HSRC Press to launch a book titled, White Gold and Thirsty Communities: The Cold War, Apartheid, and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project

Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

Press Release

Cape Town, Thursday, 26 February 2026 — Coinciding with the recent water shortage in parts of South Africa, particularly Gauteng, the HSRC Press will host a book launch series for White Gold and Thirsty Communities: The Cold War, Apartheid, and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.

The launch series will kick off at Exclusive Books V&A Waterfront in Cape Town on Friday, 27 February 2026, from 18h00.

White Gold and Thirsty Communities explores the unfinished business of justice in the region and asks hard questions about who benefits when nations trade their most precious resources.

According to the author, John Aerni-Flessner, this is more than a story about dams and pipelines. It is about:

Two decades of high-stakes diplomacy from Soweto to Washington
Communities displaced and promises unkept
The enduring divide between the privileged and the poor
Why water remains a flashpoint for protest across southern Africa

The book unpacks the dramatic story of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), a tale both of international diplomacy and of the ways that high politics and the anti-apartheid struggle played out—and continue to play out—in the daily lives of the people of Lesotho and South Africa. The LHWP is the result of a 1986 treaty between the apartheid regime in Pretoria and the military regime in Maseru.

In the book, the author traces the twenty-year negotiations leading up to the signing of the treaty, assesses how the Cold War and anti-apartheid struggles shaped those negotiations, and considers the effect of global geopolitical battles on the entire process.

He also shows that, while the LHWP can by one metric be judged a success—today the project delivers hundreds of millions of cubic meters of “white gold” per year from Lesotho to Gauteng—it is also a failure in that many communities in both countries still lack access to water. These communities are emblematic of the continuing divide between haves and have-nots that existed during the apartheid era, and that persists today.

Members of the media are invited to join the author at the upcoming book launches as he discusses power, water, and what this story tells the people about development in southern Africa. The launch will feature discussions with the author, Dr John Aerni-Flessner, and Dr Lance van Sittert from the University of Cape Town.

Details of the event

Date: 27 February 2026

Time: 18h00

Venue: Exclusive Books, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town

RSVP: exclusivebooks.co.za/pages/events

Other launches include:

2 March launch at the University of the Free State
4 March Launch at the Transformative Reclamation Centre in Maseru, in discussion with Dr Sean Maliehe from the National University of Lesotho
6 March 2026 at Exclusive Book in Melrose Arch in discussion with Dr John Aerni -Flessner and Dr Faeeza Ballim from the University of Johannesburg.

For media enquiries, please contact Adziliwi Nematandani: Cell: +27 82 765 9191 Email: anematandani@hsrc.ac.za

Join the conversation:

#WaterJustice #SouthernAfrica #BookLaunch #LHWP #Development #SocialJustice

Notes to the editor

About the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

The HSRC was established in 1968 as South Africa’s statutory research agency and has grown to become the largest dedicated research institute in the social sciences and humanities on the African continent, doing cutting-edge public research in areas that are crucial to development.

Our mandate is to inform the effective formulation and monitoring of government policy; to evaluate policy implementation; to stimulate public debate through the effective dissemination of research-based data and fact-based research results; to foster research collaboration; and to help build research capacity and infrastructure for the human sciences.

The Council conducts large-scale, policy-relevant, social-scientific research for public sector users, non-governmental organisations and international development agencies. Its research activities and structures are closely aligned with South Africa’s national development priorities.

Join the conversation at:

www.hsrc.ac.za