The BNP leader accused the South African government of complicity in the expulsion of Basotho and other foreign nationals, and urged Lesotho to remove more than 2,000 South Africans working on the Polihali water project.
BASOTHO National Party leader Machesetsa Mofomobe has called on the Lesotho government to expel more than 2,000 South Africans working on the Polihali water project, in response to the removal of Basotho and other foreign nationals from South Africa.
Mofomobe made the call at a press conference in Maseru on Wednesday, where he addressed the media on the treatment of Basotho migrants across the border. He accused the South African government of complicity in the expulsions and said Pretoria bore responsibility for the pressure now falling on foreign residents.
He said Lesotho should respond by removing South African nationals employed at Polihali, the Phase II dam of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. The project, valued at close to M50 billion (about US$3 billion), is built under a 1986 treaty between the two countries and supplies water to South Africa’s Gauteng province. Mofomobe put the number of South Africans working on the project at more than 2,000.
His remarks come during a wave of deportations and anti-migrant action in South Africa. South African authorities reported more than 5,000 arrests for immigration offences in a single week in mid-June, and thousands of migrants have left the country in recent weeks.
The departures have followed both official enforcement and threats from anti-migrant groups. Rights groups and news organisations have reported the destruction of migrant homes, mob attacks, and the death of a Malawian man near Pietermaritzburg. Nigeria and Ghana have arranged transport to repatriate some of their nationals.
Basotho are among the largest migrant communities in South Africa, with a long history of labour migration to its mines, farms and households. Many live and work there under the Lesotho Exemption Permit. Money sent home by Basotho workers is a significant source of income for households in Lesotho.
South Africa’s government has linked its enforcement campaign to unemployment, which stood at about 32 percent early in 2026, and to public anger over undocumented migration. It has said its operations are conducted within the law.
Mofomobe leads the BNP in opposition, and his call is a demand on the government of Prime Minister Sam Matekane rather than a statement of policy. The government has not announced any move to remove South African workers from Polihali.
Polihali is central to the water relationship between the two countries. It is the second phase of a scheme that has channelled water from the Lesotho highlands to South Africa for close to four decades, in exchange for royalty payments to Lesotho.
