ABSTRACT
The armed intervention into Lesotho by the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) in September 1998 following the repudiation by opposition parties of a recent election result provoked a massive controversy. The intervention provoked unusually intense international interest in the parochial political battles of Lesotho and gave impetus to the perpetual debate about the viability of that country's status and its relation to South Africa. However, that Lesotho's latest election was about to trigger such a tumult was far from evident when its voters went to the polls on 23 May 1998. South Africa and SADC moved to defray further criticism by calling upon the main political actors in Lesotho to normalise the situation by resuming negotiations. The immediate problem for South Africa posed by the intervention was that it invited criticism that the Mandela government was acting little better than its predecessor.
