Subscribe now for Gulf Times. By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your email exists. People and vehicles move to cross the Lesotho and South Africa border at the Maseru bridge border post. In a cottage in rural Lesotho, Tisetso Litheko lays out six full passports packed with immigration stamps showing his constant movement across the border to neighbouring South Africa. The year-old former shepherd is one of more than , Lesotho nationals who live for much of the year in South Africa, forced by decades of a lack of work in the small mountain kingdom to seek a livelihood elsewhere.
The flood of migrants from Lesotho — a country the size of Belgium that is encircled by South Africa — goes back to the discovery of gold in Johannesburg in the s, when thousands of men from Lesotho were recruited to work in mines.
Litheko says his father and grandfather spent most of their lives as mineworkers in Johannesburg, the first in a long line of male members of the family who were forced to migrate for work. Litheko left his village, Ha Abia, when he was 22 years old, initially sneaking illegally across the border to toil on farms in nearby Ladybrand as a seasonal worker. The sum may appear meagre, but it goes a long way in a country where Lesotho is enclosed by South Africa, and thousands of its citizens cross the border daily, not just to work but also to shop or attend school.
Even if that has provided some relief, it has failed to significantly dent the high unemployment rate. In the capital Maseru, stalls selling a wide mix of goods and services clog pavements, creating a vibrant informal sector.
Because the local loti currency is pegged to the South Africa rand, Litheko points out that migrant workers do not benefit from fluctuations in the exchange rate. With long queues of goods trucks waiting to be cleared, the two hour border posts bear witness to the hectic to-and-fro between South Africa and Lesotho.
