Majara Molupe M2 million was paid to a community in compensation for land that was appropriated for a 70-megawatt solar power plant at Ha Ramarothole. But only a small fraction of that money was spent to improve community infrastructure, MNN can show that the vast bulk of the money was misappropriated

Lesotho grapples with unlawful meddling in the reproductive rights of disabled girls and women The forced sterilisation of a deaf woman in Lesotho has flagged how families are secretly and illegally sterilising disabled daughters, giving them no say over their sexual and reproductive health rights. This is being done no matter

… Accuses Principal Chief of Recruiting Arsonists BILLY NTAOTE Tensions between local communities and contractors working on a new phase of the Lesotho Water Highlands Project (LHWP) have culminated in the Malingoaneng Principal Chief being charged with hiring men to torch his lover’s home. Principal Chief Qetho Sekonyela and his lover, Mamotonosi Sekonyela

MATIISETSO MOSALA Senior politicians in Lesotho’s health ministry parachuted friends, family and party comrades into jobs at the flagship Queen ‘Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH) in 2022, swelling the hospital’s wage bill. Many of the new appointees were not qualified. The first quarter of 2022 saw the highest staff intake in the hospital's

The king has secretly been transferring state farms as well as others he holds in trust for his subjects, into his private company Nimrod Mabuza Nomsa Mngomezulu is from the impoverished, drought-prone Nkalashane area, under the Lomahasha chiefdom in the Lubombo region. She is currently Eswatini’s reigning woman farmer of the year, but

By Vuyisile Hlatshwayo       Eswatini’s King Mswati III stirred up great hope among his subjects when he promised to give them better access to farmland on which to feed their families and make a living. EmaSwati were asked to apply for access to specific, underutilised farms. But, five years after this promise

PASCALINAH KABI This investigative reporting was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists. The government has sabotaged a legal bid aimed at exposing secret forced sterilisation programmes at Lesotho’s health facilities. It did this by offering the face of this legal campaign, a well-known survivor of

BILLY NTAOTE Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Educational Trust Lesotho (WLSA) executives have been released on bail. They are charged with 100 counts of tax evasion, which relate to an amount of M822,773.61 in outstanding taxes owed to the Revenue Services Lesotho (RSL).   Reading indictment papers in court to

Matiisetso Mosala There was much pomp and circumstance on 23 May around Lesotho’s King Letsie III and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa as they officiated the sod-turning that marked the start of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project’s second phase. The fanfare highlighted how this second phase, which includes the 9.2 billion Maloti

HIV activist, ‘Malijo Baji, was five months pregnant when a private doctor in Maseru told her to abort her baby and get sterilised because of her HIV+ status. Her story has thrown a spotlight on the pressure HIV+ pregnant women are being put under by medical facilities to get sterilised.