Matlala Sefale, Grade 12
UWCSA (Waterford)
The kingdom of Lesotho recorded its first confirmed case of Covid-19 on the 12th of May 2020, making it the last African country to register a confirmed case of the virus. This confirmation of the virus came a few days after the nation with a population of over 2 million lifted a lockdown that spanned just a little over five weeks.
The lockdown imposed restrictions on the movement of Basotho and brought with it a lot of unease and controversy. A lot of Basotho were arrested for defying lockdown regulations which included the closure of bars and a strict curfew on the opening and closing of grocery stores. Multiple complaints about the members of the national security forces - the military and the police - resorting to violence to enforce the lockdown regulations were filed; with some people reporting to have endured severe injuries.
A lot of the unease was due to the fact that Lesotho had not yet recorded a case of infection of the virus during the lockdown, and so Basotho challenged the government’s decision to enforce the lockdown. The unease intensified as the lockdown was extended by two weeks on the 21st of April. People began to call for aid on national and community radio stations reporting to have gone days or even weeks without any food. While a number of politicians and kind businessmen jumped in to help such people with donations of food parcels, the numbers of such calls grew day by day.
A large portion of the population of Lesotho consists of men and women who sell anything from clothes to fruits on the streets of the eleven towns of the country. Since the lockdown forced them to stop working, they stopped earning, and hence stopped eating.
Another large portion of working-age Basotho work as miners, maids and all sorts of low-income labourers in neighbouring South Africa, which the small kingdom is completely landlocked by. The South African lockdown, preceding that of Lesotho, enforced the shutting down of South African borders - which include all of Lesotho’s borders as it is completely within South Africa. This resulted in thousands of Basotho migrants being trapped in South Africa, most of them without any jobs and thus without any money to send home to their families or even to feed themselves.
A saying that got very popular amongst Basotho since the pronouncement of the national state of emergency on the 28th of March 2020 was what translates to: “Covid-19 will not kill us because we would have died from hunger by the time it gets here.”
Since the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in Lesotho which was reported by the Minister of Health at the time, Mr Nkaku Kabi to be a Mosotho student who was repatriated from Saudi Arabia in early May, the numbers have been rapidly rising as Basotho who could not make it back home before the borders were shut have been going to very risky and illegal measures to get back to their families. So far over 2000 men and women have been recorded to have snuck past the Lesotho-South Africa borders; many of them having swum across the freezing, deep waters of Mohokare River which separates the two countries in the northern region of Lesotho. Some of them, especially those suspected to have been infected by the coronavirus, have been accepted into quarantine centres all over the ten districts of the country. However, those centres have been reported to be filled beyond their capacities, and some people have been sent into their communities without quarantine.
Lesotho currently does not have a facility of its own to carry out tests for the coronavirus. Samples from people suspected to be infected with the virus get shipped to South Africa. As of the 2nd of July, according to the World Health Organisation, there have been 35 confirmed cases of Covid-19, 11 recoveries and no deaths.
The kingdom’s political turmoil, a staggering economy, poverty, lack of proper health facilities and the low immunity of a large number of its citizens due to being one of the countries with the highest prevalence of HIV in the world have set it up for possibly the worst catastrophe it has yet experienced amidst this pandemic.
The lockdown imposed restrictions on the movement of Basotho and brought with it a lot of unease and controversy. A lot of Basotho were arrested for defying lockdown regulations which included the closure of bars and a strict curfew on the opening and closing of grocery stores. Multiple complaints about the members of the national security forces - the military and the police - resorting to violence to enforce the lockdown regulations were filed; with some people reporting to have endured severe injuries.
A lot of the unease was due to the fact that Lesotho had not yet recorded a case of infection of the virus during the lockdown, and so Basotho challenged the government’s decision to enforce the lockdown. The unease intensified as the lockdown was extended by two weeks on the 21st of April. People began to call for aid on national and community radio stations reporting to have gone days or even weeks without any food. While a number of politicians and kind businessmen jumped in to help such people with donations of food parcels, the numbers of such calls grew day by day.
A large portion of the population of Lesotho consists of men and women who sell anything from clothes to fruits on the streets of the eleven towns of the country. Since the lockdown forced them to stop working, they stopped earning, and hence stopped eating.
Another large portion of working-age Basotho work as miners, maids and all sorts of low-income labourers in neighbouring South Africa, which the small kingdom is completely landlocked by. The South African lockdown, preceding that of Lesotho, enforced the shutting down of South African borders - which include all of Lesotho’s borders as it is completely within South Africa. This resulted in thousands of Basotho migrants being trapped in South Africa, most of them without any jobs and thus without any money to send home to their families or even to feed themselves.
A saying that got very popular amongst Basotho since the pronouncement of the national state of emergency on the 28th of March 2020 was what translates to: “Covid-19 will not kill us because we would have died from hunger by the time it gets here.”
Since the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in Lesotho which was reported by the Minister of Health at the time, Mr Nkaku Kabi to be a Mosotho student who was repatriated from Saudi Arabia in early May, the numbers have been rapidly rising as Basotho who could not make it back home before the borders were shut have been going to very risky and illegal measures to get back to their families. So far over 2000 men and women have been recorded to have snuck past the Lesotho-South Africa borders; many of them having swum across the freezing, deep waters of Mohokare River which separates the two countries in the northern region of Lesotho. Some of them, especially those suspected to have been infected by the coronavirus, have been accepted into quarantine centres all over the ten districts of the country. However, those centres have been reported to be filled beyond their capacities, and some people have been sent into their communities without quarantine.
Lesotho currently does not have a facility of its own to carry out tests for the coronavirus. Samples from people suspected to be infected with the virus get shipped to South Africa. As of the 2nd of July, according to the World Health Organisation, there have been 35 confirmed cases of Covid-19, 11 recoveries and no deaths.
The kingdom’s political turmoil, a staggering economy, poverty, lack of proper health facilities and the low immunity of a large number of its citizens due to being one of the countries with the highest prevalence of HIV in the world have set it up for possibly the worst catastrophe it has yet experienced amidst this pandemic.
Bibliography:
https://covid19.who.int/region/afro/country/ls
https://covid19.who.int/region/afro/country/ls
www.unitedworldwide.co