AFRICANEWS

Lesotho

King Letsie III forgives neighbour's faux paux

Culture

All is well that ends well. After giving South African President Thabo Mbeki a tongue-lashing for not attending his wedding last year, the ruling monarch of Lesotho has let bygones be bygones, thanks to an 18-month-old pregnant cow.

Lesotho's monarch, King Letsie III, has chastised South African president Thabo Mbeki for not attending King Letsie III's wedding in February of last year.

In a tongue-in-cheek speech he made recently at the Royal Palace in Maseru where President Mbeki had brought a cow as a �fine� for not attending the wedding, the young king gave the visiting South African head of state some choice words.

The king made a few additions to the written, official speech to really convey to President Mbeki his feelings, including a statement alluding to the fact that the king did not quite believe the excuse that a busy diary had prevented the president from attending the wedding.

�Your Excellency, permit me to recollect that on the occasion of our wedding, to which you were invited, you were unable to attend in person because of your very busy programme, so we were told,� he said, adding the last four words to the official version of the speech.

He said that, although a member of both the Zulu royal family and cabinet minister in South Africa, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, had represented President Mbeki as prescribed by Basotho (people of Lesotho) customary law, they found themselves with no option but to impose a fine as they were looking forward to the president's attendance in person.

King Letsie III added that he and Queen Karabo regarded President Mbeki's inability to attend as a serious dereliction of duty on the part of the president. He hoped President Mbeki would not feel that he was being treated unfairly or unjustly, as there were other people from Europe and many other parts of the world who had been invited but failed to attend.

�We felt that you, Thabo, had a special duty to be here on that occasion as an African and on top of all things, having strong Basotho blood running through your veins, we felt that we had no option but to impose this fine,� said King Letsie III. Then, in Sesotho, �Ke ile ka iphumana ke tlameha to tiisa letsoho (I found myself having to harden my stroke).�

He then resorted to the written text, which said they were impressed that Mbeki had made good the fine by bringing the cow. He said the gesture was a powerful and eloquent statement of the special relations between the two countries. �We know from your determined pursuit of the much celebrated African Renaissance that you are not one to easily forget your roots,� he added.

The king then sent dignitaries and those present into titters as he spoke in Sesotho, saying that President Mbeki showed servitude by bringing the cow. He said President Mbeki had returned his servitude status to its original favourable position after he almost ditched his stand by refusing to abide by an order.

King Letsie III forgave President Mbeki, saying that all was forgotten and he should know that they had excused him in the hope that he had repented.

An apologetic President Mbeki stammered his way through an off-the-cuff address in which he said that he was with Buthelezi, who had promised to provide a second cow in case the king was not impressed with the one they had come with.

He pledged allegiance to the Lesotho monarch by saying: �You are our King and we have heard you and so, �eh�eh, we come Your Majesty, eh� with this beast, eh� to say �.eh, we hope it would please Your Majesty.�

The Manyatseng Farmers Association, a group of small commercial farmers, had provided the cow. They had given it to the president because they felt if he did not pay the fine, they would probably lose their favourable business status with Maseru, a town with which they do much business in Lesotho.

The cow was 18 months old and pregnant with its first calf, according to farmer Malefane Mothokho. The cow is a Friesland milking specimen and had all the necessary certificates of health that were handed in to the king's secretary, Mabotse Lerotholi.

The certificates ascertained that the cow had no BSE, foot-and-mouth disease and other illnesses, and it had registration certificates in the name of King Letsie III and transfer certificates from South Africa into Lesotho.

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