Communist Party of Lesotho

Lesotho

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Lesotho

King Letsie III Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili Parliament Senate National Assembly Political parties Elections: 2002, 2007 Districts Community councils Foreign relations

Other countries · Atlas Politics portal view · talk · edit

Communist parties
Africa  Algeria  Egypt  Lesotho  Madagascar  Namibia  Réunion  Senegal  South Africa  Sudan  Tunisia
Americas Argentina (PCA • PCRA)  Bolivia  Brazil (PCdoB • PCB)  Canada (CPoC • MLPoC)  Chile (PCCh • PC(AP))  Colombia  Cuba  Ecuador  Mexico (PC • PPS • PPSM)  Panama (PPP • PC(ml)P)  Paraguay  Peru (PCP • PCdelP-PR)  Uruguay  United States  Venezuela
Asia  Bahrain  Bangladesh (CPB • WPB)  Burma  China  India (CPI • CPI (M) • CPI (Maoist) • SUCI(C))  Iran (CPI • Tudeh Party)  Iraq  Israel  Japan  Jordan  Kazakhstan (CPK • CPPK)  Kyrgyzstan  North Korea  Laos  Lebanon  Nepal (CPN (UML) • UCPN (M))  Pakistan  Palestine  Philippines  Sri Lanka  Syria  Tajikistan  Taiwan (TCP • CPRC)  Vietnam Historical parties  Cambodia  Indonesia  Malaya and Singapore  Saudi Arabia  Taiwan  Thailand
Europe  Albania  Armenia  Austria (KPÖ • KI)  Azerbaijan  Belarus (KPB)  Belgium (PvdA/PTB • KP • PC)  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Bulgaria  Cyprus  Czech Republic  Denmark (DKP • KPiD)  Estonia  Finland  France  Georgia  Germany  Greece  Hungary  Ireland (CPI • WPI)  Italy (PdCI • PRC)  Luxembourg  Malta  Moldova  Netherlands  Norway  Poland  Portugal  Russia (CPRF • RCWP-RPC)  San Marino  Serbia  Slovakia  Spain (PCE • PCC)  Sweden  Switzerland  Turkey  Ukraine  United Kingdom (CPB • NCPB • CPS) Historical parties  Czechoslovakia  East Germany  Italy  Soviet Union  United Kingdom  West Germany  Yugoslavia
Oceania  Australia (CPA • CPA(ML))  New Zealand (CPA • WPNZ)
Related topics  Communism (history)  Marxism-Leninism  Democratic centralism
v · d · e

The Communist Party of Lesotho (Mokhatio oa Makomonisi a Lesotho) is a political party in Lesotho, founded on May 5, 1962. The founding secretary of the party was John Motloheloa. Other early leaders of the party included Mokhafisi Kena and Sefali Malefane. Edward Mofutsanyana was a member of the Communist Party of South Africa Central Committee (disbanded 1950) but had no part in the Lesotho party. Joe Matthews of the South African Communist Party (founded 1953) financed the launch of the Lesotho party but later supported the ANC-allied Marematlou Freedom Party. The South African Communist Party, the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party and Walter Ulbricht of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany sent greetings on the occasion of the founding of the party. The party began publishing Mosebetsi.^[1]

During the 1960s, the party split into Soviet-allied (Kena, Malefane, Mtji, and Ms Hoohlo) and Chinese-allied (Motloholoa, T. Leanya, and T. Nqojane) factions. In the 1970 election, its two Moscow-allied candidates at Thaba Chitja (Kena) and Tsoelike (Malefane) received 25 and 18 votes respectively. Ther party was officially banned in February 1970, but went underground and continued its activities. After the 1986 coup, its leader, Sefali Malefane, a university lecturer in Economics, was made a minister in Major-General Lekhanya's regime. The party was made legal again in 1991.^[2]

After the fall of apartheid rule in neighbouring South Africa, the party advocated union with South Africa.^[3]

The party ceased the publication of its newspaper, Mafube, in 1997.^[4]

The party's current leader is Manny Stevenson.^[5]

References

1. ^ [1], [2]
2. ^ cover research report opt 1
3. ^ Summary of Events in Lesotho - 3rd quarter 1995
4. ^ Summary of Events in Lesotho - 1st quarter 2001
5. ^ LESOTHO POLITICAL PARTIES RECOMMIT TO NATIONAL VISION 2020