1.
Maseru
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Maseru is the capital and largest city of Lesotho. It is also the capital of the Maseru District, located on the Caledon River, Maseru lies directly on the Lesotho-South Africa border. Maseru is Lesothos capital city with a population of approximately 253,000, the city was established as a police camp and assigned as the capital after the country became a British protectorate in 1869. When the country achieved independence in 1966, Maseru retained its status as capital, the name of the city is a Sesotho word meaning red sandstones. Maseru was founded by the British as a police camp in 1869. Maseru is located at the edge of the conquered territories relinquished to the Orange Free State as part of the peace terms and it was located 24 kilometres west of Basotho King Moshoeshoe Is stronghold of Thaba Bosiu, the previous de facto capital. A bustling market town grew around the area. Maseru initially functioned as the administrative capital between 1869 and 1871, before administration of Basutoland was transferred to the Cape Colony. During their rule between 1871 and 1884, Basutoland was treated similarly to territories that had been forcefully annexed and this led to the Gun War in 1881 and the burning of many buildings in Maseru. In 1884, Basutoland was restored its status as a Crown colony, when Basutoland gained its independence and became the Kingdom of Lesotho in 1966, Maseru remained the countrys capital. The annual population growth rates remained around 7% for several decades, after the 1998 parliamentary elections in Lesotho led to suspicions of vote fraud and a military intervention by South Africa, much of the city was damaged by riots and pillaging. The cost of repairing the damage done to the city was estimated at two billion rand, and after nearly a decade, the effects of the riots could still be seen within the city. Maseru is located in northwest Lesotho by the South African border, the two countries are connected by a border post at the Maseru Bridge, which crosses the river. On the South African side, Ladybrand is the town closest to Maseru, the city lies in a shallow valley at the foot of the Hlabeng-Sa-Likhama, foothills of the Maloti Mountains. The elevation of the city is listed as 1,600 metres above sea level, the city has an area of around 138 square kilometres. Maseru has a highland climate, categorised by warm, rainy summers and cool to chilly. The average mean temperature during summer — from December to March in the Southern Hemisphere — is 22 °C. During winter, between June and September, the temperature is 9 °C
2.
Lesotho
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Lesotho, officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is an enclaved, landlocked country in southern Africa completely surrounded by South Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 in size and has a slightly over two million. Its capital and largest city is Maseru, previously known as Basutoland, Lesotho declared independence from the United Kingdom on 4 October 1966. It is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the name Lesotho translates roughly into the land of the people who speak Sesotho. About 40% of the population lives below the poverty line of US$1.25 a day. The original inhabitants of the now known as Lesotho were the San people. Examples of their art can be found in the mountains throughout the area. The present Lesotho, then called Basutoland, emerged as a single polity under King Moshoeshoe I in 1822, Moshoeshoe, a son of Mokhachane, a minor chief of the Bakoteli lineage, formed his own clan and became a chief around 1804. Casalis, acting as translator and providing advice on foreign affairs, helped to set up diplomatic channels and acquire guns for use against the encroaching Europeans and the Griqua people. Trekboers from the Cape Colony showed up on the borders of Basutoland and claimed land rights, beginning with Jan de Winnaar. As more Boers were moving into the area tried to colonise the land between the two rivers, even north of the Caledon, claiming that it had been abandoned by the Sotho people. Moshoeshoe subsequently signed a treaty with the British Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir George Thomas Napier and these outraged Boers were suppressed in a brief skirmish in 1848. In 1851 a British force was defeated by the Basotho army at Kolonyama, after repelling another British attack in 1852, Moshoeshoe sent an appeal to the British commander that settled the dispute diplomatically, then defeated the Batlokoa in 1853. In 1854 the British pulled out of the region, and in 1858 Moshoeshoe fought a series of wars with the Boers in the Free State–Basotho War, the last war in 1867 ended when Moshoeshoe appealed to Queen Victoria, who agreed to make Basutoland a British protectorate in 1868. Moshoeshoe died on 11 March 1870, marking the end of the traditional era and he was buried at Thaba Bosiu. In the early years of British rule between 1871 and 1884, Basutoland was treated similarly to territories that had been forcefully annexed. This led to the Gun War in 1881, Basutoland gained its independence from Britain and became the Kingdom of Lesotho in 1966. In January 1970, the ruling Basotho National Party lost the first post-independence general elections, Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan refused to cede power to the Basotho Congress Party, declared himself Tona Kholo, and imprisoned the BCP leadership
3.
Fiscal year
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A fiscal year is the period used by governments for accounting and budget purposes, which vary between countries. It is also used for reporting by business and other organizations. Taxation laws generally require accounting records to be maintained and taxes calculated on an annual basis, the calculation of tax on an annual basis is especially relevant for direct taxation, such as income tax. Many annual government fees—such as Council rates, licence fees, etc. —are also levied on a year basis. The fiscal year end is the date marks the end of the fiscal year. Some companies—such as Cisco Systems—end their fiscal year on the day of the week each year. Under such a system, some years will have 52 weeks. Many universities have a year which ends during the summer. In the northern hemisphere this is July to the next June, in the southern hemisphere this is calendar year, January to December. Some media/communication-based organizations use a broadcast calendar as the basis for their fiscal year, the American football league NFL uses the term league year, which in effect forms the leagues fiscal year. In Afghanistan, the year was recently changed from 1 Hamal –29 Hoot to 1 Jadi –30 Qaus. The fiscal year runs with the Afghan calendar, thus resulting in difference of the Gregorian dates once in a four-year span, in Australia, a fiscal year is commonly called a financial year and starts on 1 July and ends on the next 30 June. Financial years are designated by the year of the second half of the period. For example, financial year 2017 is the 12-month period ending on 30 June 2017 and it is used for official purposes, by individual taxpayers and by the overwhelming majority of business enterprises. Business enterprises may opt to use a year that ends at the end of a week. All entities within the one group must use the financial year. The Commonwealth adopted the near-ubiquitous financial year standard since its inception in 1901, the reason given for the change was for convenience, as Parliament typically sits during May and June, while it was difficult for it to meet in November and December to pass a budget. In Austria the fiscal year is the year,1 January to 31 December
4.
World Trade Organization
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The World Trade Organization is an intergovernmental organization which regulates international trade. The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, most of the issues that the WTO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round. The WTO is attempting to complete negotiations on the Doha Development Round, as of June 2012, the future of the Doha Round remained uncertain, the work programme lists 21 subjects in which the original deadline of 1 January 2005 was missed, and the round is still incomplete. This impasse has made it impossible to launch new WTO negotiations beyond the Doha Development Round, as a result, there have been an increasing number of bilateral free trade agreements between governments. As of July 2012, there were various groups in the WTO system for the current agricultural trade negotiation which is in the condition of stalemate. The WTOs current Director-General is Roberto Azevêdo, who leads a staff of over 600 people in Geneva, a trade facilitation agreement, part of the Bali Package of decisions, was agreed by all members on 7 December 2013, the first comprehensive agreement in the organizations history. Seven rounds of negotiations occurred under GATT, the first real GATT trade rounds concentrated on further reducing tariffs. Then, the Kennedy Round in the mid-sixties brought about a GATT anti-dumping Agreement, because these plurilateral agreements were not accepted by the full GATT membership, they were often informally called codes. Several of these codes were amended in the Uruguay Round, only four remained plurilateral, but in 1997 WTO members agreed to terminate the bovine meat and dairy agreements, leaving only two. Well before GATTs 40th anniversary, its members concluded that the GATT system was straining to adapt to a new globalizing world economy. In response to the problems identified in the 1982 Ministerial Declaration, the GATT still exists as the WTOs umbrella treaty for trade in goods, updated as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations. GATT1994 is not however the only legally binding agreement included via the Final Act at Marrakesh, the highest decision-making body of the WTO is the Ministerial Conference, which usually meets every two years. It brings together all members of the WTO, all of which are countries or customs unions, the Ministerial Conference can take decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements. When agricultural export subsidies were agreed to be phased out and adoption of the European Unions Everything, the WTO launched the current round of negotiations, the Doha Development Round, at the fourth ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar in November 2001. This was to be an effort to make globalization more inclusive and help the worlds poor, particularly by slashing barriers. The initial agenda comprised both further trade liberalization and new rule-making, underpinned by commitments to strengthen substantial assistance to developing countries. Among the various functions of the WTO, these are regarded by analysts as the most important and it provides a forum for negotiations and for settling disputes. Another priority of the WTO is the assistance of developing, least-developed and low-income countries in transition to adjust to WTO rules and disciplines through technical cooperation and training
5.
Southern African Customs Union
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The Southern African Customs Union is a customs union among five countries of Southern Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. Its headquarters is in the Namibian capital Windhoek, SACU is the oldest existing customs union in the world. It was established in 1910 pursuant to a Customs Union Agreement between the then Union of South Africa and the High Commission Territories of Bechuanaland, Basutoland and Swaziland, the updated union officially entered into force on 1 March 1970. After Namibias independence from South Africa in 1990, it joined SACU as its fifth member, as of 2007, the Executive Secretary of the SACU was Tswelopele C. The union meets annually to discuss matters related to the Agreement and its aim is to maintain the free interchange of goods between member countries. It provides for a common external tariff and a common excise tariff to this common customs area, all customs and excise collected in the common customs area are paid into South Africa’s National Revenue Fund. The revenue is shared among members according to a formula as described in the agreement. South Africa is the custodian of this pool, only the BLNS Member States shares are calculated with South Africa receiving the residual. SACU revenue constitutes a substantial share of the revenue of the BLNS countries. With this in mind, the Ministers of Trade and Industry of the five states met in Pretoria on 11 November 1994 to discuss the renegotiation of the 1969 agreement. The Ministers appointed a Customs Union Task Team which was mandated to make recommendations to the Ministers, CUTT has met on numerous occasions in the Members States and good progress has been made in the renegotiation process. It would be the supreme SACU decision-making body and would meet quarterly, the decisions taken by this council would only be by consensus. Commission Administrative body composed of Senior Officials, three Technical Liaison Committees and an established Agricultural Liaison Committee, tribunal An independent body of experts. It would report directly to the Council of Ministers, the tribunal would be responsible for tariff-setting and the Anti-dumping Mechanism. Secretariat Responsible for day-to-day operations of the pool and it would be funded from the revenue pool. Its location would be determined by Senior Officials who were directed to meet after one month to develop proposals for the implementation of the revised SACU Institutional Structure. It was agreed that these components would be distributed as follows, The customs component should be allocated according to each country’s share of total intra-SACU trade, the excise component, net of the development component, should be allocated on the basis of GDP. The development component should be fixed at 15% of the total excise pool, while SACU entered into a free trade deal with the four-nation European Free Trade Association on 1 July 2006, its negotiations with the United States for a free trade agreement have stalled
6.
Southern African Development Community
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The Southern African Development Community is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further cooperation and integration as well as political. It complements the role of the African Union, the immediate forerunner of the political and security cooperation leg of todays SADC was the informal Frontline States grouping. The Southern African Development Coordination Conference was the forerunner of the socio-economic cooperation leg of todays SADC, the adoption by nine majority-ruled southern African countries of the Lusaka declaration on 1 April 1980 paved the way for the formal establishment of SADCC in April 1980. Membership of the FLS and SADCC sometimes differed, SADCC was transformed into SADC on 17 August 1992, with the adoption by the founding members of SADCC and newly independent Namibia of the Windhoek declaration and treaty establishing SADC. The 1992 SADC provided for both socio-economic cooperation and political and security cooperation, in reality, the FLS was dissolved only in 1994, after South Africas first democratic elections. Subsequent efforts to place political and security cooperation on an institutional footing under SADCs umbrella failed. On 14 August 2001, the 1992 SADC treaty was amended, the amendment heralded the overhaul of the structures, policies and procedures of SADC, a process which is ongoing. One of the changes is that political and security cooperation is institutionalised in the Organ on Politics, Defence, one of the principal SADC bodies, it is subject to the oversight of the organisations supreme body, the Summit, which comprises the heads of state or government. The organisation holds its own event in the form of the SADC Games. Originally planned for a date in Malawi and Lesotho, organisational issues led to abandonment of the plan. The first event in 2004 in Maputo resulted in over 1000 youths under-20 from 10 countries taking part in a programme including athletics, football, netball, boxing. SADC has 27 legally binding protocols dealing with such as Defence, Development, Illicit Drug Trade, Free Trade. Protocol on Energy – Intended to promote development of national energy policies. H. E. The SADC Free Trade Area was established in August 2008, after the implementation of the SADC Protocol on Trade in 2000 laid the foundation for its formation. Its original members were Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, of the 15 SADC member states, only Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Seychelles are not yet participating. The leaders of the three trading blocs agreed to create a free trade zone, the African Free Trade Zone. It is hoped the African Free Trade Zone agreement would ease access to markets within the zone, the only difference is that the African Free Trade Zone is the creation of independent African Countries
7.
Gross domestic product
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Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production. ”An IMF publication states that GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services - that is. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the population of the region is the per capita GDP. William Petty came up with a concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695, the modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934. In this report, Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a countrys economy. The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, the history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the sector, by financial industries. GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result and they are the production approach, the income approach, or the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the factors must be equal to the value of their product. This approach mirrors the OECD definition given above, deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added. Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption, value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventories. The sum of the value added in the various economic activities is known as GDP at factor cost. GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = GDP at producer price, for measuring output of domestic product, economic activities are classified into various sectors. Subtracting each sectors intermediate consumption from gross output gives the GDP at factor cost, adding indirect tax minus subsidies in GDP at factor cost gives the GDP at producer prices
8.
Inflation
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In economics, inflation is a sustained increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time resulting in a loss of value of currency. When the price rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods. Consequently, inflation reflects a reduction in the power per unit of money – a loss of real value in the medium of exchange. A chief measure of inflation is the inflation rate, the annualized percentage change in a general price index, usually the consumer price index. The opposite of inflation is deflation, Inflation affects economies in various positive and negative ways. Economists generally believe that high rates of inflation and hyperinflation are caused by a growth of the money supply. However, money supply growth does not necessarily cause inflation, some economists maintain that under the conditions of a liquidity trap, large monetary injections are like pushing on a string. Views on which factors determine low to moderate rates of inflation are more varied, low or moderate inflation may be attributed to fluctuations in real demand for goods and services, or changes in available supplies such as during scarcities. However, the view is that a long sustained period of inflation is caused by money supply growing faster than the rate of economic growth. Today, most economists favor a low and steady rate of inflation, the task of keeping the rate of inflation low and stable is usually given to monetary authorities. Rapid increases in quantity of the money or in the money supply have occurred in many different societies throughout history. By diluting the gold with other metals, the government could issue more coins without also needing to increase the amount of used to make them. When the cost of each coin is lowered in this way and this practice would increase the money supply but at the same time the relative value of each coin would be lowered. As the relative value of the coins becomes lower, consumers would need to give more coins in exchange for the same goods and these goods and services would experience a price increase as the value of each coin is reduced. Song Dynasty China introduced the practice of printing paper money in order to create fiat currency, during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, the government spent a great deal of money fighting costly wars, and reacted by printing more money, leading to inflation. Fearing the inflation that plagued the Yuan dynasty, the Ming Dynasty initially rejected the use of paper money, historically, large infusions of gold or silver into an economy also led to inflation. This was largely caused by the influx of gold and silver from the New World into Habsburg Spain. The silver spread throughout a previously cash-starved Europe and caused widespread inflation, demographic factors also contributed to upward pressure on prices, with European population growth after depopulation caused by the Black Death pandemic
