Minerals and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe has sparked a diplomatic and political row with Lesotho after alleging the country’s prime minister held an unauthorised meeting with illegal miners in South Africa, claims that have been met with sharp denials from the Mountain Kingdom and silence from Pretoria.
Mantashe alleged during a meeting of Parliament’s portfolio committee on mineral and petroleum resources on February 24 that Prime Minister Sam Matekane held an unauthorised meeting with illegal miners in Bloemfontein.
Lesotho, in response, promptly summoned South Africa’s top envoy to Maseru to explain Mantashe’s explosive claims.
The issue of an unauthorised visit by Lesotho’s head of state came up at a tense session of the portfolio committee, during a virtual briefing by the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NatJoints) on efforts to combat illegal mining.
Responding to African Transformation Movement parliamentary leader Vuyo Zungula, who argued that there has been no political will to tackle illegal mining since 2019, the minister cited the Bloemfontein meeting. He said he was aware of a gathering organised by Matekane that did not follow proper channels for a visiting head of state and said credible intelligence reports would clarify the matter further.
“I do not know if Honourable Zungula is aware of a meeting organised by the prime minister of Lesotho in Bloemfontein without making proper arrangements of a head of state visiting South Africa, where he has a meeting that starts at 8pm and ends at 10pm.
“If you do intelligence work there, which the police must do, you will discover that the prime minster is going to have a meeting with illegal miners… that shows you the dishonesty of what the Lesotho government says in public and what is practically happening.”
Mantashe, however, doubled down when contacted on Thursday. He told Sunday World that his information was correct and came from impeccable sources who maintained that the unauthorised visit occurred in the evening without following the required state protocols.
“How did the Lesotho prime minister come to South Africa outside diplomatic channels when he is the head of state?” charged an adamant Mantashe.
“Mamela (listen), there is no head of state of another country who visits another country during the night and has a conference (with zama zamas) for two hours and then leaves in the dark if they are well-meaning.
“The fact that they (Lesotho) resort to complaining xa bexelelwa inyani (when we tell them the truth) is in itself a good action because we see what they are doing. I am not a diplomat; I am dealing with minerals.”
Matekane’s press attaché, Thapelo Mabote, dismissed the allegations, describing them as unverified claims. He said he did not recall any such event and stressed that any concerns of this nature should be handled through formal diplomatic channels.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is yet to comment on the remarks, with his spokesperson Vincent Magwenya declining to comment on Friday.
Magwenya first referred the matter to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, which referred Sunday World back to the Presidency.
South Africa has been battling the scourge of illegal mining, with zama-zamas flooding disused mining shafts. The illegal miners, often heavily armed and many from Lesotho, have terrorised communities surrounding some of these shafts, especially in Gauteng, North West, Free State and Limpopo, and have had running clashes with the police.
Operation Vala Umgodi, coordinated at NatJoints level and led by the police to combat illegal mining, was launched 2023, and has had mixed success. At least 90 zama zamas died in May last year when police stopped deliveries to a disused shaft at the Stilfontein Mine in the North West in an effort to lure the miners out.
Police are on the manhunt for one of the kingpins in the Stilfontein disaster, a 42-year-old Lesotho national known as Tiger, whose real name is James Neo Tshoaeli, who is on the run.
Meanwhile, Lesotho’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Lejone Mpotjoane, told his country’s Parliament that the government of the Mountain Kingdom had sent a formal démarche to South Africa’s High Commissioner, Constance Seoposengwe, seeking clarification on Mantashe’s comments.
Mpotjoane added that he is also engaging directly with international relations minister Lamola to resolve the issue.
In Lesotho, the controversy has further prompted calls for a formal inquiry. Machesetsa Mofomobe, leader of the opposition Basotho National Party and former deputy minister of foreign affairs, tabled a motion proposing the establishment of an ad hoc parliamentary committee to investigate the matter.
He told Sunday World that the allegations are serious and warrant parliamentary scrutiny, warning that they could have significant implications for relations between Lesotho and South Africa.
“We need to look into these serious allegations because if it is true that the prime minister did this, we would have to take action. This could damage the relationship we have with our neighbours,” he said.
The Mountain Kingdom is the epicentre of one of the biggest infrastructure projects South Africa has undertaken, the R54-billion Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which at completion will extract water from the neighbouring country mainly for water-stressed Gauteng.
