Lesotho–South Africa border

Moshoeshoe’s kingdom

In 1843 the Governor of the Cape signed a treaty with Moshoeshoe, chief of the Basotho, describing his territory as running west to the junction of the Caledon and Orange rivers and some 25 to 30 miles north of the Caledon. Wars with the Orange Free State followed from 1856. In 1866 the Basotho agreed to become subjects of the Free State, and after more fighting and a further appeal, the Cape governor declared on 12 March 1868 that they were British subjects and their land British territory.^[1]

The Aliwal North treaty of 12 February 1869 then drew the line with the Orange Free State, leaving it all Basotho lands west of the Caledon. On the Natal and Cape sides the line follows the Drakensberg watershed, which sometimes lies behind the steep escarpments, leaving grazing land between the border and the cliffs. Annexed to the Cape in 1871 and returned to direct British rule in 1884, Basutoland was governed as a High Commission Territory.^[1]

“The territory of the Chief Moshesh is bounded from the west, from the junction of the Caledon with the Gariep Rivers, to the sources of those rivers”^[1]

Water across the border

Under the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, dams on the Senqu (Orange) River in Lesotho send water to South Africa’s Gauteng region and generate hydroelectricity for Lesotho. Its second phase, co-financed by the African Development Bank from 2021, adds the Polihali dam and a 38 km transfer tunnel, raising transfers from 780 million to 1,260 million cubic metres a year; the region it serves produces 60 percent of South Africa’s economic output.^[2]