SECHABA MOKHETHI In a highly unusual application, a group of villagers have asked the Lesotho High Court to order the Letšeng Diamond Mine to relocate them because they fear being engulfed by flooding from the mine’s slime dams. Patising village is located downslope of Letšeng, an active mine. The villagers fear they

MATIISETSO MOSALA Basil Read mining’s failure to meet targets at Liqhobong Mining Development Company haunts the mining company over unpaid retrenchment packages and compensation of more than 154 employees. The employees’ union, Lesotho Workers Association (LEWA), has filed an urgent application in the High Court accusing Basil Read of “unlawfully and unfair

SECHABA MOKHETHI A request by Lesotho’s Mothae kimberlite mine to sell diamonds to its major owner and operator, the Australian-based Lucapa Diamond Company, presents a chance for pricing manipulation, warns Antwerp Belgium based researcher. Hans Merket, researcher for Belgium-based research centre, International Peace Information Service, told MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism that,

KEISO MOHLOBOLI Covid-19 has shined a harsh spotlight on the hardships faced by Mapholaneng community as a result of the government’s failure to live up to promises of its 2007 policy that entitled “access to a sustainable supply of potable water” to all Basotho. Many of the country’s citizens living in rural

ROSE MOREMOHOLO The Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) has come under fire over a sharp increase in teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases – including HIV/Aids – in the town closest to ongoing construction work on the Polihali Dam. Realeboha Tlhabi, nursing officer at the health centre in the town of Mapholaneng

Favouritism and abuse of power alleged in ‘M396m’ dam contract SECHABA MOKHETHI A construction venture is suing the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) after it withdrew a multimillion-maloti contract for works on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project for the second time. The joint venture, DYNAP, argues that the second withdrawal of the contract,

MATIISETSO MOSALA Co-op Lesotho has backpedaled on its position against Strafor, withdrawing a lawsuit challenging farmers eviction from its commercial land and buildings after being arm-twisted to sublease contested property to the multinational. Initially farmers were evicted from Co-op Lesotho’s property after a unilateral agreement was entered into by the Ministry of

MATIISETSO MOSALA The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has evicted farmers’ organisations from a commercial site in Ha Ntsi, Nazareth and gifted it to a Singapore multinational grain producer, in a controversial move slated as undermining development of indigenous farmers. The land in question covers an area of 3909m². It is

BILLY NTAOTE A major row has erupted over a Lesotho parastatal’s dealings with a South African company over an estimated 20 million maloti tender for two oxygen generating plants that are set to play a key role in the country’s health system. Cape Town-based Foxolution Systems Engineering was engaged to advise the