The Advocates for the Supremacy of the Constitution (SECTION 2) has called on government to immediately initiate high-level diplomatic negotiations with South Africa to eliminate the use of passports for travelbetween the two countries.
The organisation urged Lesotho to replace the passport requirement with a secure, biometric identity card system, saying it would facilitate free movement.
“The queues at passport offices are not just lines for documents; they are a monument to a failed policy conceived in injustice. Let us dismantle that policy and restore the right of the people to move with the freedom and dignity their forebears knew,” SECTION 2 said in a recent statement.
It noted that eliminating the 63-year-old apartheid relic would instantly reduce the demand on Lesotho’s passport system by approximately 90 percent, and allow the Ministry of Home Affairs to manage the remaining demand with competence.
More importantly, it would affirm the historical, cultural, and economic unity of the people of these two countries, align with the spirit of SADC integration, and end the daily humiliation and danger inflicted upon citizens.
“The requirement for a passport is not a natural law; it is a brutal, artificial legacy of apartheid South Africa, imposed in 1963 by the National Party government,” the advocacy group said.
The organisation’s call was prompted by the escalating number of Basotho who illegally cross the border due to lack of access topassports.
