BAME PIET
Staff Writer

Former president Sir Ketumile Masire has accused the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) of being a stumbling block to finding a solution to the political crisis in the country.

Addressing the media in Gaborone on Friday, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) appointed mediator said during his attempts to help solve the political problems in Lesotho since last year, he had identified the government as the main problem – abusing the loopholes in the system and not willing to compromise. He said the opposition was a bit compromising and willing to accept any form of mediation and proposals to break the standoff.

Sir Ketumile said the opposition had filed their complaint with the High Court to challenge the allocation of the seats. He revealed that he was surprised when the court ruled that the opposition had no right to challenge the outcome of elections in court and that it also had no jurisdiction over such matters. “How can the highest court in the land say it does not have jurisdiction over any matter of national concern?” he wondered.
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Lesotho govt not backing off new financial tool
afrol News, 16 July – The Lesotho minister of Finance, Timothy Thahane has defended the newly introduced financial management for the government of Lesotho saying it was meant to correct and monitor expenditure.

Speaking to the media in Maseru today, Mr Thahane said the new computerised budgeting and accounting system has resulted to a number of delays in the issuance of purchases orders and cheques in government, as a result of shortcomings in its implementation, especially on making correct entries by officials at the departments.
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Lesotho’s security forces on Wednesday killed at least four armed men in unidentified army uniforms in different parts of the capital Maseru for suspected acts of terrorism.

According to different police reports, two of the suspects were killed in the morning hours when a fight erupted between them and the police at Khubetsoana, 10 km north of Maseru, following a report of a stolen taxi, while another suspect was seriously injured in the fracas.

Another suspect was shot dead by the army in the presence of the police and villagers, after his hideout was revealed, while a fourth suspect was killed in a joint operation of helicopters by the Lesotho and South African police near Caledon River that forms the border of Lesotho and South Africa.

Police on the scene said that one of the deceased was identified as a Member of the Lesotho Defense Force (LDF), while a second one was suspected to be a South African of the Zulu ethnic group.
The injured man was suspected to be a Mozambican, as he spoke one of that country’s languages, and he could not understand any local language or English.

Heavy gun shots here heard from the Makoanyane Military Barracks Tuesday night, and unconfirmed reports revealed that the army was responding when the suspects stole three army vehicles that included an armored vehicle, two four wheel vehicles and a land rover.

In another incident that happened on Wednesday night, an army officer guarding the State House, which is the residence of Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, was disarmed by the suspects and shots were fired at the Prime Minister’s residence.

Meanwhile, the army has since recovered two vehicles, including the armored vehicle and a large quantity various weapons.

The government is yet to release a statement on the incidents and the motives of the attacks remain unknown as APA went to press.
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Menu for Hope V launches Monday

In case you haven’t heard, our annual Menu for Hope begins again next Monday.  
You don’t know what Menu for Hope is? What, you’ve been living in the mountains somewhere, cut off from the food blog world? Well, fret not, here’s a list of frequently asked questions to answer your every query. Read it and join us! (If you’re on Facebook, join us there too.)

What is Menu for Hope?
When will this year’s campaign take place?
Who is the beneficiary of this year’s campaign?
Who collects the money?
How can I help?
  I’m a blogger
  I’m a restaurateur, author or food/wine producer/seller
  I’m a food blog reader or a food lover

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Menu for Hope?
Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising campaign hosted by me and a revolving group of food bloggers around the world.  Five years ago, the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia inspired me to find a way to help, and the very first Menu for Hope was born. The campaign has since become a yearly affair, raising funds to support worthy causes worldwide. In 2007, Menu for Hope raised nearly $100K to help the UN World Food Programme feed the hungry.

Each December, food bloggers from all over the world join the campaign by offering a delectable array of food-related prizes for the Menu for Hope raffle. Anyone – and that means you too – can buy raffle tickets to bid on these prizes. For every $10 donated, you earn one virtual raffle ticket to bid on a prize of their choice. At the end of the two-week campaign, the raffle tickets are drawn and the results announced on Chez Pim.

When will this year’s campaign take place?
December 15 through Christmas. 

Who is the beneficiary of this year’s campaign?
Once again we’ve chosen to work with the UN World Food Programme.WFP is the world’s largest food aid agency, working with over 1,000 other organizations in over 75 countries. In addition to providing food, the World Food Program helps hungry people to become self-reliant so that they escape hunger for good.

With the success of last year’s campaign to support the school lunch program in Lesotho, we are going to continue our support to the same program.  During the duration of Menu for Hope V, we will be posting updates from the kids and the farmers we supported this past year.

If you weren’t around  last year for Menu for Hope 4, let me explain a bit about why we are supporting this particular program.  We chose to support the school lunch program because providing food for the children not only keeps them alive, but keeps them in school so that they learn the skills to feed themselves in the future. We chose to support the program in Lesotho because it is a model program in local procurement – buying food locally to support local farmers and the local economy. Instead of shipping surplus corn across the ocean, the WFP is buying directly from local subsistent farmers who practice conservation farming methods in Lesotho to feed the children there.

Who collects the money?
Certainly not me, nor is it the other bloggers participating on the campaign. We know our readers trust us, but we also want to be completely transparent in our fundraising. So, we use a very good online fundraising company called Firstgiving, who has worked with us since the first Menu for Hope years ago.

Donors can make an online donation with a credit card. Firstgiving collects and processes the payments and, at the end of the campaign, transfers the donations in one lump sum to the WFP. This is a win-win situation for all parties involved. The bloggers never touch the money. The WFP don’t waste overheads on processing mini-donations, the majority of which were between $10-$50, that’s a whole lot of tenners to make up $90K.  Firstgiving does all the work and collects a small fee, which include the credit card processing charges.

Last year, Firstgiving gave back 1% of the total amount raised in lieu of a discount on their processing fee. Thank you Firstgiving, we appreciated it very much!

Check back on Monday to get the link to the donation site.

How can you help?

If you are a blogger:
Participate in Menu for Hope V by hosting a raffle prize or by promoting Menu for Hope on your blog. The prize you offer need not be of high monetary value, but it should appeal to your readership. A small rule of thumb we’d like to suggest is that each prize offered should have the potential to raise at least $200. That means, don’t offer a prize unless you are pretty sure you could get at least twenty of your readers to donate $10 for a raffle ticket toward that prize.

Please do not solicit prizes from restaurants or producers whom you do not know. A big part of our success in prior years came from the personal connections between bloggers, food producers/restaurateurs/authors, and the readers who donate to the campaign. Basically, if they know your name, it’s ok. If you pick up the phone and introduce yourself and the person at the other end of the line goes “huh?”, you shouldn’t be asking them.

Each blogger is also responsible for shipping their prize to the winning donor. Make sure you have enough in your budget to cover shipping. It’s important that you specify where your shipping area will cover when you offer the prize.  Frankly, we prefer that you don’t restrict shipping area, but if you must, then please be very clear in your blog post so as not to confuse our donors.

Forward this post to all other bloggers you know so they can participate too.

Here are your local hosts for this year’s Menu for Hope

Europe *and* the UK
Sara of Ms.Adventures in Italy (sara.rosso@gmail.com)

US: West Coast (If you are closer to SF than you are to NY then you belong here.)
Matt Armendariz of Matt Bites (matt.armendariz@gmail.com)

US: East Coast
Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen (jaden@steamykitchen.com)

Canada
Meena Agarwal of Hooked on Heat (meena@hookedonheat.com)

Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand
Ed Charles of Tomato (edcharles@mac.com) 

and, last but not least, our special Wine Blog Host
Alder of Vinography (alder@vinography.com)

If you’d like to participate, please send your prize information (plus two images 75×75 thumbnail and 200×200px) to your local host so that they can give you a prize code (important!) and more instructions on what to do for Monday.

If you are a restaurateur, author or food producers/sellers:
Consider offering your products and services as raffle prizes. If you have a corportate blog, you can host the prize yourself. If you don’t, find a food blogger to host your prize. If you don’t know any, contact me, I’ll see what I can do.

If you are a food blog reader or a food lover:
Come back to Chez Pim on Monday December 10 when the campaign goes online. You can browse our amazing array of prizes by type, or find a prize near you by searching by region. Bid on as many prizes as you’d like. Buy raffle tickets as holiday gifts to your loved ones. Just come back and check us out on December 10. Help us help the WFP end world hunger.

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Recently-found diamond in Lesotho

“Miners in the Southern African kingdom of Lesotho have found one of the world’s largest diamonds, a near-flawless white gem weighing nearly 500 carats, mining group Gem Diamonds said on Sunday.

The diamond was discovered in the Letseng Mine on September 8, the company said in a statement. It has been analysed by experts in Antwerp and found to weigh 478 carats, with very few inclusions and of outstanding colour and clarity.

“It has the potential to yield one of the largest flawless D colour round polished diamonds in history,” the company said.”
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Identificateurs Technorati : Lesotho, Diamonds in Lesotho, Poverty in Lesotho

SABCnews.com – africa/southern_africa:
May 29, 2008, 08:45

Taxi drivers in the capital of Lesotho are blocking the main southern road into the city. The drivers are protesting the shooting yesterday of a taxi owner following a row with a government bus assistant. Police say the taxi drivers were attempting to stop passengers from boarding a government bus and the bus assistant allegedly shot and wounded the taxi owner.

The bus assistant is in police custody and police are investigating a case of attempted murder. Transport operators in Lesotho are still awaiting a response from government following a petition against the introduction of government buses in the city. They claim the government buses are killing private transport in Lesotho.

Last week the taxi owners in the Lesotho capital, Maseru, went on a campaign to stop new government buses from operating. The taxi owners offloaded passengers and instructed bus drivers to park some buses. They are expected to take part in talks with government to resolve the issue.

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Africa/Lesotho/North/Mokhotlong/photo294712.htm

That link will take you to a beautiful picture of a Mosotho lady standing at the door to her hut. There’s this next to the photo: “Same village in Lesotho – she stands at the door of her house and shop. The white flag in the background indicates that she sells beer today, a red flag flying would mean that she has meat in stock and a green flag would indicate that vegetables are available. Lesotho being flat, people can see from far off whether the supplies they need are in stock.” The bold type is mine.

Except Lesotho is one of the highest countries in the world, with rugged, volcanic terrain and two mountain ranges (a lot for a country of Belgium’s surface area). Lesotho is anything but flat. Another picture has a misleading caption:”Lesothan on the Drakensburg.” There is no such thing as a Lesothan (and it’s Drakensberg), and Basotho dislike the appellation, initially used by reporters lazy to find out what we were called. It’s a Mosotho, two or more of them are Basotho, they speak Sesotho (or Sotho), and they live in Lesotho. There’s no such thing as a Lesothan.

But please visit the site, because the photos are magnificent.