Leabua Jonathan - Politics and Premiership

Politics and Premiership

Jonathan converted to Catholicism and in 1957 founded the Canadian Catholic missionary backed Basutoland National Party (BNP, renamed Basotho National Party at independence. In the 1960 election Leabua came fourth in his electorate but the BNP won a slim majority in April 1965 elections on a minority vote. Leabua lost his seat and had to stand for election in a safe seat later. He took office as Prime Minister on 7 July 1965.

Soon after Basutoland gained independence in 1966 as Lesotho, executive power was transferred from the British High Commissioner to the Prime Minister. Jonathan's government was allegedly supported by apartheid South Africa, because Jonathan at the time thought that he could talk sense with Henrik Verwoerd and Balthazar Johannes Vorster who were both South African apartheid prime ministers at the time. Jonathan was hostile to both the Pan Africanist Congress and African National Congress of South Africa who respectively supported the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) and Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP). He forged links with the ANC after the PAC backed Lesotho Liberation Army, the exiled BCP military wing, prepared to attach Lesotho after 1976.