When NELSON MANDELA approved WAR || South Africa in Lesotho 1998

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On September 22 1998 South Africa engaged in a conflict against Lesotho. At the same time, Nelson Mandela was away talking to the US congress and receiving his congressional medal. Why did he approve the attack on Lesotho? What motivated him?

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References:
http://awsassets.wwf.org.za/downloads/wwf009_waterfactsandfutures_report_web__lowres_.pdf
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/01/19/cape-town-could-first-major-city-run-out-water/1047237001/
http://www.operationspaix.net/DATA/DOCUMENT/6107~v~Military_Intervention_in_Lesotho__Perspectives_on_Operation_Boleas_and_Beyond.pdf
https://www.academia.edu/1330315/South_African_military_intervention_in_Lesotho_-_A_critical_overview

Script:
September 22 1998 some 700 troops from the South African National Defence force stormed into their tiny independent neighbour Lesotho.

The very next day, Nelson Mandela was in Washington receiving a Congressional Gold Medal.
This was 4 years into his presidency.

The official reason for the invasion of Lesotho was to quell the unrest over a contested election
Which was causing mass riots in the streets of Maseru, Lesotho’s capital.

Perhaps because Mandela was quite aware of his image as a great “piecemaker” he let his subordinate Mangosuthu Buthelezi carry out the attack as he was named the acting president during Mandelas absence.

What stands out about this military action was that before South African troops ever reached Maseru the stated primary target of the attack they had already secured and wiped out the garrison that was protecting the Katse Dam in Maloti-Drakensberg mountains.

There, sixteen Lesotho soldiers were killed as the South African military rushed in with attack helicopters and their special forces.

Once control was established and the damn firmly under control they could proceed to Maseru.

The attack was successful in reinstating the ruling government and quelling the protests. The total reported death toll between 113 and 134 people.

At the time, the perception of the attack by the local population was that South African troops were there to make sure to re-instate the puppet government of Lesotho which had won the recent election under dubious conditions.

If South Africa was meddling in the elections would it really send its troops? And then consider that South Africa did not have international permission for its action as it never asked permission from the UN or the Southern African Development Community. It doesn’t sound like something a winner of a Nobel Pece Prize would approve of, but he did.

So what was the real reason for the invasion? It was to secure one of the most vital resources known to humanity.

This is Malibamat’so river it is a part of an 8 billion dollar joint water project between South Africa and Lesotho called the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. The Katse Dam was the first of a number of dams designed to deliver 2.2 billion cubic meters of water annually to Pretoria, Johannesburg and Vereeniging

As Laurence C Smith points out in his book “Rivers of Power”
“No president—not even Nelson Mandela—can defy the paramount importance of water security when weighing the well-being and national interests of his or her country”

The mountain range of Maloti -Drakensber in Lesotho highlands is essentially the water tower of South Africa without which most of the eastern side of the country would be left in a permanent state of drought.