KANANELO BOLOETSE MASERU – Basotho miners employed by one of the contracting companies at Letšeng mine in Mokhotlong - Minopex Lesotho – have accused their employer of unfair labour practices, alleging the company hired them on short-term contracts to avoid paying higher wages. A three-month investigation has found that the miners employed

SECHABA MOKHETHI MOKHOTLONG - Enraged communities surrounding the Letšeng diamond mine have listed a plethora of grievances they want the mine to address. The MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism learned recently about the villagers’ complaints that include cracked houses and toilets, blockaded river sources, polluted water, seized pastures and exotic animal diseases

A bloody war pitting two villages over the mine’s relocation plan looms   THUSO MOSABALA A protracted dispute simmering between the Storm Mountain Diamonds’ (SMD) Kao mine and the surrounding community has taken a new twist; this time igniting rivalry between two villages and threatening bloodbath. The MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism

LEKHETHO NTSUKUNYANE Lesotho-based Chinese business tycoon Yan Xie has lifted the lid on his extensive generosity to Lesotho’s political elite, saying that he helped fund Prime Minister Thomas Thabane’s lavish wedding last year and has donated money to “almost every party in the country”. In an exclusive interview in Johannesburg, Xie also

Billy Ntaote and Lerato Matheka Communities within the Polihali Dam site are up in arms contesting compensation rates they argue to be too low, and demand market-value-based compensation for their land and assets. This is amid the rigorous process of public consultations which have resulted in the formulation of the Lesotho Highlands

…as LHDA offers once-off payment or once-off compensation paid in instalments for a period not exceeding 50 years Billy Ntaote and Lerato Matheka Residents in the catchment area of the massive multi-million Maloti Polihali water dam, whose construction is set to commence the Phase II of the giant Lesotho Highlands Water Project

. . . as Tšepong shuts down some wards KANANELO BOLOETSE  A three-way spat between Minister of Health Nkaku Kabi, the ministry’s Principal Secretary (PS) ‘Mole Khumalo, and the management of Queen ‘Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH), is threatening to plunge the already poor national healthcare system into deeper disarray. Khumalo, earlier this year,

KANANELO BOLOETSE An over M600 million loan that was provided by the Development Bank of South Africa to partly finance construction of the Queen ‘Mamohato Memorial Hospital was underwritten by government yet the debt was registered as a private sector contribution. This is revealed in a new Eurodad report published on Monday

By Lekhetho Ntsukunyane Prime Minister Thomas Thabane’s trade adviser, Yan Xie, has publicly voiced his disappointment at government for driving a wool and mohair policy that he argues is not beneficial to Lesotho. Universally known as “John”, the business tycoon of Chinese origin told amaBhungane in a rare interview in Johannesburg this

…as 24-year struggle for compensation by Mafura siblings who lost their mother to electrocution sees no end KEISO MOHLOBOLI Twenty-four years on, the Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) continues to decline compensating the Mohale’s Hoek-based Mafura siblings who lost their mother through electrocution in December 1994. The parastatal company only gave Rethabile (31)