Maseru, Jan. 16 — The Advocates for the Supremacy of the Constitution (SECTION 2) has expressed concern following the release of an investigative article by GroundUp highlighting how Basotho migrant workers are forced into dangerous and often deadly river crossings between Lesotho and South Africa.
In a statement, SECTION 2 commended GroundUp for what it described as courageous, frontline journalism that exposes social injustice and holds those in power accountable. The organisation said the report sheds light on the suffering of marginalised Basotho citizens and deserves national attention.
SECTION 2 described scenes depicted in the article, of men and women sleeping on grass, huddling around fires overnight to secure a place in passport queues, as a national shame and a violation of constitutional rights. These include the right to human dignity, lawful and efficient administrative justice, and freedom of movement. The organisation said reducing citizens to such indignity merely to access passports undermines the very purpose of the document, which is meant to enable livelihoods.
While acknowledging administrative failures within the Ministry of Home Affairs, SECTION 2 argued that the crisis goes deeper, pointing to the passport requirement between Lesotho and South Africa as the root cause. The organisation said the policy is a legacy of apartheid South Africa, imposed in 1963 to control labour and restrict African movement, ending centuries of free cross-border mobility.
SECTION 2 said it is historically and humanitarianly unjust to maintain such a system, especially given that Lesotho is completely surrounded by South Africa and that for more than 90 percent of Basotho, passports are used solely to access work, education, healthcare, family and markets across the border. The organisation warned that the policy fuels corruption, creates unsafe informal crossings, and contributes directly to the drownings documented by GroundUp.
The organisation further criticised what it called economic and administrative waste, noting that millions of maloti are spent issuing passports that are often used only a few times before being confiscated or destroyed by South African authorities. SECTION 2 added that the system incentivises corruption, where citizens are treated as revenue sources rather than rights-holders.
SECTION 2 reiterated its long-standing position that Africans, particularly in Southern Africa, lived for centuries without passports, and that restoring free movement would be a return to historical norm and regional sanity. It stressed that such reform would align with the spirit of SADC integration.
The organisation has called for urgent action, including an immediate administrative overhaul at the Ministry of Home Affairs to end queues and restore dignity through fully resourced, citizen-centred operations. It also urged the Government of Lesotho to initiate high-level diplomatic negotiations with South Africa to abolish the passport requirement between the two countries, proposing a secure biometric identity card system as an alternative.
According to SECTION 2, scrapping what it called a 63 year-old apartheid relic would reduce passport demand by about 90 percent, ease administrative pressure, and affirm the historical, cultural and economic unity of the two nations.
“The queues at passport offices are not just lines for documents,” SECTION 2 said. “They are monuments to a failed policy conceived in injustice, and they must be dismantled to restore freedom and dignity to the people.”
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