Quick facts
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Institutional arrangements and social indicators
- Country Names
- Conventional long form: The Kingdom of Lesotho
Conventional short form: Lesotho
Former: Basutoland - Capital
- Maseru
- Districts
- Butha-Buthe, Leribe, Berea, Maseru, Mafeteng, Mohales Hoek, Quthing, Qacha's Nek, Mokhotlong, Thaba-Tseka
- Area
- 30,355 km2
- Altitude
- lowest 1388m; height 3482m
- Independence
- 4 October 1966 (from Great Britain)
- Nationality
- Basotho (plural); Mosotho (singular)
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Executive branch
- Head of State
- His Majesty King Letsie III
- Head of Government, Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, Police and National Security
- The Right Honourable Pakalitha Mosisili
- Minister For Foreign Affairs and International Relations
- The Honourable Tlohang Sekhamane
- Elections
A general election in Lesotho was held on 28 February 2015 for all 120 seats of the National Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of Lesotho, more than two years ahead of schedule due to the 2014 political crisis. Following mediation facilitated by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), His Majesty King Letsie III on the advice of then Prime Minister Tom Thabane, dissolved the Eighth Parliament and called a snap election.
Lesotho uses the mixed-member proportional representation voting system. More than 1.2 million voters had been registered by the Independent Electoral Commission. The 2015 general election yeilded no outright winner and the then opposition party Democratic Congress (DC) led by Dr Pakalitha Bethuel Mosisili managed to form the coalition government with seven (7) other political parties as no party achieved an outright majority.
The current coalition government in Lesotho is headed by the Right Honourable the Prime Minister Dr P. B. Mosisili as Prime Minister, Leader of Democratic Congress (DC) and the Deputy Prime Minister is Hon Mothejoa Metsing, Leader of Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD).
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Legislative branch
Bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (33 members – 22 principal chiefs and 11 other members appointed by the ruling party) and the Assembly (120 seats, 80 by popular vote and 40 by proportional vote; members elected by popular vote for five-year terms)
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Judicial branch
High Court, Court of Appeal, Magistrate’s Court, customary or traditional court
Arms of state
Legislature
Executive
JudiciaryLesotho Government Portal (link)
- Legal System
- based on English Common Law and Roman-Dutch Law
- Constitution
- 2 April 1993
- Population
- 2, 012, 649 (2007est)
- Literacy
- 85% (2007 est)
- Ethninicity/Race
- Sotho 99.7 %; Europeans , Asians and other 0.3%
- Languages
- Sotho, English (both official)
- Religions
- Christians 80%, indegineous beliefs 20%
- Monetary Unit
- Loti (Plural Maloti) pegged to the South African rand
- Standard Power
- 220/240volts AC 50Hz
- Time
- GMT +2 hours
- Int. Telephone Code
- +266
- International Disputes
- None
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Public holidays
- 1 January New Year's Day
- 11 March Moshoeshoe's Day
- 21 March Good Friday
- 24 March Easter Monday
- 1 May Workers' Day
- 17 July King's Birthday
- 25 May Africa Hero’s Day
- 4 October Independence Day
- 25 December Christmas Day
- 26 December Boxing Day
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Economic indicators
- GDP (purchasing power parity)
- $3.088 billion (2007 est.)
- GDP (official exchange rate)
- $1.588 billion (2007 est.)
- GDP - real growth rate
- 4.8% (2007 est.)
- GDP - per capita (PPP)
- $1,500 (2007 est.)
- GDP - composition by sector
- agriculture: 15.2%
industry: 45%
services: 39.7% (2007 est.) - Labor force
- 838,000 (2000 est.)
- Household income or consumption by percentage share
- lowest 10%: 0.9%
highest 10%: 43.4% (2002 est.) - Inflation rate (consumer prices)
- 12% (2007 est.)
- Investment (gross fixed)
- 48.5% of GDP (2007 est.)
- Budget
- revenues: $951.4 million
expenditures: $855.4 million (2007 est.) - Natural Resources
- water, agricultural and grazing land, diamonds, sand, clay, building stone
- Agriculture - products
- corn, wheat, pulses, sorghum, barley; livestock
- Arable land
- 1%
- Agricultural land
- 77%
- Industries
- food, beverages, textiles, apparel assembly, handicrafts, construction, tourism
- Industrial production growth rate
- 12% (2007 est.)
- Electricity - production
- 350 million kWh; (2005)
- Exports
- $905 million f.o.b. (2007 est.)
- Exports - commodities
- manufactures 75% (clothing, footwear, road vehicles), wool and mohair, food and live animals (2000)
- Exports - partners
- US 81.9%, Belgium 15%, Canada 1.9% (2006)
- Imports
- $1.584 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)
- Imports - commodities
- food; building materials, vehicles, machinery, medicines, petroleum products
- Imports - partners
- Hong Kong 33.4%, China 31.2%, Germany 7.7%, India 7.3% (2006)
- Economic aid - recipient
- $68.82 million (2005)
- Reserves of foreign exchange
- $889 million (31 December 2007 est.)
- Debt - external
- $693 million (31 December 2007 est.)
- Exchange rates
- maloti per US dollar - 7.25 (2007), 6.85 (2006), 6.3593 (2005), 6.4597 (2004), 7.5648 (2003)
- Fiscal year
- 1 April - 31 March
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Useful words & phrases in Sesotho
- Greetings (singular)
- Khotso (literally ‘peace) or lumela
- Greetings (plural)
- Khotsong or lumelang
- Welcome (singular)
- Kena ka khotso
- Welcome (plural)
- Kenang ka khotso
- Excuse me
- Ntsoarele
- Thank you
- Kea leboha
- Help!
- Thusa!
- No
- Chee
- Yes
- Ee
- Please
- ka kopo / ako.../...hle
- What is the time?
- Ke nako mang?
- What is your name?
- Lebitso Ia hau ke mang?
- My name is
- Lebitso Ia ka ke
- How much is this?
- Ke bokae?
- Why?
- Hobaneng