Billy Ntaote and Matiisetso Mosala

Twenty years after being forcibly displaced to make way for Lesotho’s Mohale Dam, five households from the now submerged village of Ha Seotsa have found themselves trapped in an ongoing struggle to get the compensation funds they were entitled to when they moved.

The compensation is valued at M1 million and was intended to compensate the families for the loss of essential resources to sustain their livelihoods such as grazing, medicinal plants, wild vegetables, thatch grass and brushwood. The matter is, once again, in court and will be heard this month.

The resettled households feel that they have been betrayed by the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) and that their struggle reflects the broader disregard for the rights of those displaced by large development projects. With no end in sight to the legal battle, the families fear they may never see the compensation they were promised two decades ago.

When the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) Phase 1 (B) relocation project started, families could choose from various relocations where to settle. Five families chose to move to the Thuathe area in the Berea district. The Lesotho-South Africa project’s implementing agency, LHDA, insists that these families be compensated differently.

Instead of each getting compensation the Thuathe families must “share their communal compensation with the host community”. This communal compensation is different for families who settled in urban areas. They are entitled to individual payments as there are no communal resources to share.

A 2019 letter from former LHDA CEO Refiloe Tlali explains the status of compensation funds for Thuathe residents. The total compensation for natural assets is M1,050,579.87. This includes:

• Outstanding compensation from 2001/2002 to 2017/2019, totalling M391,067.46.
• M35,563.98 for the 2018/2019 period.
• A future lump sum of M623,948.43 for communal assets compensation for five households.

Tlali also mentions an estimated M1,416,361.46 set aside for community infrastructure development in 2018/2019.

The LHDA argues that the compensation funds for both communal assets and infrastructure (M2,466,941.33 total) should be combined and used for community infrastructure development, rather than for the individual needs of the five households.

Although the LHDA acknowledges the communal assets the households lost, there has been no clear outline of how or when these losses will be compensated. This lack of transparency is particularly concerning given that the relocation process began in the late 1990s, a time when Lesotho lacked independent media or strong civil society organizations that could hold the LHDA accountable or advocate on behalf of the affected communities. As a result, there is little record or oversight of how these compensation processes were handled, leaving the residents vulnerable and without recourse.

LHDA, relocated communities in endless cat and mouse chase

The five families believe they are entitled to individual payments because there are no communal resources in the Thuathe area they now live.  In other words, they believe they should be paid individual compensation, the same as families who moved to urban areas where there were no communal assets. This point has been the subject of debate and meetings with the LHDA since 2016 when the Thuathe families, supported by the Seinoli Legal Centre, demanded that compensation be paid directly to them. This is confirmed by correspondence seen by the MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism and court records.

Local authorities, including the Chief of Thuathe,  supported the families’ claims, confirming that no grazing land or natural resources exist in the area for the resettled households. In a 2017 letter, Chief ‘Masenate Mohato Masupha stated that she “bears witness” to the lack of resources and called for the compensation to be paid directly to the displaced families. Despite an agreement in 2017 to physically verify the absence of communal resources in Thuathe, the LHDA failed to follow through.

In 2018, legal representatives for the resettled families demanded payment, warning that legal action would follow if their compensation was not released. Despite years of delays and unfulfilled promises, the LHDA continues to insist on providing communal compensation to displaced households. Led by Lakabane Mokoatsi, the families have now taken the matter to court, seeking a ruling that they are entitled to receive compensation directly as individuals.

The June 2018 communication between a then Director at Seinoli, Chaka Ntsane and the LHDA shows how promises made by the LHDA never materialised.

In the communication at the time, Ntsane states that the that LHDA and relocated households agreed in September 2017 and “it was resolved that your office would work together with the resettled and host community as well as other stakeholders to establish a joint committee which will conduct an examination to verify the resettlees claims as regards lack of natural resources and grazing land”.

But LHDA reneged on its commitment and Ntsane argued that: “Nine months have since passed, and no action has been taken by you to undertake this examination or to pay the community what is due to them”.

Ntsane told LHDA that “Thuathe resettlees have accordingly instructed us to demand from you, as we hereby do, payment of communal compensation directly to each resettled household within fourteen (14) working days from the date of receipt of this letter, failing which they will have no option but to approach the courts of law”.

The Court battle

With Seinoli’s assistance, the household leaders—Lakapane Mokoatsi, Malebohang Moqekela, Makopano Mokeki, Tsotang Moqekela and Mahalieo Senne cited as first to fifth applicant launched their legal battle against LHDA in demand of their communal compensation to be paid to their households.

Mokoatsi and his co-applicants want the commercial division of the High Court to issue an order declaring that they have a right to receive compensation in terms of the LHDA Order 1986 read with the Lesotho Highlands Water Compensation Regulation 1990 and the Compensation policy as refined in October 2002.

Mokoatsi and his co-applicants want an order declaring that compensation payable be paid to them as representatives of each individual household resettled.

They also want an order directing the LHDA to pay applicants the sum of M85, 510.20 each within one month of the granting of the order by the court.

Alternatively, the applicants want an order directing the LHDA to disclose the current approved rates together with method of calculation and thus pay accordingly the correct amount due.

The applicants argue that compensation programme is directed primarily at affected households and communities and the primary legislation directs that the LHDA shall ensure that as far as is reasonably possible, “the standard of living and the income of persons displaced shall not be reduced from the standard of living and the income existing prior to the displacement of such persons”.

Mokoatsi and his co-applicants told the court that there are no communal assets where they have been resettled to be shared by them and their host community, as such, their standard of living and their income has been lowered. “They are no longer able to keep animals due to the absence of grazing lands, there are no brushwoods, medicinal plants, wild vegetables and useful grasses in the host community”, reads the court papers.

While old and current court papers make it clear that the LHDA intends to stick to the line that communal compensation is what is on offer,  Mokoatsi and his co-applicants are relying on the argument that there are no communal resources available to them in Thuathe and point to the fact that persons resettled in the urban area served by the Maseru City Council (MCC) were paid amounts assessed as communal compensation.

Despite its previous agreements to pay individual compensation based on a lack of communal resources available, the LHDA argues in the latest court papers that since Thuathe is not in the Maseru Urban Area within the boundaries of the MCC they were not eligible for disbursement to individual households as was done for those households that were in the MCC jurisdiction.

The LHDA insists that the payment to individual households was never a policy matter but resulted from a recommendation of the ombudsman that was specific to the households resettled in the MCC area only.

The LHDA added that persons resettled within the MCC jurisdiction, for example at Ha Matala, were not permitted to bring their cattle with them and it was in fact a specific condition of their resettlement that they did not do so. Thuathe, on the other hand, is not within the MCC jurisdiction but falls under the Senekane Community Council in the district of Berea and adds that persons living in Thuathe are not subject to the same rules as pertain to the Maseru Urban Area and it is a rural area. But even the resettled community at Ha-Matala had to fight through the court to have the communal assets compensation paid to individual households, and the court ruled in their favour.

The LHDA said it would be inequitable and invidious for the five households to benefit individually and to the exclusion of others from the communal compensation paid for the benefit of the community to which they now belong.

Such a payment, the LHDA added in a rural community that does not have the benefits of a municipal structure such as the MCC, would only serve to cause dissent and resentment if compensation intended for communal purposes is diverted to individual gain.

The LHDA has also argued the host communities must be joined to the case, as it has a vested interest in the case before it is determined to finality.

Villagers recount LHWP’s negative impact on their livelihoods

The families, meanwhile, are deeply frustrated. They have not only lost their homes and livelihoods but have also been subjected to years of broken promises and delays. With no end in sight to the legal battle, the families fear they may never see the compensation they were promised two decades ago.

Mokoatsi told MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism (MNN) that the same host community that the LHDA is using to dodge paying their compensation has, in writing, alluded there is no grazing land in the area for the resettled community to enjoy, hence “…the communal compensation should be paid to the resettled communities individually,” read the Thuathe community letter dated September 2018 to the LHDA.

When they left their village in Ha-Mohale, Mokoatsi maintain were told that Thuathe is an urban town therefore they would have access to electricity and water, but also that for that reason there was no grazing land.

He stated that “…they gave us an option to leave behind our cattle or take them elsewhere for care since there was no grazing land in Thuathe or to take them with us and they [LHDA] would see to feeding them”

Mokoatsi argues what they are being compensated for in communal compensation is resources that they used to live by abundantly, which they have not had access to since leaving Ha-Mohale. He and the other resettled households feel it is unfair and unlawful for the LHDA to force them to share the communal compensation with the host community of Thuathe.

‘Mahalieo Senne told MNN that life in Jorotane Ha Seotsa village where she was displaced from and resettled in Thuathe plateau in Baruting village, was fulfilling and would return instantly if a chance presented itself.

“I used to make a living from selling thatch grass, we had medicinal plants, various wild vegetables for our nourishment and abundant pastures for my cattle. But we are now refused access to compensation for these natural assets we lost to the Mohale Dam,” says Senne.

Senne adds that “when we were resettled here (Thuathe, Baruting), we were promised we would have a better life than we did in Jorotane. We were promised that we would be connected to clean, portable water and electricity. We were promised that we would also be provided compensation for our natural assets that we used for our daily livelihood. But to our shock, we have lived here for 24 years without access to water. We had to connect our houses to electricity by ourselves”.

Senne says when she received her compensation for loss of assets in Jorotane from the LHDA, she invested it all into construction of rental houses to earn her month income.

She told MNN team that she used to be a subsistence farmer and had more than 18 (eighteen) which were her wealth but have been lost over the years as the cows were malnourished due to lack of pastures in Thuathe and died.

“Since I was relocated with my herd of 18 cattle, I managed to only sell just 3 cows, and the rest died from being famished here. Life here is very difficult. We just want the LDHA to release to us our natural assets compensation. This compensation is critical for our livelihoods. All they ever do is show ius documents indicating that our compensation money is still available, but the refuse to release the funds to us to use as we find fitting,” Senne says.

‘Malebona Mokoatsi says her family was worse-off because the LHDA did not pay some of the trees they were supposed to be compensated for. She says “we had requested a lump-sum payout only for our fields because we wanted to invest in rental property. We got the surprise of our lives when upon waiting to receive our annual payment for our trees we were told we took a lumpsum payment”. She and her family have not received this money to date.

She maintains that the LHDA has not kept any of the promises they made, including the maintenance of their houses which they committed to within a 50-year period. Mokoatsi [‘Malebona] showed MNN the rusted roofing on five of the resettled houses build by the LHDA which they have not taken responsibility for. The families shared that the rust has caused damage such that water sips through when it rains. She stated they are hoping to change the damaged roofing to their houses if the LHDA releases their communal compensation, erect boreholes for water and find other means of survival.

“Life here in Thuathe is very different from Ha-Mohale, life is money here. In Ha-Seotsa if I had M100.00 it would last me three months, but here it is nothing” said Mokoatsi [‘Malebona] explaining that they need the compensation to meet and sustain their needs.

The resettled households told MNN that they have lost hope that they will get their justice considering how their case has dragged on since 2018 without progress. In a letter that MNN has seen that was written by former LHDA boss Tlali, the authority said it is waiting on the court’s determination on the matter on the befitting compensation disbursement, adding that the court case also affects the community infrastructure development fund disbursement.

The resettled community find it unfair that the LHDA can expect them to share their communal compensation for the things they had to leave back in Ha-Mohale with the host community while the community infrastructure development fund exists for the purpose of serving the host community.