ABSTRACT
This chapter revisits academic and policy discourse on migration between Lesotho and South Africa. Its major contribution to this debate relates to the idea of free movement of persons which has not featured adequately in the previous writings on the political economy of migration between the two countries. One of the major structural drivers of migratory flows between these countries is that Lesotho's large tracts of arable land were usurped by force of arms by the marauding Afrikaaners in the early 19th century. Lesotho's underdevelopment was further accentuated by a policy of deliberate neglect by the British colonialists between 1871 and 1966 when it gained its independence. This is primarily how Lesotho became a labour reserve for South Africa. Migration across the common border was largely free and unhindered until 1963 when restrictive measures were introduced by apartheid South Africa, a move that was meant to keep the liberation movements at bay. This security-centred/militarized border management still characterizes the approach to migration by the post-apartheid government. The security-centred hardening of borders between the two countries was further reinforced by responses to the onset of COVID-19 that included border closures and restrictions on cross-border migration. In order to reverse this trend, this chapter makes a case for free movement of persons between Lesotho and South Africa.
