Africa
One beggar riding
Molly Mortimer
The unreality of African economics is epitomised in Lesotho. A mini-mountain in the Middle of South Africa, it is a nightmare of non-viability. •
There is rarely viability in Africa, above stibsistence level. Even Nigeria's wealth was discovered and maintained by Europeans. Wealth-sharing partnerships between multinationals and governments are reasonable. A sMoke screen of wicked exploitation versus virtuous and efficient nationalisation is not. The talents of multi-nationals, as Lee Kuan Yew recently remarked, are essential for development. It is the skill and money poured into Africa which creates that peculiar illusion of prosperity in Kenya; an illusion only now appreciated the hard way, by Zambia and Uganda. Lesotho, officially listed by UNDP as among the twenty-five poorest nations and second of the twelve most urgently needing attention, depends and exists by the consistent benevolence of South Africa.
Two thirds of the Sotho work force, about 100,000, work in South Africa and their annual £9 million remittance helps to prop up the precarious economy; as does the currency and customs union which together with British traaitional aid supports the revenue.
So far, no huge mineral supplies, as in Botswana, have done anything to add hope to the future of this craggy and eroded area. There are diamonds, exploited with South African aid. The hoped for Oxbow hydroelectric scheme far up in the grim Malutis — and it is hard to describe their moonlike desolation and the craterlike roads — has only one customer, South Africa.
Currently both the UN and the US are trying to promote agricultural schemes with anti-South African money. So far only Taiwan has shown any success in creating vegetables out of thin air by skill and patience. But awash with temporary money from the World Bank, West Germany and others, Lesotho is the richest beggar riding. Chief Jonathon rides a difficult horse: he must live with South Africa and on her; he must also make gestures of independence towards the black north, the liberal west and in order to spike his own left-wing Opposition. Ntsu Mokhehle is already boycotting the fragile parliamentary structure and the sources of his funds are known to be radical.
Chief Jonathon's economic words are wise: "Development is a matter of survival for Lesotho." His political words are less so. He is currently complaining of the British Treaty of Aliwal, 1899, which fixed the boundaries of Basutoland as one of the High Commission Territories. Wild claims are being made for land in the Free State and Cape extending as far as Excelsior and Matatiele.
Lesotho might be wiser to remember that South Africa has had more than one chance to envelop Basutoland. It was indeed only the idealism of General Smuts that stopped the annexation of both the High Commission Territories and South West something for which his own countrymen feel no gratitude. It is ironic that this patient and passionate architect of the UN now finds his country rejected by the Africans he loved.
South Africa today is not so patient and there is still nothing to stop her taking over if any Cuba-like suspicion develops. All Lesotho's wishes may be horses today; but beggars need to learn how to ride.
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