The Southern Sotho by V. G. J. Sheddick

Author:V. G. J. Sheddick [Sheddick, V. G. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, African Studies, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9781315306490
Google: gcoNDgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-02-03T03:25:03+00:00

POLITICAL PARTIES40

The most influential political party is that known as the Progressive Association. It has direct representation in the National Council by virtue of its right to nominate one of its members as a councillor. Some of the councillors who sit as District Council representatives are known to be members of the party. Outside the Council, the Progressive Association has an extensive influence through the medium of weekly newspapers with the production of which its leaders are intimately associated.

The Progressive Association was founded in 1903 by three commoners of the emerging “middle class.” Its membership is open to men and women on payment of a small membership fee. In all the government camps there are branches of the Association which now claims a total membership of about a thousand. The policy of the Association would appear to be aimed at securing a diminution in the authority of the chieftainship and a correspondingly greater participation in political life by educated commoners. The party led the agitation which finally resulted in the abolition of tribute or public duty labour. It also claims as one of its successes the establishment of an annual national holiday in honour of Moshoeshoe.

There is another party of a more amorphous character, the Lekhotla la Bafo (the People’s Court). It is, to all intents and purposes, a one-man party providing a platform for its “leader,” Councillor Josiel Lefela. Lefela holds his seat in the National Council as an elected District Council representative.41 On all possible occasions he claims to speak for the common man. Although commonly charged with extreme left-wing sympathies, Lefela appears most often as the quixotic champion of the chieftainship and wages constant war against the Administration on its behalf. So far as is known, the party has no formal constitution and no subscribing membership. The personality of its leader and its formal suppression by the Administration42 combine to give the People’s Court a greater reputation than the facts would warrant.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.