…as 562 sexual offences are recorded in 8 months
Lesotho continues to face serious challenges in protecting women and girls from gender-based violence (GBV). The country is often reported as having one of the world’s highest rates of rape.
This week, the Minister of Home Affairs and Police, Voeswa Tsheka, told the National Assembly that police had received 562 reports of sexual offences between January and August 2026 alone, figures she said painted a grim picture of the scale of violence still being inflicted on women and girls just eight months into the year.
Of those cases, 215 involved physical assault so severe that survivors were nearly killed, the Minister said, a statistic she described with evident alarm as she briefed lawmakers on the state of GBV in the country.
Tsheka expressed deep concern over the continuing criminal activities being inflicted on members of the public, telling Parliament the numbers reflected a crisis that could not be ignored.
“These figures are high and concerning. All these matters are important to the police, and we assure survivors that the police are working hard to ensure that perpetrators face the full might of the law, regardless of their status,” the Minister said.
Every year, Lesotho renews its commitment to protecting the rights of women and girls. Yet the figures Tsheka presented this week suggest that much more needs to be done to turn those commitments into meaningful, measurable change, a gap the Minister’s own tone in Parliament appeared to acknowledge.
Recent research shows both the scale of the problem and some signs of progress. The 2025 Lesotho GBV Indicators Follow-up Study, conducted by Gender Links in partnership with the Bureau of Statistics, found that 66.7% of women in Lesotho had experienced GBV in their lifetime, down from 86% recorded in the 2013 study.
Lifetime intimate-partner violence has also fallen, from 62% to 45.7%, while violence reported in the previous year dropped from 28% to 14.8%. The same research found that nine out of ten women who experienced intimate-partner violence did not report it.
The Minister also updated lawmakers on the sexual offence allegations involving an adviser to the Prime Minister at State House, saying investigations had been completed and the case had since been forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for appropriate action.
A few weeks ago, a prominent woman clergy member alleged she had been sexually harassed while seeking sponsorship for women’s empowerment projects, attributing the alleged conduct to one of the Prime Minister’s advisers. This publication has the adviser’s name but will publish it once the suspect appears in court and is formally charged.
Despite the volume of reported cases, accountability remains strikingly low: available data show that fewer than 16% of alleged perpetrators were arrested, and fewer than 2% faced any legal consequences; a disparity likely to deepen concerns raised by the Minister about whether survivors can trust the system to deliver justice.
Afrobarometer data reported by Newsday found that 58% of people surveyed in Lesotho believed women risk being victimised if they report GBV, underscoring the climate of fear that may be contributing to underreporting even as raw case numbers climb.
Taken together, the statistics point to both progress and continuing gaps. Reducing violence further will require effective implementation of the law, accessible support services, proper investigations, and stronger accountability for alleged perpetrators; areas the Minister’s own remarks in Parliament suggest still fall short of where they need to be.
Meanwhile, the Counter Domestic Violence Act (CDVA) 2022 has strengthened the country’s legal framework on paper, but available evidence indicates it has not yet translated into arrests, prosecutions, or protection for most survivors of GBV.
Among its unfulfilled provisions is a proposed specialised Family Court to handle GBV cases, which has yet to materialise more than three years after the Act’s passage.
In March this year, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals office made an observation that resonates with the numbers now before Parliament: “Rights are not strengthened by statements alone. If you think women’s rights are only promises on paper, look at Mali, Lesotho and Togo.”
Summary
- This week, the Minister of Home Affairs and Police, Voeswa Tsheka, told the National Assembly that police had received 562 reports of sexual offences between January and August 2026 alone, figures she said painted a grim picture of the scale of violence still being inflicted on women and girls just eight months into the year.
- All these matters are important to the police, and we assure survivors that the police are working hard to ensure that perpetrators face the full might of the law, regardless of their status,” the Minister said.
- The Minister also updated lawmakers on the sexual offence allegations involving an adviser to the Prime Minister at State House, saying investigations had been completed and the case had since been forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for appropriate action.
Thoboloko Ntšonyane is a dedicated journalist who has contributed to various publications. He reports on accountability, human rights, exposes corruption and wrong doing by those in power. He reports have exposed corruption, abuse of power, fraud, misconduct and negligence. He subscribes to evidence-based reporting. He reports on governance, parliament, courts, climate change, human rights, sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR), health, business and agriculture. He gives a voice to the marginalised while also demanding accountability. His work inspires change, triggers dialogue and also promote transparency in a society.
