The devastating impact of Trump’s tariffs on Lesotho prompted the government to declare a “state of disaster”, Alasow Ghedi argues, the economic crisis is a “violent outcome of a 150-year process that systematically eroded Lesotho’s economic sovereignty”.

Unable to pay rent, thousands have returned to their villages, whose subsistence farming-based economy cannot sustain their families. Desperate, many have taken the dangerous road across the border to the illegal mining enterprises in South Africa.

The Congress brought together 52 delegates from all its regions to participate in this important process.