“Chief Mohlomi had a special regard for children, women and the Elderly.”
~Paraphrasing Professor Max du Preez
One of the key assertions I made last week, lest we forget, reads as follows:
Let us not forget also that children are protected from violations of their human rights by various domestic and international pieces of legislation, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 and its 3 Optional Protocols being the most prominent. The relevant Optional Protocol in this case is titled, “Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography” 2000. Lesotho, once again, is prolific at signing, ratifying and adopting. But, one thing remains true, to date, we have a hidden education curriculum in our school system faithfully accompanying the study of cumulonimbus clouds, prose and verse and 1 + 1 = 2 and it follows all of us to the labour market where our nipples get twisted without our permission, our behinds nonchalantly groped, sexual favours demanded in return for jobs and/or career advancement and I wonder, what in the world is this country, so disturbingly good at pretending to be something that it is not, actually celebrating this 200th year of its existence?
And that is how I introduced the notion of a hidden curriculum here in Lesotho; an open-secret curriculum that has faithfully accompanied the formal education curriculum for decades and decades without much redress. This curriculum is an open secret and since we are in Bicentennial Reflection Mode (or supposed to be) I figured, well why not reflect on all the ugly things that have adversely impacted our moral, ethical, physical, psychological and spiritual health as a Nation? Otherwise, truly, we are playing with a spiritual fire which will soon turn into a blazing inferno of epic proportions and burn us all beyond the crisp that we are already burnt to. No, truly, we are burned to a crisp as it is…that is essentially the reality of what we have to show for our troubles after 200 years of existence. If Morena Moshoeshoe, and all our Elders of that time, were to time travel back into this dimension right this minute, my oh my, I cannot imagine their shock and their horror.
I also observed last week that the Lesotho legislatures and policymakers have been remarkably prolific at enacting laws that have no resonance to write home about in terms of societal impact and transformation. Why this yawning gap between law and practice I wonder? Do we need to study rocket science to connect these obvious dots? The lawmakers and the policymakers have largely been forced by bilateral and multilateral development partners to adopt these laws and policies and sign all manner of international Conventions and Protocols on pain of not getting this or that funding. There is your answer to the intractable “Reforms” processes dear reader. When that American, EU, British or Irish money is at stake, we get into pretend mode with lightning speed and literally adopt a different fake persona in order to get money into our coffers. We sign such documents with a flourish, amid much pomp and circumstance, and we do not mean a single word of it. What is the ultimate destination for that donor money ladies and gentlemen ba Basotho? MPs, politicians, high-ranking technocrats and members of the Executive come from our communities and families that roundly hate women and girls, don’t they? So, why should there be any surprises that the majority of them are not moved at all by these horrific sexual violations stats? If reports and rumours are to be believed, some of them, over the years, have been perpetrators! There you have it!
The responses to my recent thought pieces across several media platforms have been varied and quite illuminating and they are the perfect evidence of the rot that reigns in this country across all sectors. I never ever read social media diatribes (there is literally no sense there and cowards hide behind fake names and keyboards all day everyday) but here and there someone finds it necessary to “report back to me” about what’s being said. Hey knock yourselves out my guys and girls if you insist.
Herewith, for your reading pleasure, the mindsets that reign supreme in the land of King Moshoeshoe, Chief Mohlomi, Prophetess MaNtsopa, Queen MaNthatisi et al:
֍ She is horny and she no longer has a market that old bitter b****. This one appears to mostly be from the young men, or so I hear. I wouldn’t be surprised AT ALL dear reader if the young and not-so-young ladies joined the fray. Where do you think the inspiration for the Hollywood film, “Mean Girls” came from? Women are generally some of the worst verbal and emotional abusers out there. I have earned their ire on several occasions so these tirades, and the mindsets that facilitate their articulation, do not surprise me one bit.
֍ Heelang, how does she expect us to pass? This complaint is from the young ladies, the ones being violated and the ones who were taught by the hidden curriculum in high school that this is THE way to make it in this life…their question is quite pregnant with meaning. I could write a PhD thesis on this question alone using a Social Sciences research framework, certainly not Law.
֍ All women get by using their thighs and we men are now the victims of this evil sex-4-favours system. The victimizing gender is now the consummate victim. Strange times we live in, indeed!
Related article
Sex-4-Favours: Lesotho’s Hidden Education Curriculum (Part 1)
Women forced to give sexual favours to survive
Some are sad stories, I hear, shared on these open platforms where everything goes:
֍ “There is a man who traumatized my wife and made her life a living hell at that University, I am surveilling him and I fully intend to kill him. He destroyed my family.”
֍ “We were the victims of an expatriate man in the Faculty of Humanities at NUL, he used to tell us that nobody can touch him because he has the support of his colleagues, both male and female. I failed his courses several times and others dropped out. He is a living nightmare.” [The name of this man was apparently mentioned but for the purposes of this column piece, it is withheld]
֍ “I failed the same course for 5 years in a row and was even discontinued; what made matters worse for me is that I was on study leave and I even lost my marriage. It was suggested to me by my male classmates that my best bet was to strike up a romantic relationship with the lecturer in question and be done with this torture because, surely, I would then pass. I never did try that angle, and to this day, I do not understand why and how I pass all the courses except this one. It is even a half-semester course.”
And, these are just highlights; there is more where that came from, it’s there, in the Wild West called the worldwide web.
Where are our beautiful pieces of legislative art such as the Penal Code Act, No.6 of 2010; the Sexual Offences Act No. 3 of 2003; the Labour Code Order, No. 24 of 1992 as variously amended; the Codes of Good Practice No. 4 of 2003 (so-called “soft law”), and, for that matter, the Constitution of Lesotho 1993? As stated last week, all of these pieces of legislation prohibit and disavow quid pro quo and peer-to-peer sexual harassment and rape and all forms of sexual assault. Where are our international obligations contained in the Charter of Fundamental Social Rights in SADC 2003 and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights 1981?
According to the ILO’s databases on ratifications, the Kingdom of Lesotho has, in fact, ratified the ILO Convention Concerning the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work No. 190 of 2019. Convention 190 shall enter into force for Lesotho on the 15th of March 2024. I kid you not dear reader. Although the Convention is clearly limited to the world of work in terms of scope and applicability, we can happily and freely translate its core principles to high schools (not forgetting that they are places of work with little clients whose childhoods and innocence must be protected at all costs). We must, in fact, include age-appropriate modules on all these legal frameworks, in schools starting in pre-primary all the way up. Why should this knowledge be the exclusive preserve of Law students at University?
Next week, Part 3 looks at how Ghana, Nigeria, Spain, the United States, and other select countries globally, have attracted the attentions of media and social critics alike for brazen sexual harassment and other sexual violations in schools, academia, the entertainment industry and the sporting fraternity to mention a few sectors. See you then God-willing.
Mothepa Ndumo writes in her personal capacity.
Adv Ndumo is a Legal Academic at the National University of Lesotho, a Pension Law Scholar in the Faculty of Law registered for a PhD focusing on the domestic investment of pension funds, a Thomas Psychometrics Practitioner, an Industrial Sociologist and Certified Executive and Leadership Coach. She is an Alum of the National University of Lesotho, the University of Cape Town and the University of Namibia. Advocate Ndumo is the Founder & CEO of the Tataiso-Bhotani Group which has interests in corporate training, accredited coaching and mentorship and film, tv series and talk shows and publishing across multimedia platforms. Her passions are Lesotho, Afrika, indigenous systems of governance, history, young people and she is a lover of animals and of The Creator.
