The New South Africa as the Regional Superpower         South Africa is the strongest military power in the southern Africa.  The South African Department of Defense is responsible for the defense of the nation and must continue to lower white and black fears in 1998 as it was supposed to in 1994 when the former white military and military wing of the ANC united to form the a new military for the new South Africa.  Even before 1989 the military was told not to be involved in fighting beyond the boundaries of the state.  Its new role is the defense of South Africa up to the state's boundaries.  The Army was to be to 55,000 soldiers, down 20,000 after 1994 (Howe 1991).  The whole Defense Force personnel was reduced by one third and made a volunteer force after May 1994 (Schneidman 1994)
    Yet on September 22, 1998 the South African Army invaded Lesotho in Operation Boleas at the request of the Lesotho Prime Minister after civil unrest in his country (Combined Task Force Boleas).  Some in Lesotho say that "South Africa wants Lesotho to be their tenth province...as Lesotho's King Letsie III did not request the intervention (Flames Devoured a City)."
    South Africa's real reason for the invasion might have been to protect the 5-dam  Lesotho Highlands Water Project which moves water to the industrial heartland of South Africa from the "Orange River...headwaters" in the mountains of Lestho (Lesotho Highlands Water Project 1998).
  Home/Intro/Politics/HomelandDesires AfrikanerHomeland/Conclusion/Bibliography   Last Updated December 2, 1998