Basutoland Congress Party

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The Basutoland Congress Party (BCP, formerly Basutoland African Congress , in Sesotho Lekhotla la Mahatammoho , German: "Party of Cooperation") is a party in Lesotho . It was founded in 1952 and was the government from 1993 to 1998 with one interruption.

history

Established as Basutoland African Congress and first parliamentary elections

The Basutoland Congress Party was founded in 1952 under the name Basutoland African Congress (BAC) as the first party in what was then the British crown colony of Basutoland . The name was reminiscent of the African National Congress (ANC) in neighboring South Africa , with which the BAC also worked politically. The first chairman was the teacher Ntsu Mokhehle , who in 1952 also became chairman of the Basutoland National Teachers' Association (BANTA). Another founding member was Potlako Leballo . Mokhehle was fired for his activities as a teacher, but found more time to devote himself to party work. Among other things, the BAC advocated a secular education system. The BAC found many supporters in the cities and along the few streets, but turned the traditional barena , the Catholic Church , the South African apartheid government and the colonial authorities against them. Around 1956, some traditionally oriented members left the party and founded the Marema Tlou, later the Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP). In December 1958, the BAC was renamed the Basutoland Congress Party . In 1959, with the help of dissenters from the BCP, the Catholic and anti-communist oriented Basutoland National Party (BNP) was formed. Leballo left the BCP that same year and helped found the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in South Africa. At the same time, the BCP turned away from the ANC and towards the PAC and received financial support from the Maoist People's Republic of China .

At the end of 1960, differences of opinion in the leadership group of the BCP led to the resignation of its deputy chairman Bennett Makalo Khaketla , who until then had been responsible for health and education policy. Together with other former members, he founded the Basutoland Freedom Party (BFP) in April 1961 .

In the first general election in 1960 , the BCP received 30 of 40 freely elected seats and won in six of nine districts. Another 40 mandates were given to barena and other conservative people, so that the BCP could not find a majority for its policy. Instead, the BCP was given tasks in rural areas that helped it build the party there. In 1965 the second parliamentary election took place in Basutoland. Under the leadership of Ntsu Mokhehle, the BCP became only the second largest party after the BNP. She entered into an alliance of convenience with the future King Moshoeshoe II and the MFP to delay independence and thus keep the BNP out of power, but failed because of the resistance of the colonial authorities and the support of the South African government for the BNP.

From the independence of Lesotho to the end of the military dictatorship

After Basutoland became independent in October 1966 under the name Lesotho, the BCP kept its name as it did not see any real independence. The 1970 elections - the first elections after independence - were won by the BCP under Ntsu Mokhehle with an absolute majority. The then Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan of the BNP declared the election result null and void. He declared a state of emergency , had several BCP leaders arrested and from then on ruled the country autocratically.

After failed negotiations with the government, BCP politicians around Mokhehle attempted a coup in 1974; however, they failed. Mokhehle then went into exile in Botswana , later to Zambia and finally to South Africa. A part of the BCP under the former vice chairman Gerald Ramoreboli stayed in Lesotho and came to terms with the BNP. Also in 1974 178 men close to the BCP were selected who were trained to be guerrilla fighters in the PAC training camp in Libya . They formed the Lesotho Liberation Army (LLA), which was supposed to overthrow the BNP government. As of 1979, she carried out over a hundred terrorist attacks in Lesotho. The South African government won the LLA and Mokhehle for covert operations in Lesotho, which had since granted asylum to ANC members. Mokhehle lived for some time on the Vlakplaas farm , from where a secret unit of the South African Police fought against opposition South Africans. Parliamentary elections were to take place in Lesotho in September 1985 . However, they were boycotted by all opposition parties, including the BCP. After the military coup against Jonathan on January 20, 1986, all political parties were banned. Mokhehle and his followers were allowed to return to Lesotho in February 1989. For this, the LLA was dissolved.

Since 1993

It was not until 1991, two years before the end of the military government and before the upcoming parliamentary elections in 1993 , that political parties were permitted again. Under Ntsu Mokhehle, the BCP won all 65 seats in the National Assembly with 74 percent of the vote thanks to majority voting , so that Mokhehle was elected Prime Minister . In 1994, King Letsie III staged a coup. against the government, after which it was ousted for a few weeks. Under pressure from home and abroad, government power fell back to the BCP. Within the BCP faction, several groups arose that were at odds with one another. In 1997 Mokhehle was overthrown as party chairman by the maporesha wing (for example: " Druckmacher wing"), left the BCP with around two thirds of the MPs and founded the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), which won the 1998 parliamentary election with a large majority. The maporesha's BCP group was now led by Tšeliso Makhakhe, Molapo Qhobela, Ntsukunyane Mphanya and finally Thulo Mahlakeng. In 1998, the BCP received around ten percent of the vote and no seat. In the 2002 elections , the party only won 2.6 percent of the vote, but under the reformed electoral law it provided three of the 120 members of parliament. In the 2007 elections it was able to hold the number of mandates under the name Alliance of Congress Parties (ACP), in the 2012 elections the BCP only received one seat, which it narrowly defended in the 2015 elections. From then on she belonged to a coalition led by the Democratic Congress . In the 2017 elections , she barely managed to keep her seat, but left the government.

Program and structure

In the first years of its existence, the BCP was a left-wing, pan-Africanist party that sought Basutoland's independence. The motto is Toka Ho Sera Le Motsoalle, German: "Justice for enemy and friend".

literature

  • Ntsukunyane Mphanya: A brief history of the Basutoland Congress Party 1952–2002. Morija Printing Works, Morija 2004 (originally: University of Michigan)
  • Bernard Leeman: The history of the LLA. Online (English)

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. 23.
  2. ^ 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. 24.
  3. ^ Ronald Segal: Political Africa. A Who's Who of Personalities and Parties . Frederick A. Praeger, New York 1961, pp. 305-306
  4. ^ 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. 26.
  5. ^ A b c 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. 28.
  6. ^ SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1966. Johannesburg 1967, p. 118
  7. ↑ a b Website of the Lesotho Embassy in Rome ( memento of March 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English), accessed on February 19, 2012
  8. ^ Bernard Leeman: The history of the LLA. Online (English)
  9. ↑ 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. 29.
  10. ↑ Information at state.gov ( Memento from August 21, 2011 on WebCite ) (English)
  11. ↑ Lesotho party leaders 2014 , accessed December 25, 2014
  12. ↑ Results at iec.org.ls ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (English, PDF), accessed on March 5, 2015
  13. ↑ Zuma basks in successful mission. ( Memento of March 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Lesotho Times of March 19, 2015 (English)
  14. ^ Final elections tally announced. ( Memento of June 8, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Lesotho Times of June 6, 2017 (English)