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SA intervenes after Lesotho king was `mistreated` at border

Source: IOL, 27/03/2018

Pretoria - South African senior government officials were on Tuesday,
intervening to quell a diplomatic spat with neighbouring Kingdom of
Lesotho after King Letsie III was `mistreated` at the border between
the two nations.
`I`ve just had a meeting now with the foreign minister of Lesotho. As
you know, we are experiencing problems at the border. The king of
Lesotho is extremely aggrieved by the way he was treated at the border.
I have expressed to him my sincerest apologies for this,` Foreign
Affairs Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said in Pretoria.
`I have indicated to him that I will personally go to Lesotho to
apologise to the king for any mistreatment he might have encountered at
our border.`
Sisulu said Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba was on Tuesday evening
travelling to the border as part of the high level intervention, amidst
reports that aggrieved Basotho are planning to block the busy border
post.
`He [Gigaba] is on his way to the border post so that he can deal with
some of the administrative problems that have been brought to our
attention by the government of Lesotho,` said Sisulu.
South Africa`s top diplomat met her Lesotho counterpart on an urgent
basis, at the conclusion of the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) Council of Ministers hosted in Pretoria.
`We are very concerned about what might happen there [at the border
post] and therefore we needed to ensure that we can normalize the
situation. The complaint from the king was uppermost in his mind,` said
Sisulu.

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