I saw it in the sky: My testimony on Lesotho’s early snow and floods 

By Tholang Tseka, Chairperson  & Founder, Basotho Biodiversity Organisation

I saw it first over the Thuathe Mountains.

It was the end of April. The clouds did not look like winter. They were ribbed, linear, cut against the wind like gridwork. We, Basotho, have names for our clouds. These had no name. In other places, they call them chemtrails.

I wrote in my field book: “Sky marked. Air heavy. Disaster coming. Snow will be too early.” I left Lesotho the same day. 

I had a wedding invitation in Botswana. Kgosi Gao Monnathebe of Logaba, Kanye, who sits in Ntlo Ya Dikgosi, Botswana’s Senate, had invited Afrikan Young Indigenous Leaders (AYIL) to witness his wedding to Kago. Kings, Queens, Chiefs and Princesses from South Africa, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe filled the venue.

From Gaborone, I travelled by bus to Namibia for church activities. I stayed one week at Augustineum School Hostel in Windhoek. Every single day was sunshine. No rain. No storm. Not even a threatening cloud. 

Then my phone started buzzing. 

I opened the pictures. Homes half-submerged in water. Cars were buried to the windows in snow. This was May. Our snow does not come in May. 

I sat in that Namibian sun and asked the only question a Mosotho who reads the sky can ask: Who is inducing this early snow and floods in Lesotho? 

I have heard about the Aphelion Phenomenon. I understand seasons. But this is beyond aphelion. This is beyond climate change as a phrase used to end conversations. 

I am a Princess of Khotong, Thuathe. I am Chairperson and Founder of the Basotho Biodiversity Organisation. I serve as an Interim Committee Member for Multi-Discipline Creatives at the Maseru Information Tourism Crafts Centre (MITCC).

I am a Global Ambassador for Lesotho with the Pan-African Leadership Institute. I am a poet, musician, fashion designer, permaculturist, and IT practitioner. My book, “Whispers of the Ancestral Land,” will be released soon. 

I say this not for titles, but for credibility. I was trained to observe. To document. To link sky to soil, to policy, to people. 

Unusual skies. Then unseasonal, destructive weather. If this is natural, then our early-warning systems failed us. If this is induced, Lesotho must raise it with SADC and the African Union. The Senqu feeds the Katse. The Katse feeds South Africa. What happens in our mountains does not stop at our borders. 

I returned to Botswana last week. Flags are flying at half-mast in honour of Former President Festus Mogae, 1939–2026, who passed away a few days ago. The whole nation is mourning. Yet my country is mourning homes, roads, and the graves we cannot reach because of the snow.

Kgosi Gao Monnathebe asked AYIL to enlarge the tent. To me, that means making room for hard questions. So I am asking mine, publicly. 

We are Basotho. We have read this sky for a thousand years. When the elders say “the sky is wrong,” we listen. 

The clouds over Thuathe did not lie. Now we must tell the truth about what followed. 

Tholang Tseka is currently working on the Maasai Tourism Cultural Festival, scheduled for Arusha, Tanzania, 24–26 June 2026.

Newsday

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