By Kefiloe Kajane
The villagers of Nkh’unkh’u and Litahabaneng in the Mohale’s Hoek district are far from living in peace.
They have drawn battle fields over grazing land with no end in sight, at least for now, with recent confrontations and tensions suggesting the feud will be raging on for quite some time.
During a visit to the two neighbouring villages last week, this publication discovered that the two sets of villagers live in constant fear and are always on high alert.
According to Nkh’unkh’u councilor Rankoela Rathobeli, residents of the two villages ‘have to stay alert day and night’ in fear of announced intermittent attacks between them.
Fights over pastures have regularly broken out between inhabitants of the two settlements.
Speaking to theReporter, Rathobeli said the fights began many years ago and have recently escalated. As a result, he added, some victims have ended up in hospital after being suffering injuries in the latest episode of the conflict.
He said attempts by local chiefs to end the conflicts have failed and that they were pinning their hopes on the chief of Lithabaneng to intervene. Rathobeli was optimistic that his intervention might resolve the rifts.
Villagers launch attacks at each other whenever some of them pass through each other’s residences. He said police have been called in to mediate but nothing solid has come out.
“Our local chief has tried several times to intervene and told them to stop the fights. The matter was then reported to the principal chief. From my knowledge, that portion of the land over which fights break belongs to Nkh’unkh’u. I grew up here so I know that from my young age.
“The situation has gotten worse because Lithabaneng villagers get services like shopping and other government services from us. They fear to pass through this village even though they have to do so on daily basis.
“If this situation continues, it means we will end up counting bodies. It has become such a huge problem that it has affected other nearby villages. As local leaders we must strive to find a solution to end the conflict,” Rathobeli said.
The area chief of Lithabaneng Tṧeliso Letṧaba confirmed that fights over grazing pastures have befallen the two villages although that land falls under the jurisdiction of the Lithabaneng chief.
He has attempted several times to intervene and even called in the police but all these have come to naught, as neither party is not budging.
This is despite villagers sharing basic services.
“I have tried before to manage the graze lands and that brought a short-lived end to the attacks. But recently the infighting has broken between the two villages when animals were allowed to graze on the controversial pastures,” he explained while yearning for chiefs to negotiate for peace.
“I believe that there is an urgent and serious need for ending this violence in order not to lose any lives,” he thought.
A Lithabaneng resident who has been involved in the battles, Thabang Moremi, does not foresee any immediate end to the pastoral wars.
He also admitted that the land in question belonged to his village and that their livestock are entitled to graze there.
He regretted that people who are neighbours continue to live in conflict over just a piece of land.
Villagers from his dwelling have to travel in groups when going to Nkh’unkh’u, he revealed.
“Unless the villagers of Nkh’unkh’u admit that the land belongs to the chief of Lithabaneng, it will be difficult to end the conflict,” he suggested.
Noting that he grew in that village long time ago, he said the attacks have now targeted women who travel alone, believing that some thuggery was all behind the attacks.
Lesotho Mounted Police assistant public relations officer Sub-Inspector ‘Mareabetsow Mofoka, said they have not received any reports relating to recent incidents. She admitted that police have tried to mediate in the past to end the violence. She said there have been reports of people having been killed in the area.
“Although we have not received any reports recently, police have visited Lithabaneng in an attempt to intervene,” she said.
Battles of grazing land are not limited to Mohale’s Hoek, as they have become a way of life in the rest of the country. In 2014 herd boys in Lekokoaneng, fought over pastures to a point where the area chief ‘Masekoati Masupha and the Berea police were forced to hold a public gathering at Ha Fusi as part of efforts to bring an end to rifts emanating from grazing pastures.
The gathering had come after a principal of a nearby school was injured when the fight spilled to the school premises at the time the teacher attempted to intervene.
On several occasions, the Berea police have intervened in long ensuing feuds among the livestock herders. The law enforcement officers have warned that those involved in the rifts would be arrested and prosecuted as such activities are criminal offences.
At Nazareth in Maseru, two schools were left without water and their students and teachers fearing for their lives in 2016 due to a pasture dispute that had been raging in the area for more than two decades.
John Mount High School and Masapong Primary School had their water cut last month allegedly after some Ha Ponoane herd-boys vandalised pipes which supply Ha Ntsi villagers, their “enemies”, with the precious liquid following a mass brawl over grazing.
The schools are located between the feuding villages and use the same pipes with Ha Ntsi to get their water from Ha Ponoane.
Chief Makhaola Theko accuse Ha Ponoane herd-boys of starting the fight. He claimed it was started by a Ha Ponoane herd-boy who had been found grazing his livestock on a farm in Ha Ntsi. The landowner didn’t take kindly to this and asked the herd-boy to leave. Apparently, the herd-boy told the man that he was not utilizing the farm and refused to go.
A committee of councillors and chiefs was formed to look into the fight over pastures. It held a series of public gatherings in an effort to end the problem.
