The curious case of the South African ski resort that never was: how a 1970s land tussle with Lesotho shaped history

By John Aerni-Flessner, Associate Professor of African History, Michigan State University
Chitja Twala, Professor of History, University of Limpopo

Topping out over 3,000 metres above sea level, the Drakensberg and Maluti mountains bordering South Africa and Lesotho are frequently covered in snow in winter. Back in 1975, German and South African investors planned to build a ski resort there.

There was just one problem: whose land was it?

At the time, the site of the planned resort was in a territory called QwaQwa. This was one of the “bantustans” designated as an “ethnic…

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