A storm is brewing in Maseru. The Law Society of has hauled the highest offices of state before the High Court in a constitutional showdown that could strip the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution Act, 2025 of its teeth.
The Society is not mincing words. It wants Sections 4, 5 and 6 of the amendment ripped out and declared dead on arrival, insisting they offend Section 85 of the 1993 Constitution. In simple terms, lawyers are accusing Parliament of tampering with the heart of the country’s supreme law and the King of lending his signature to a constitutional fraud.
The respondents in the dock could not be more telling. The Speaker of the National Assembly. The President of the Senate. His Majesty the King. The Attorney General. Every pillar of the state that pushed or permitted this amendment has been named. It is a rare and bold confrontation, one that sets the legal fraternity squarely against the political elite.
The Society is also demanding that every act carried out under those contested provisions be wiped off the record. That means the political class cannot simply shrug off this case as academic. Real decisions, real power plays, could be undone if the court rules in favour of the lawyers.
The founding affidavit, signed by advocate Lintle Tuke, makes it clear that the case is being brought not for sport but in the interest of justice. The Society has asked the court to fast-track the matter, warning that delay would only embolden unconstitutional governance.
Respondents have until 25 September to state whether they will fight the case. If they do, they have ten days to file their answers. That timeline alone puts immense pressure on the state to come out clean on why it believes the Tenth Amendment deserves to stand.
This is no ordinary court challenge. It is the legal profession, acting as custodian of the rule of law, calling out the legislature, the executive and even the monarchy for crossing the constitutional line. If the Law Society succeeds, the judgment could shake the very architecture of power in Lesotho.
For Basotho watching from the sidelines, the question is simple. Will the courts rise to the occasion and defend the 1993 Constitution, or will the country continue its drift into constitutional adventurism dressed up as reform?
