Southern Africa Archive

Last year, during a midnight search for contraband in South Africa’s St. Albans maximum security prison, more than 200 inmates were forced to lie naked on the ground in a human chain, each one’s face pressed into his neighbors’ buttocks. They were then subjected to beatings, electric shocks and torture. The abuse was not an isolated case. According to a complaint lodged by former inmate Bradley McCallum with the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), a similar incident occurred at St. Albans in 2005 after the stabbing of a prison warden. In his complaint, McCallum alleged that inmates were forced […]

After last month’s election in Lesotho produced no clear winner, the opposition Democratic Congress formed a coalition with six smaller parties. In an email interview, Dimpho Motsamai, a policy analyst and researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, discussed Lesotho’s election. WPR: What are the political implications of the indecisive election outcome, both for the incoming government and Lesotho more broadly? Dimpho Motsamai: Lesotho’s government is formed on a constitutional requirement of a party winning 50 percent plus 1 of a total of 120 seats in the House of Assembly. The constitution also demands that a government […]