Annual report on Basutoland / Colonial Office.

  • Great Britain. Office of Commonwealth Relations.
Date:
[1954]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Basutoland / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    99/106 (page 93)
    The chieftainship is hereditary and most of the chiefs are descended form the house of Moshesh or from allied families. Heads of Departments include the Financial Secretary, Principal Auditor, Director of Medical Services, Director of Education, Director of Livestock and Agricultural Services, Commissioner of Police, Govern¬ ment Engineer, Controller of Posts and Telegraphs, Registrar of Co¬ operative Societies, Superintendent of Prisons and Comptroller of Stores. The judiciary is headed by the Honourable the Chief Justice for the three High Commission Territories. Under him in Basutoland are the Judicial Commissioner, Registrar and the District Commissioners in their capacity as magistrates. The Judicial Commissioners are now empowered to hold Subordinate Courts of the First Class in the districts and this should relieve the District Commissioners of some of their judicial work and enable them to devote more time to their administrative duties. 2. AFRICAN ADMINISTRATION Basutoland is an African territory without European settlers or land¬ owners and is governed under the system of “indirect rule”. The Basuto owe allegiance to a single Paramount Chief under whom is a hierarchy of Chiefs and Headmen, a number of whom trace their descent to Moshesh (1785-1870), the founder of the Basuto nation, and are styled “The Sons of Moshesh”. This feudal aristocracy claimed and exercised considerable powers and privileges. An advisory body known as the Basutoland Council, constituted by Proclamation in 1910 and consisting of the Resident Commissioner as President, the Paramount Chief and 99 Basuto members, 94 of whom are nominated by the Paramount Chief and five by the Resident Commis¬ sioner, meets once a year to discuss matters affecting the domestic affairs of the Nation and to express its opinion on any draft laws and proclama¬ tions that may be laid before it by the President. It is the policy of the Government to consult the Paramount Chief and the Basutoland Council before Proclamations closely affecting the domestic affairs and the welfare of the Basuto people or the progress and development of the Basuto Administration are enacted. In recent years developments of some political importance have taken place. In 1938 a Native Administration Proclamation and a Native Courts Proclamation were promulgated. The former recognized the Para¬ mount and his subordinate chiefs as an integral part of the Government of the Territory, defined their powers, and vested them with legal authority, while the latter extended similar recognition to the Basuto Courts and defined and extended their jurisdiction. Further developments were delayed by the outbreak of war, until, in accordance with resolutions passed at the 1943 session of the Basutoland Council, a District Council was established as an advisory and consultative body in each of the nine districts into which the country is divided for administrative purposes.