Sanctioning Apartheid - KORA

Sanctions against South Africa: Lesotho's Role
number of miners from Mozambique has been reduced at Pretoria's
dictate, and it has been alleged by some observers that
some of the fluctuation in numbers of Basotho miners in recent
years (e.g., the decline in numbers after Lesotho failed to sign an
agreement similar to the Nkornati Accords) has been attributable
to political decisions by ret to ria.^ Thus there is a risk that
Pretoria will carry through with the threats it has made at times
to repatriate miners to Lesotho, either to induce LRsotho to
behave in ways more acceptable to Pretoria or as "retaliation" for
actions taken against Pretoria by others. Overall, it is projected
by de Vletter that foreign workers on the mins could easily drop
to only mund 20 per cent of the total by the early 1990s, even
without action by the South African government6
Furthermore, things are not always equal. Basotho have
been prominent in the rise and leadership of the National Union
of Mineworkers of South Africa (NUM), and took a conspicuous
part in the 1987 strike by NUM against the gold mines. As it
happens, the mining house most severely hit by the strike was
the Anglo American Corporation, which before the strike
employed about 29% of all Basotho miners. Anglo American,
which had given some support to the ~ ~ h l
earlier, was appar-
ently very unhappy with the behavior of the Union, and appears
to have reacted to the strike and Basotho involvement in it by
reducing its employment of Basotho. The extent of the change in
total numbers of Basotho migrants following the strike is not yet
clear, but in the view of TEBA management in Maseru the former
slow upward trend (numbers of Basotho miners peaked in the
second quarter of 1987 at 131,134, the highest figure of the
decade) was likely to be reversed. This may, however, be
alarmist, because in the latter half of 1987 migrants numbered
122,640, with no strong downward trend between the third and
fourth wrs; and Anglo American does seem to have reached
an accommodation of sorts with the NUM, rehiring 30,000 miners
fired during the strike? By the third quarter of 1988, the number
of Basotho miners was in fact some 3,000 higher than a year
earlier.
These incidents illustrate Lesotho's vulnerability arising from
its dependence on migrant labor, and explain to some extent
why, at least in its oflid statements, the government of Lesotho