Landlocked and
entirely surrounded by South Africa, Lesotho is one of smallest countries in Africa with
an area of 30,344 square kilometres and a population of over 2.1 million people.
Formerly a British colony known as Basutoland, Lesotho gained its independence in October
1966.
Lesotho is highly
dependent on the health of the South Africa economy. Lesotho's mineral resources are
meagre, but the country's mountain water resources are its most valuable natural asset.
The Highland Water Project, which is financed by external sources, is expected to be
completed by the year 2003. Besides supplying water to South Africa's densely populated
Gauteng region, the Project is expected to diversify Lesotho's economy. At present,
the economy is dependent on remittances from Basotho migrant workers in South Africa, the
production of a variety of manufactured products for the South African market, and the
country's share of income from the Southern African Customs Union. Lesotho's political
stability has been adversely affected by authoritarian rule from 1970 to 1986, followed by
the problems of dissidents within the army and friction between the army and the
government in the 1990s.
In 2000, Lesotho's
telephone network has over 22,000 connected lines, and the telephone density is 1.03 per
hundred population. The penetration of telephone lines is highly biased toward the capital
city, Maseru, which has over 52.1% of the total lines.
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