by
Mahao, Nqosa Leuta I National University of Lesotho
Abstract
On 17 August 1994 King Letsie of Lesotho dismissed the government of the Basotho Congress Party (BCP). The royal intervention was but an episode in the continuing constitutional/institutional crisis in postcolonial Lesotho. The author locates this single event within the larger canvass of power struggles between the monarchy and the modern political elites and the political and constitutional conditions whose principal thrust was the increasing emasculation of the powers of the monarch and an attempt by the political elite to exclude Moshoeshoe II from the throne once and for all. The first section is a brief background which exposes the historical and social genesis of the crisis. The second looks at the type of quasi-constitutional monarchy which was established on the eve of independence in 1966. The third section analyses the relationshipb between the monarchy and the military government between 1986 and 1990. The final section discusses the 1994 royal intervention. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
