1) Another short thread on #Lesotho's colonial history and how it helped shape southern African history:

So #Lesotho was a Crown Colony. This is often mis-represented by authors as Swaziland and Botswana were both Protectorates. So why does this matter?
It was big for #ANC/ #PAC

2) So #Lesotho was the only High Commission Territory that was a Colony rather than a Protectorate. Most of the time this meant very little--they were all governed as labor reserves for Southern Africa by the #British.
Lesotho's status helped in 1909 by keeping them out of Union

3) By the 1960s, that was old (but still important history).

Fast forward to 1962--South Africa leaves the #Commonwealth after the 1961 referendum. This means #border controls for HCT, but it also means that old imperial legislation falls away.

4) This includes the 1881 Fugitive Offenders Act which governed how #police in the respective territories handed over criminals and those suspected of crimes between the territories.
Officers in police in HCT were (overwhelmingly) of (white) South African origin...

5) Which meant that there was often close cooperation between HCT police and South African police. ]

This made #Lesotho, #Botswana, #Swaziland dicey places for refugees (esp #ANC and #PAC members) to flee because they could be handed back to SA.

6) So when in 1962 Fugitive Offenders Act feel away, there was no legal mechanism to transfer suspects/prisoners who crossed borders. What is the solution? Pass a new law.

Botswana and Swaziland (as Protectorates) passed these quickly and easily. All that remained was #Lesotho

7) Well, #Lesotho's status as Crown Colony held up the legislation because they could not easily enter in an agreement like this with a non-Commonwealth country.
If Basutoland did not pass the legislation, then the HCT could not have an agreement.

8) There was never an agreement passed! Thus, from 1962 there was no legal mechanism whereby fugitives from South African justice (criminal or political) could be handed back to the apartheid regime.
This meant that refugees who made it to the territory, even by skipping bail...

9) ...could not be sent back. This infuriated the South Africans, but also the British!
So, for instance, in 1963 when Jack and Rica Hodgson (and Michael Hamel) escaped their house arrest in Johannesburg and fled to Botswana to set up an ANC safehouse in Lobatsi...

10) The British authorities in Bechuanaland had to ignore the SA request to extradite them because there was no Fugitive Offenders law.
There *would have been* if not for #Lesotho's status at a Crown Colony (remember Bechuanaland had passed a new one in 1962)

11) Thus, all the ANC and PAC refugees who fled to and through #Lesotho, #Botswana (the "Pipeline") and #Swaziland from 1962-1966 (end of colonial period; 1968 for Swazi) were much safer because Lesotho's constitutional status had scuttled the Fugitive Offenders Act (/end)

Addendum: There were of course people who were extradited (some illegally and some abducted by SAP) from the territories, but the law helped keep many of them safer and with more legal recourse to stave off deportation back to apartheid jails.
#Lesotho
#Apartheid
#History

Addendum 2: Please do not take this thread to mean that colonialism was 'good.' It was not. Full stop.

However, there were ways that #Basotho ba #Lesotho were able to use its status to negotiate (at times) for better outcomes and results.

Addendum 3: The lack of a Fugitive Offenders Law in late colonial period also gave newly independent #Lesotho, #Botswana, #Swaziland better leverage to NOT negotiate one after 1966/1968 as well.
Thus, for most of apartheid period there was no formal extradition agreement either!