Sixty ANC refugees are airlifted out of Lesotho

Date: 25 Jan 1986
Updated: 30 Sep 2019

Sixty African National Congress (ANC) refugees are airlifted out of Lesotho to counter South Africa's threat of a blockade against that country. A year before they were deported, Lesotho refused to sign a non aggression pact with South Africa. Subsequently, on 1 January 1986 the South African Government closed its borders with Lesotho, cutting off fundamental food and fuel supplies. Fourteen days later, forces led by Maj-Gen Metsing Lekhanya who had been in talks with the apartheid government in South Africa seized power. The National Assembly was dissolved, and executive and legislative powers were vested in the king. Maj-Gen Metsing Lekhanya became head of a military head of state.

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How we know this

01South African History Online, ‘South Africa closes its borders with Lesotho’, [online], Available at www.sahistory.org.za [Accessed: 20 November 2012]
02O’Malley, P. ‘1986’, from Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and Dialog, [online], Available at www.nelsonmandela.org.za [19 November 2012]

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2013, January 17). Sixty ANC refugees are airlifted out of Lesotho. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094601

South African History Online (2013) 'Sixty ANC refugees are airlifted out of Lesotho', South African History Online, 17 January. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094601 (Accessed: 29 August 2026).

South African History Online, Sixty ANC refugees are airlifted out of Lesotho [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094601, (accessed 29 August 2026).

"Sixty ANC refugees are airlifted out of Lesotho." South African History Online, 17 Jan. 2013, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094601. Accessed 29 Aug. 2026.

South African History Online. "Sixty ANC refugees are airlifted out of Lesotho." South African History Online. January 17, 2013. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094601.