Stefaans Brmmer and Inigo Gilmore
South Africa’s failure to come clean on a massacre pulled off by its paratroopers 18 months ago in Lesotho is bedevilling relations between Pretoria and the mountain kingdom’s popular royal family.
Little is known about the skirmish at Katse Dam where 17 Lesotho and two South African soldiers died. Paratroopers in helicopter gunships targeted the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) Katse barracks as the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) swept into Lesotho to counter a military rebellion triggered by vote- rigging allegations.
The Mail & Guardian is in possession of photographs, said to be taken by a humanitarian worker visiting Katse soon after, which show the partly clothed corpses of LDF troops slain in their beds. Several are mutilated or badly burnt.
Some Basotho are crying “cover-up” after Lesotho authorities – who invited the SANDF in the first place – moved to keep the matter out of the courts. And a senior Lesotho royal charges that the South African government and Nelson Mandela, president at the time, have ignored repeated requests for an explanation. Ill feelings about the alleged atrocity spilled into the public arena last month when President Thabo Mbeki failed to attend King Letsie III’s wedding.
It appears the SANDF targeted Katse for its strategic value to South Africa: Katse Dam is part of the multibillion-rand Highlands Water Project. A platoon from Bloemfontein-based 44 Parachute Brigade went for the Katse barracks, small and remote, immediately as the rest of the intervention force headed into the capital, Maseru, on September 22 1998. Other outlying barracks were left alone.
Among the mutilated bodies at Katse was that of Sergeant Makhooane Chaka. Last July his widow, Matokelo Chaka, filed a R750 000 wrongful-death suit against Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili and LDF commander Lieutenant General Makhula Mosakeng. She holds them legally responsible, as Mosisili invited the intervention by the SANDF and the Botswana Defence Force, both whom acted under the banner of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Edward Phoofolo, a Maseru human rights lawyer representing Chaka, this week confirmed the lawsuit was likely to be settled out of court after the Lesotho government agreed in November that an actuary determine the amount of compensation to be paid to Chaka. Cape Town actuaries Human & Morris confirmed they were approached for the task last month.
Phoofolo argued the Lesotho authorities’ readiness to settle indicated “an admission of guilt”, but said he regretted the lost opportunity to prove the case in the Lesotho High Court. He denied the LDF soldiers at Katse were rebels and claimed they returned fire only after the South Africans attacked.
Said Phoofolo: “We were intending to make it highly public … I’m told [the South Africans] arrived in these helicopters. Some of the [LDF] soldiers were on sentry, others were out jogging and were mown down in the field, and others were in the barracks. You’ve seen the pictures.”
Phoofolo said Chaka and relatives of others killed at Katse were approached as early as November 1998 by Mosakeng, the LDF commander, with offers of R20 000 compensation each. “Either the Lesotho government or the Lesotho government in collaboration with the South African government are bent on covering this up,” he charged.
Another Maseru lawyer, Kananelo Mosito, this week also alleged attempts by the Lesotho authorities to keep the matter from reaching court. He said he was asked last year by the families of 10 of the Katse dead to sue for compensation, but that four withdrew after accepting money from the Lesotho military. “When people are hungry, they’ll go for anything.”
Mosito said he instituted action on behalf of the remaining six families to claim compensation, but that no return affidavits had yet been filed by Lesotho authorities. He predicted a “spectacular” case if it ever reached court. “People were massacred. People are saying: ‘What’s this? These were people who were sleeping.'”
Meanwhile Prince Seeiso, brother of King Letsie III, this week said relations with South Africa remained strained by the Katse incident. The Lesotho royal family is known to have opposed the SADC intervention and is seen as loosely allied to the democratic opposition.
Seeiso, emphasising he spoke not on behalf of Letsie but as an individual and a principal chief, said he has been asking South African ministers to explain the Katse killings, but without success. His understanding was that LDF soldiers did not provoke the attack. “The helicopters came and circled the area. As soon as people came out to see what was happening, they were done for.”
Seeiso said it seemed the SANDF overreacted because of South Africa’s strategic interest in the water project. “If Katse had to be attacked in that manner, why weren’t all the other outposts attacked?”
He confirmed earlier having asked Mandela, then still president, for answers at a meeting attended by Queen Mother Mamohato. At a second meeting with Mandela during the second half of last year there were still no answers. “The irony is, we look at Madiba as a father figure. We have a very strong bond with him. It sometimes makes it very difficult to talk to him directly.”
Seeiso said Mandela was loudly cheered when he arrived for Letsie’s wedding last month. “The Lesotho people are a very forgiving people … but it is not fair to take us for granted, to expect us to accept the big stick always.”
Seeiso confirmed he was contacted before the wedding by Mandela, who was “concerned” that a South African delegation might not be well received. “There was talk of that nature. There were suspicions that people would not be happy, that opposition parties might stage demonstrations.”
South Africa was represented at the wedding by Mandela, Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi and two provincial premiers. Mbeki, who chaired a hastily-convened African National Congress national executive committee meeting that weekend, was to have been represented by his wife, Zanele Mbeki, who also failed to turn up.
Letsie, apparently piqued, said during a state banquet he would “fine” the South African president one head of cattle. Presidential representative Parks Mankahlana this week said Mbeki would oblige. “The president respects custom and tradition … How you do it is a matter of detail, but it has to be done.”
Mankahlana argued the cattle penalty should be seen as “more than just a fine”; it contained an element celebrating “cordial relations”.
Mankahlana said the presidency could not respond to the Katse killings: “Whether we should be answering questions now about that operation that we did at the request of Lesotho, I’m not certain. You should speak to the Lesotho government.”
SANDF representatives also avoided explaining, saying variously that questions should be addressed to the SADC or that answers could not be given while the dispute remained subject to Lesotho courts.
They also referred to a written SANDF presentation to the parliamentary committees on defence and foreign affairs in November 1998. The presentation confirmed Katse was a primary target and said the SANDF encountered “fierce resistance”. Other than that, it gave no explanation why 17 LDF soldiers – about half the total recorded LDF casualties – were killed at the small barracks.
Two South African troops, a doctor and a medic deployed in support of the paratroopers, also died at Katse.
A representative for Mandela referred earlier media queries to the South African government.