Ntsu Mokhehle
Ntsu Mokhehle Clement ( born December 26, 1918 in Teyateyaneng, Basutoland, † January 6, 1999 in Bloemfontein, South Africa) was a politician in Lesotho. From 1994 to 1998 he was the prime minister of the country.
Life
Ntsu Mokhehle Clement was born as the son of school inspector Cicerone Mokhehle. He attended schools in the Anglican Church, and then studied at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa. For the newspaper Mochochonono in Basutoland he wrote his first political article. In 1942 he was expelled for his political activities and joined in Basutoland the Lekhotla la Bafo on. In 1944 he was allowed to return to the University, where he became a member of the newly formed ANC Youth League, such as Nelson Mandela. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree. He continued his studies as a biologist and discovered several types of parasites. He completed his studies with a Masters title. In Basutoland he founded in 1952, 14 years before the independence of Lesotho, the Basutoland African Congress (BAC ), whose leader he became. He worked in a secondary school as a teacher, but was dismissed for political reasons. So however he could devote himself full of his party work.
From 1958 was Mokhehles Party Basutoland Congress Party. His model was the Pan-Africanism of Ghana's President Kwame Nkrumah. The parliamentary election in 1965 lost Mokhehle against Leabua Jonathan and his Basutoland National Party ( BNP). At the next election in January 1970, he reached the other hand, with the now as Basotho Congress Party operating under the name party the absolute majority of seats, whereupon the election of Jonathan was canceled. Many BCP politicians, including Mokhehle were imprisoned. After his release he made with the BCP a coup attempt that failed. He was forced into exile in Botswana and Zambia and eventually lived in South Africa. From there, he tried to gain power in Lesotho. Among other things, he led the militant wing of his party, the Lesotho Liberation Army (LLA ), which carried out over 100 attacks and for several years has been exploited by the South African government as leverage against the Jonathan government. Mokhehle once lived incognito on the grounds of covert police unit Vlakplaas, which was responsible for numerous political killings of blacks to negotiate an armament of LLA. 1980 Mokhehle said, however, of the LLA going on and was offered in August of the same year by the South African President Pieter Willem Botha of the Jonathan government in exchange for this in South Africa, Chris Hani. Jonathan refused, however. Despite his exile Mokhehle was popular in Lesotho in many oppositional thinking people.
1989 could Mokhehle return to Lesotho. After the end of the military dictatorship and the introduction of a new constitution in 1993, there were free elections, the BCP won high, so they got all 65 seats. Mokhehle was new on 2 April 1993 Prime Minister of Lesotho. Up to the time after a coup of King Letsie III. from August 18 to September 14, 1994 Mokhehle ruled the country until May 29, 1998 Mokhehles health, however, had already struck.; the time of his reign was marked by heated arguments, even within the government faction. Shortly before the end of the legislative period, the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) was cleaved with Mokhehle at the top of the BCP. This triggered a constitutional crisis because Mokhehle for the LCD claimed the status of a governing party. Mokhehle resigned for health reasons. Mokhehles younger brother Shakhane Robong Mokhehle tried to be his successor, but was elected Bethuel Pakalitha Mosisili. In the parliamentary elections of 1998 he stepped for the LCD on, won the election and became prime minister as successor Mokhehles, who died in a South African hospital a little later.