift of social norms, addressing social issues that hinder women’s advancement.

However, in many projects funded by PDBs, women are not only excluded and left behind, but are put in a position of harm. One such case is the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) where there is growing evidence of a wide range of negative gender impacts within the affected communities.

The objective of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) is to provide water to the Gauteng region of South Africa and to generate hydroelectricity for Lesotho by harnessing the waters of the Senqu/Orange River in the Lesotho highlands through the construction of a series of dams.

Hailed as a remarkable engineering feat with anticipated economic benefits, it has instead garnered international notoriety for its severe socioeconomic and environmental repercussions on communities. Phase I of the project led to the displacement of thousands without fair compensation, submerging arable and grazing land, exacerbating erosion, creating impoverishment, “social disintegration”, and limiting access to water resources.

Despite long-standing concerns and documented impacts on communities, including increased HIV/AIDS risk, the project proceeds with Phase II without adequately addressing residual issues.

The project’s impacts disproportionately affect women, exacerbating vulnerabilities through increased risks of displacement, lack of access to water and healthcare, and heightened instances of sexual exploitation, contributing to a cycle of socio-economic marginalization and health disparities.

Gender inequality in Lesotho remains a problem despite progressive legal strides in recent years. Implementation and enforcement of laws, especially in rural communities, continues to be a problem. Outdated cultural practices and stereotypes continue to create barriers to ownership of land, denying women the resources needed to secure livelihoods and increasing their economic vulnerability and susceptibility to gender-based violence.

Seinoli Legal Centre (Seinoli) is a Lesotho based public interest law centre that has been working directly with the affected communities in the Mokhotlong district where LHWP Phase II is being implemented, since the signing of the Agreement on Phase II in 2011.

Increased incidents of gender-based violations have been reported within the project affected communities which should come as no surprise; projects of this nature and scale, including the resultant forced displacement often amplify the risks of gender-based violence.

Furthermore, there are thousands of migrant workers from Lesotho itself and South Africa, who have come to work on LHWP. Migrant workers should be accommodated in designated camps, in healthy accommodations and living conditions in accordance with best practices. The situation on the ground stands in complete contrast to this; there are contractors living and renting accommodation within the communities of Masakong, Ha Ramonakalali, and Tloha-re-Bue. In the case of Ha Ramonakalali, there is also a temporary camp belonging to one of the private companies contracted to work on LHWP which is located within the communities – having profound impacts.

Cases of transactional sex between migrant workers and young women and girls have increased, including cases of abortion and concealment of birth, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, and high school drop-outs.

Seinoli was recently alerted to the predicament of the fifteen-year-old Lineo (name changed to protect the victim and her family) and her parents. This young girl was impregnated by one of the migrant laborers working for an LHWP contractor. Lineo decided to have an illegal abortion – as abortion is prohibited in the country -in fear of her parents. The abortion led to health complications, which necessitated informing her parents about the events. Lineo’s parents made a complaint to the police. Seinoli received a report that the police were not able to make charges against the perpetrator as they could not locate him after he was moved to another camp by his employers. Consequently, the young girl has been left with the scourge and stigma of having had an abortion and lives in shame within her community. She has also been forced to drop out of school, which will have severe repercussions on her future and ability to earn an income.

The LHWP receives substantial funds from PDBs such as the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the New Development Bank (NDB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). While these banks do indicate concern for gender equality, more needs to be done for the development and strengthening of their gender strategies to ensure that the projects they fund do not violate women’s safety or security.

Currently, the Lesotho Highlands Development (LHDA), the project’s implementing authority, does not have a safeguarding policy to protect communities against sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment risk to ensure accountability.

Communities need to be better informed about their rights and have access to reporting mechanisms which can lead to expedited support for victims whilst holding the perpetrator and their employers accountable.

It has been five years since LHWP Phase II commenced, with advanced infrastructure works since January 2019. However, there has not been any shift towards protecting the rights of vulnerable women and girls since the project begun.

The role of international financial institutions and PDBs in fostering gender equality has been discussed extensively in many quarters, including the academic and research communities. However, many questions remain on the commitment of PDBs to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

In practice, concerning some of the public financiers of the LHWP, the NDB still does not have a gender strategy or policy in place despite having been fully operational for close to 10 years. The DBSA and the AfDB represent financiers of the LHWP with a gender policy or strategy, however, the effectiveness of their gender frameworks is questionable considering the challenges that women are now being exposed to in projects such as the LHWP Phase II.

Basotho women faced similar difficulties during the first phase of the LHWP when women, including female-headed households were excluded from families who received some limited minimal compensation for resettlement. Women were extremely vulnerable to gender-based violence, not only physical but also economic violence. During that time, the World Bank was a major financier involved in the construction of the Katse Dam.

The World Bank gender framework has evolved, providing finance to the LHWP Phase I. The World Bank has now integrated safeguard policies against sexual exploitation and abuse in its Environmental and Social Framework as well as Procurement Framework.

These frameworks ensure that development projects take measures to reduce the risk of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment, especially within communities. After civil society groups raised complaints about gender-based violence associated with a World Bank-financed road project in Uganda, the World Bank took several measures to address this issue.

In 2020, the World Bank introduced a mechanism that can disqualify contractors for failing to comply with obligations related to the prevention of gender-based violence. The World Bank will also soon launch their World Bank Gender Strategy 2024 – 2030: Accelerate Gender Equality for a Sustainable, Resilient and Inclusive Future, which recognizes gender equality as central to sustainable development. The strategy emphasizes gender outcomes in project implementation, including eradication of gender-based violence.

All PDBs should ensure that such measures (policies and practice) are put in place to avoid the ongoing violations against women that put young girls such as Lineo at high risk.

There is a growing dialogue among PDBs and United Nations Agencies such as UN Women, including those engaging in the Finance in Common movement, on the importance of financial inclusion, which places emphasis on improving women’s access to finance. PDBs must take stronger leadership in ensuring that financial inclusion addresses social issues that are an obstacle to women’s advancement. This includes removing outdated cultural practices and stereotypes that continue to create barriers to land ownership. Women in as much as half the countries of the world are unable to assert equal land and property rights despite legal protections.

PDBs often provide substantial funds to mega-infrastructure projects such as the LHWP II in which communities are often exposed to high levels of vulnerability, including worsening levels of poverty, inequality and GBV. One way that PDBs can contribute to making real progress on the Agenda 2030, is through addressing the root causes of poverty and inequality and integrating SDG 5, “achieving gender equality” a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. There has been progress over the last decades, but the world is not on track to achieve gender equality by 2030.

In doing so, PDBs (national, regional and international) must have robust gender policies and practice in place that support projects centred on gender equality, justice and women’s empowerment.

All PDB funded projects should have gender equality imperatives at the onset of the project cycle through rigorous impact assessment processes that involve women and their communities.

The human rights costs are high in second phase of the LHWP with hundreds of families at risk of involuntarily resettlement and displacement from their homes and lands. Achieving the SDGs will require transformative action that can deliver real impact and change for women and young girls such as in Lesotho. The DBSA, AfDB, NDB and other PDBs involved in LHWP II can play an important role in ensuring that the second phase does not repeat the same mistakes made in LHWP I and in so many other development projects.

This article has been written as part of the Forus March With Us campaign for gender justice – a full month dedicated to the stories of activists and civil society organisations at the forefront of gender equality and justice.

Marianne Buenaventura Goldman is co-Chair, Civil Society Forum of the NDB (Africa) & Project Coordinator for Financing for Sustainable Development, Forus
Reitumetse Nkoti Mabula is Executive Director, Seinoli Legal Centre

IPS UN Bureau

Residents of Tsinyane, which is a village tucked away on the outskirts of Malealea, Matelile, fear that if the Lesotho-Botswana Water Transfer Project begins it is going to mean they lose their ancestral homes as well as their livelihoods.

While residents have been paid M380 for the use of their land for feasibility works, they say they are in the dark about what will happen to them if the dam that is planned for the area does go ahead and flood the area.

So far there has been no community consultation as the environmental impact assessment process, which would require consultation, has, according to the company preparing the site for dam construction, been delayed because of a lack of funding.

Pre-feasibility studies that have been completed have recommended constructing a multi-purpose dam on the Makhaleng River, which would include a hydropower generation plant in Lesotho and a water transport system to Botswana through South Africa.

After the project is finished, it is expected to transfer 150 million cubic metres of water per year to Botswana, while supplying various users in Lesotho’s southern western parts and South Africa, with 50 million cubic meters including supplying Bloemfontein and enabling irrigation in Lesotho.

Tsinyane residents who spoke to MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism said they have learned “through the grapevine” that their ancestral homes which are built on the edges of Makhaleng River would be flooded when the Makhaleng Dam is constructed as part of the project.

“It’s essential to clarify that this stage [feasibility] is ongoing, and no conclusive results have been reached as yet,” Elita Banda who speaks on behalf of the company implementing the project, the Orange–Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) warned in her response to MNN questions.

Tsinyane, like most Basotho rural communities, is characterised by rugged terrain, a lack of access roads and basic amenities.

The Malealea area, which includes Tsinyane only got electricity at the end of 2023. During MNN’s visit in December 2023, men employed by the Lesotho Electricity Company were pulling electricity cables and fixing them onto poles to connect the remote villages of Malealea to the country’s electricity grid.

Now that they have electricity, Tsinyane people want to continue living in the areas and want to be informed about and prepared for changes that the project will bring to their lives.

But ORASECOM does not seem ready to provide the answers the community is looking for at this stage. Banda told MNN that they “are unable to provide information on questions 1-13, as the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the project has not yet commenced and is only expected to begin in the latter half of 2024”.

MNN’s Questions 1-13 were aimed at establishing what public consultations had been held on this project as part of the required environmental and social impact assessment and community resettlement action plan. MNN has established that the public consultation will only be required once the EISA is being done. The EISA process has been delayed by a lack of funding.

This was confirmed during a press briefing held by the ORASECOM’s project office on March 7. Project coordinator Thabo Hloele told media that lack of adequate financial resources has delayed the project from carrying out the ESIA and other related works.

He said while there were funds earmarked for other studies, the bids received at the tendering stage for the Makhaleng dam ESIA, feasibility studies for the water conveyance system to Botswana and other related studies required more financial resources than anticipated.

“We are currently raising funds for the other delayed studies to be carried out,” said Hloele.

ORASECOM was established in November 2000 by the governments of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa to promote equitable and sustainable development of the resources of the Orange–Senqu River.

Communities shut out

One Tsinyane villager, Matšepiso Ralitša told MNN that Hloele had visited the area in 2022.

“He said he was inspecting the location conduciveness for dam construction. We showed him the location he asked for, but he has never given us the feedback”, said Ralitša who also explained that the community had met Hloele for a second time when he visited the area in 2023 at the start of feasibility studies. Some villagers were hired as security guards.

“We only learned from these guards that the studies were successful, and the dam construction shall take place in our village of Tsinyane. We have also learned that we shall be relocated.

“But shockingly when I inquired if they would relocate us or not, as they were talking about possibilities of a dam being erected in our area, Ntate Hloele responded that they cannot be the ones to decide and that is the duty of the government,” said Ralitša.

A community leader and Seinoli Legal Centre’s Human Rights Defender based in Malealea, Thabo Khosi, told MNN that ORASECOM had not approached communities in Malealea to sensitize and engage them about the dam openly.

“To my knowledge, ORASECOM officials came here just once. They told the people that government has intention to build a dam here in Malealea,” said Khosi, adding that in the second visit, officials were just addressing compensation issues for villagers whose fields, some cultivated, were trampled upon by tracked excavator machinery used in the feasibility studies.

“It can’t be that you [ORASECOM] keep silent when you know that these people are going to lose their communal grazing land, their agricultural land, and all other properties and ensure that they fully understand the benefits of these project and prepare them mentally.  But that those things have not been done, even though soon as the project starts the people will be removed from their ancestral lands,” said Khosi.

However, Banda said their office has not received any queries from the local authorities or community members to date. She encouraged community members to reach out to local councillors and chiefs, “who are equipped to provide accurate information”.

She claimed the project is actively collaborating with local authorities in relevant areas promising that further engagement activities would be undertaken with communities as the project continues.

Pitiful Compensation

Chief Qaba Mahao of Malealea told MNN that the project affected some of his community members fields as tracked excavators and vehicles ran over the fields as they passed through to project site. Although Qaba said that the impact was minimal, his affected subjects were each compensated M380 so that they could plant their fields.

“We looked into the cost of planting when using cattle and /or when using a tractor. We considered what it would cost to plough an acre. Those who knew price said an acre cost M380 if I recall. Hence the M380 were paid per acre affected”.

While Qaba was satisfied with the compensation, affected fields owners shared their worries about the value of this compensation with MNN.

“We were paid paltry compensation and wonder what will happen when an actual dam is constructed with all our land taken away from us. We are worried because we learned the dam is coming here from rumours and there is no official communication on our fate,” said ’Matšepiso Ralitša a resident of Tsinyane.

Another villager, Motsoanakaba Nketjoane, said what irked them most was that Geomechanics, contractor engaged to undertake feasibility studies by ORASECOM, did not bother to seek their consent before running machinery over their fields.

“I have two fields that are adversely affected, and I was shocked to receive a mere M380. I have just ploughed the place that they compacted with their machinery, it was very hard and cost more than their M380 compensation,” said Nketjoane.

“When I tried to plough the area, it was difficult to convince tractor owners to provide me the services, so I ploughed with an ox-drawn plough and the surface was very hard due to compaction and the soil is not loose for agriculture anymore,” said Nketjoane.

Nketjoane was corroborated by Ralitša who said: “Incidents of ploughs being broken were not considered and we suspect that even tractor owners would not be willing to plough the area that is in question for just M380 we were given as compensation”.

But Banda argues that “given the project [feasibility] stage, compensation issues have not been dealt with. They will be dealt with based on the outcome of the ESIA studies that cover the entire project.

The M380 was meant to assist the individual property owners in preparing their fields by removing vehicle tracks before the ploughing season started”. She insists the M380.00 was not imposed on the Tsinyane people but was agreed upon in consultations with the property owners, under the guidance of the local authorities.

A worker employed as a guard on a construction site is demanding compensation for loss of livelihood after he was injured at work. The South African company that was employing him as a guard on the Lesotho-Botswana Water Transfer Project in Tsinyane, Malealea, has refused to acknowledge responsibility saying that he did not get injured at work. But, they do not seem to have the full details, not even the correct date of the injury.

Seabata Monare (62) was hired by Geomechanics, which prides itself on being a leader in geotechnical investigations in Southern Africa, as a guard on the site being prepared for the Makhaleng Dam. 

In order to conduct feasibility studies prior to the construction of the Makhaleng Dam, which is intended to export water to South Africa, Botswana, and Lesotho, the Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) hired Geomechanics to perform packer tests, piezometer installation, and rotary core drilling in Tsinyane.

Monare lives in the area earmarked for a dam. He told MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism that he was left disabled and unable to fend for himself after the injury he sustained while working at the Geomechanics site, along the Makhaleng river’s gravel surface.

Monare’s medical records from July 22 2023 show that Malealea Clinic referred him to Mafeteng District Hospital where an x-ray was done, which diagnosed a fracture on his right hand and wrist.

A cast was applied for six weeks but when he went for his check-up, the doctor ordered that the cast remain because his fracture had not healed enough.  Another x-ray was requested and it detected yet again poor healing and the cast had to be re-applied for another six weeks.

The cast eventually came off on its own, but Monare’s hand was never the same again. The aftermath of the accident has left Monare unable to continue his farming, his primary source of livelihood, plunging him and his family into food insufficiency.

Monare’s account is supported by three people, one also a guard who witnessed the incident and was with him at the time and another colleague who worked the night shift. A local councillor has also stated that she discovered Monare at the scene during routine inspections and inquired about his injuries.

Responding to MNN questions, Laura-Lee Rijsmus who is the Accounts and Marketing Director for Geogroup, which is Geomechanics’ parent company, insists that Monare arrived at work already injured. She distanced the company from any wrongdoing.

“There is a possibility of bias from an eyewitness who knows Monare”, said Rijsmus who does leave room for the possibility that Geomechanics could be accountable for Monare’s injury saying that the eyewitness accounts shouldn’t be dismissed entirely.

For them to conclude this matter, she says they would need “…a written statement from the witness detailing what they saw and see how the witness’s story aligns with Monare’s and any other available information.”

MNN declined to facilitate this process as it understands it is the responsibility of the company to acquire such statements from its former employees.

Speaking to MNN, Teboho Mokala, the eyewitness who was on the same shift with Monare making them the only two people who were on the site when the injury occurred, said he was not entirely shocked that Geomechanics was now claiming innocence.

“The manner in which the whole situation was handled left a lot to be desired,” he said.

Mokala and Monare’s both said during separate interviews that: “It was clear that they were trying to avoid taking responsibility.”

Monare, Mokala and another colleague Keresemese Mokala who worked the night shift were appalled at the insinuation that Monare did not get injured onsite. Mokala [Teboho] told MNN that he arrived for work with Monare that fateful day and he was still fine.

Nthabiseng Tlaleane, a local government councillor in Malealea at the time said she encountered Monare’s injury when she went to inspect work onsite. She says she noticed Monare’s casted hand and asked him what happened.

Tlaleane explained that Monare told her he fell on the gravel onsite [pointing to it] and hit his hand against a rock. She says the account surrounding his injury is the same report they received from the Human Rights Defenders committee, a committee formed by villagers on advice of Seinoli Legal Centre, a human rights organisation concerned with protecting rights of people in large development areas.

While the company denies responsibility over Monare’s injury, it kept him, even changed shifts and allocated him lighter duties as he was using one hand. Asked why they didn’t replace him if he was injured elsewhere, Rijsmus said they considered it unjustified to cancel his contract and render him unemployed.

As MNN has established, Monare was injured on July 22, 2023, but Rijsmus told MNN that Monare arrived at work already injured five days later.

“Mr. Monare reported for work on July 27, 2023, with an injury from before the shift. Our Site Manager had kept him aside, he did not work that day,” she said.

Presented with the information from Monare’s medical records proving that he was injured on July 22, the day he reported to the Malealea Clinic, Rijsmus said they had made an error with the dates.

Copies of Geomechanics’ workman’s compensation that MNN managed to get do not state the exact criteria. They only said associated costs are covered if an injury takes places on duty and is documented.

Because only the guards were onsite when he got injured, Monare says he had to wait for the company officers to arrive but instead of getting immediate medical attention, he waited seven hours as offloading materials from a truck was more important for his supervisors.

He says he sat on the sidelines and waited for them to knock-off.

Geomechanics dismissed the wait and neglect, stating “although the injury happened off duty, our Site Manager, Mr Luthuli got the drilling teams going in the morning and then took Mr Monare to a clinic as a kind gesture to assist him.”

However, Monare’s colleague Mokala [Teboho] corroborated Monare’s ordeal, that their superiors waited to knock-off that Saturday before taking him to the clinic. But even then, Mokala says the supervisors left Monare at the Malealea Lodge gate where they stayed, leaving him to walk to the clinic in his bruised, bandaged hand.

MNN heard from Mokala [Keresemese] how an accident was bound to happen, describing the site as sloppy and slippery due to the gravel-like particles that formed when the excavator was paving way into the Makhaleng River where the dam would possibly be built.

Efforts by advocacy groups, such as the Malealea Human Rights Defenders, to seek help for Monare have been met with challenges as the contractor packed up and left for South Africa as they were trying to address his situation.

ORASECOM’s communication and knowledge management specialist Elita Banda told MNN that they were not aware of Monare’s injury but their office has since launched investigations into the matter.

By Matiisetso Mosala  LESCIJ LESCIJ

A young girl, who became pregnant while still a minor, has been charged with getting an abortion, which is illegal in Lesotho. But, the family is questioning why the man who made her pregnant has not been charged as an accomplice to this crime and for having sex with a minor, which is also illegal.

*Mpho Sempe [pseudonym] of Ha-Ramonakalali in the Malingoaneng ward of Mokhotlong was charged with illegal termination of pregnancy after her father took her to the Tlokoeng Police Station in Mapholaneng to report that a contractor, Bahlakoana Kenela, had sexually offended her. Kenela was an employee of Rumdel AC Joint Venture, which includes South African firm Rumdel Construction and Lesotho-based A&C Holdings which is busy constructing a 32.86km road connecting the Semenanyane River to the Polihali Dam site.

Lesotho criminalises abortion under Section 45 of the Penal Code Act of 2012, which provides that “A person who does any act bringing about the premature termination of pregnancy in a female person to procure a miscarriage, commits the offence of abortion.”

It also criminalises sex with a minor. Penal Code of 2012 states that anyone under the age of 18 is regarded as a child and therefore unable to consent.

Mpho, who was 15 years old when she had the abortion, told MNN how she missed her period in August 2023. She informed Kenela, her married lover, who then gave her pills to abort the pregnancy because he did not “want the news to reach her family”. She says that she consented without realising that she was committing a crime. 

When Mpho’s family took her to the police station on August 22, 2023 to report the matter, her father, *Lehlohonolo Sempe [pseudonym] says the police took his daughter to the hospital, and he was told: “We will take it from here and see how we deal with it,”  a statement that should have set off alarm bells for the Sempe family considering they were not even given a case number.

When they left the police station, Mpho’s family say that they did not know that their daughter had been criminally charged. Police at the Tlokoeng police station, they argue, did not inform them that they charged Mpho with illegal abortion or give them a case number to confirm this. Sempe told MNN that no one told them that Mpho was charged. Station manager, Mphelehetse Khatleli swore on his officers’ competence, saying they must have informed the family.

Mpho’s family want to know why Kenela was not charged alongside their daughter for helping her with the abortion. Kenela told MNN that it was Mpho’s choice to terminate the pregnancy, he did not force her. 

He also does not deny having sex with Mpho but argues that he was unaware she was a minor.

Kenela also told MNN that he was called in for questioning by the police who casually asked him if he and Mpho were dating, and let him go upon his confirmation that they were.  While Mpho’s family is demanding answers as to why Kenela was not charged with having sex with a minor, police officers at Tlokoeng police station who refused to identify themselves because they didn’t have the authority to comment, admitted to MNN that Kenela should have been charged but could not explain why that had not happened eight months later.

But, station manager Khatleli’s response to this to MNN was different.  Khatleli said that police would not take any action until they received Mpho’s birth certificate proving her minor status. When MNN asked Khatleli why the police had not taken the initiative to gather this evidence since August 2023, he said it was because Mpho’s parents were not available when the officers went to her home.

The official police comment also stated to MNN that they had charged Mpho but not Kenela at the time because they were only made aware of Mpho’s case when she had already terminated her pregnancy.  They did not consider that she had an accomplice when charging the young woman.

Mpho’s family is surprised by the claim that police are waiting for Mpho’s documents proving her age. The family say that, they have been waiting for a police update but have not heard anything yet. Local residents in the area told MNN that they have not seen any law enforcement officers carrying out this investigation. MNN has uncovered another layer of mystery surrounding this case. The Tlokoeng police initially told MNN that there was no record of Mpho’s reported case, that it did not appear in the sexual offences and gender-based-violence cases between 2018 and 2023 statistics that MNN had requested. 

Did the police only choose to open an abortion case, and not a sexual offence case; hence, it was untraceable? Khatleli explains that sexual offence cases are sensitive by nature, and because people are always trying to make them disappear, dockets are locked away in a cabinet and the officer in charge was unavailable when compiling the data.

Sempe revealed that he was not surprised that the police claimed there was no trace of their case considering the treatment that they received when they went to report the case. He told MNN that when they arrived at the police station, an unidentified police officer remarked “we know that with such situations, we are expected to go and arrest someone” a statement that he says was a clear sign that no thorough investigations would be conducted. The station manager subtly brushed this off saying, “you know how people are”.

Sempe states: “We are told to report a crime to the police, but when we do, there is no use because nothing ever comes of it, no updates are made months later”.

Asked if he is aware he crossed legal boundaries and as a result, ought to face the might of the law, Kenela said “Yes, I do realise”. Nonetheless, while Mpho has a criminal case hanging over her head, Kenela is still a free man. While the police have not charged Kenela, they admit that considering Mpho’s age, they are convinced she was aided in terminating her pregnancy as “she could not have executed it on her own”.

Khatleli revealed that the abortion case has gone cold due to insufficient evidence, and “it is not easy to prosecute a minor, but we are still waiting on her family to provide us with documents proving she is underage so that we can investigate the matter and find those who were involved”.

Sempe says seeing his daughter’s perpetrator almost daily is hard and triggering for him because he was advised by the same police who are not investigating the case thoroughly not to have any interaction with him, as it was now in police custody.

Since August when he reported the matter to the police, Sempe told MNN that he has not followed up on the progress of the case because the reception at police stations is never welcoming.