Ntsu Mokhehle

Ntsu Clement Mokhehle (born December 26, 1918 in Teyateyaneng , Basutoland , † January 6, 1999 in Bloemfontein , South Africa ) was a politician in Lesotho . From 1994 to 1998 he was the country's prime minister .

Life

Ntsu Clement Mokhehle was born to the school inspector Cicerone Mokhehle. He attended schools of the Anglican Church and then graduated from Fort Hare University in South Africa. He wrote his first political articles for the Mochochonono newspaper in Basutoland. In 1942 he was de-registered because of his political activities and joined the Lekhotla la Bafo in Basutoland . In 1944 he was allowed to return to the university, where he became a member of the newly founded ANC Youth League , such as Nelson Mandela . He earned a Bachelor of Science degree . He continued his studies as a biologist and discovered several types of parasites . He completed his studies with a master's degree . In 1952, 14 years before Lesotho gained independence, he founded the Basutoland African Congress (BAC) in Basutoland and became its chairman. He worked as a teacher in a secondary school but was fired for political reasons. In this way, however, he could devote himself fully to his party work.

From 1958 Mokhehle's party was called the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP). His model was the Pan-Africanism of the Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah . In the 1960 elections , the BCP won three quarters of the possible seats in the Basutoland National Council , but appointed members made up half of the MPs, so the BCP could not implement its political ideas. The parliamentary election in 1965 lost Mokhehle against Leabua Jonathan and his Basutoland National Party (BNP). In the following election in January 1970 , however, he achieved an absolute majority of the seats, whereupon the election of Jonathan was annulled. Many BCP politicians, including Mokhehle, were imprisoned. After his release, he attempted a coup with the BCP, which failed. He was forced into exile in Botswana and Zambia and ended up living in South Africa. There he lived hidden in a township near Odendaalsrus in the Orange Free State and then in what was then the homeland of Qwaqwa on the border with Lesotho . From South Africa he tried to gain power in Lesotho. Among other things, he led the militant wing of his party, the Lesotho Liberation Army (LLA), which carried out over 100 attacks and was used by the South African government for several years as a means of pressure against the Jonathan government. Mokhehle lived incognito for a while on the premises of the Vlakplaas police unit , which operated undercover and was responsible for numerous political murders of blacks in order to negotiate arming for the LLA. In 1980 Mokhehle broke away from the LLA and was offered to the Jonathan government in August of the same year by South African President Pieter Willem Botha in exchange for Chris Hani, who was wanted in South Africa . Jonathan refused, however. Despite his exile, Mokhehle was popular with many oppositionally minded people in Lesotho.

In 1989 Mokhehle was able to return to Lesotho. After the end of the military dictatorship and the introduction of a new constitution in 1993, there were free elections , which the BCP won high, so that it received all 65 seats. Mokhehle became Lesotho's new Prime Minister on April 2, 1993 . Except for the time after a coup by King Letsie III. from August 18 to September 14, 1994 Mokhehle ruled the country until May 29, 1998. Mokhehle's health was already in poor health; the time of his government was marked by violent disputes, also within the ruling faction. Shortly before the end of the legislative period , Mokhehle had been overthrown as party chairman of the Maporesha wing (roughly: " Druckmacher wing") under Molapo Qhobela; as a result, the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), with Mokhehle at the helm, split off from the BCP. This triggered a constitutional crisis, as Mokhehle claimed the status of a ruling party for the LCD. Mokhehle resigned for health reasons. Mokhehle's younger brother Shakhane Robong Mokhehle tried to succeed him, but Bethuel Pakalitha Mosisili was elected . In the parliamentary elections in 1998 he ran for the LCD, won the election and succeeded Mokhehle as Prime Minister, who died a little later in a South African hospital.

Honors

• 1990: Honorary Doctorate from the National University of Lesotho
• 1996: Honorary Doctorate from the University of Fort Hare

literature

• David Ambrose : The Guide to Lesotho . Winchester Press, Johannesburg, Maseru 1974, ISBN 0-620-02190-X , p. 228.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 264
2. ↑ EISA website ( Memento of December 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
3. ^ ^{A b c d} Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 265.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weis fields Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 266.
5. ↑ report at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on January 30, 2013
6. ^ Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 267.
7. ^ Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 269.