Why Lesotho’s remittance ‘safety net’ was never really its own, and why it is failing again in 2026

Lesotho is two years into a national state of disaster: US tariffs have gutted its garment factories, unemployment has passed 30%, and its main trade lifeline is guaranteed for less than a year. To understand how the mountain kingdom keeps ending up here, start almost forty years earlier.In 1987, something extraordinary happened in this small kingdom, completely surrounded by South Africa. Money sent home by Basotho men working in South African gold mines reached 236% of Lesotho’s entire GDP.…