UN General Assembly
1977

58. In the security debates on the question of South Africa at the International Conference in Support of the Peoples of Zimbabwe and Namibia, held in Maputo, and the World Conference for Action against Apartheid, held in Lagos, my delegation made it clear that in our view the main cause of the problems of southern Africa in the apartheid policies of that Government which resulted in the closure of the south-eastern borders with my country. It is the same obnoxious policies which envisage the creation of Botswana and QwaQwa Bantustans around Lesotho. It is apartheid that denies basic freedoms to over 20 million Africans in South Africa. It is apartheid that catapults thousands of black South Africans into fleeing their country for political refuge in Lesotho. The Government and people of Lesotho have maintained a flexible policy of purposefully absorbing the fleeing refugees and integrating them into the fabric of our society rather than treating them as conventional refugees. It is the same apartheid policies that permit detentions without trial in South Africa. In pursuit of this policy, several Basotho people are either held hostage or detained in South Africa without access to judicial due process.