PASCALINAH KABI Bertha Foundation Fellow Letšeng Diamonds, Lesotho’s most lucrative mine, has awarded contracts worth M6.7 billion to MGC Mining, a company that is ultimately owned by Prime Minister Sam Matekane. The value of the contracts was disclosed in a 16-page response by Letšeng to a number of reports by the MNN Centre

MNN Reporters Phase II of the Lesotho Water Highlands Project is well underway. It is billed as a project with significant financial benefit to Lesotho but it carries devastating social implications for women, including under-age girls, who are selling their bodies to contractors working on the project. Healthcare workers have noticed that

PASCALINAH KABI Bertha Foundation Fellow A confidential report that flags harmful levels of toxic mining effluent in Lesotho’s key rivers feeding the Lesotho Water Highlands Project (LWHP) has raised uncomfortable questions in the government and set the cat among the pigeons in cabinet, as ministries shift the blame and justify not doing

PASCALINAH KABI Bertha Foundation Fellow  Lesotho’s Director of the Department of Environment, Motsamai Damane’s bombshell admission that mining companies are polluting water sources that rural communities rely on has triggered a blame game in government.  While departments try to dodge being held accountable for not monitoring mining operations, this has raised questions about

Matiisetso Mosala Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro has failed to explain why a rural water supply project in the Tsikoane constituency has cost more than M205 million and is still not delivering water more than a decade after construction started. The project, which was launched in 2011 to supply water to over 20

A wind farm hailed as Africa’s largest renewable energy project and the solution to Lesotho’s hefty electricity costs has ground to a halt. Sechaba Mokhethi investigates why. A $15-billion wind farm project that would have given Lesotho bragging rights to Africa’s largest renewable energy project, slashed electricity prices and created thousands

By Steve Kretzmann Photos by Steve Kretzmann Data visualizations by Yuxi Wang Having spent much of his adult life working in the coal mines in Welkom, pensioner Hendrik Tlaudi says he now suffers from a bad back and must take medication on a daily basis. But Tlaudi, who lives in a state-subsidized house

 PASCALINAH KABI Bertha Foundation Fellow Landlocked Lesotho, is currently experiencing severe food insecurity as a result of a deal to meet neighbouring South Africa’s ever-increasing water needs.  The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) was billed as one that would bolster Lesotho’s position in the regional political economy and reassert its sovereignty. But, the

By Steve Kretzmann Data visualizations by Yuxi Wang When he was 13 years old, Rudy Hanse joined the guppy development program offered by the Milnerton Canoe Club in Cape Town. There he learned how to paddle a canoe and swim.  For Hanse, the weekly outing to the Milnerton Lagoon was a way to

A questionable tender to fix Lesotho’s dilapidated airport to meet international standards has been thrown into confusion – first by a liquidation order from a South African judge, then by a phone call from amaBhungane. Key Takeaways:• South African businessman Thulani Majola seemingly joined politically connected partners in Lesotho to win