A Lesotho chief's eldest daughter sued to inherit his chieftainship, and the courts kept it in the male line

David Masupha, a descendant of King Moshoeshoe I, was principal chief of Ha Mamathe and surrounding villages. He died in 1996. Lesotho's Chieftainship Act of 1968 provides only for male succession. Where there is no first-born son, the chief's senior wife may hold the office as caretaker. His widow held the chieftainship for 12 years, until she died in 2008. His younger brother then claimed the title in the magistrate's court at Berea and moved to evict his niece from her father's house. Senate Masupha, the chief's eldest daughter, intervened and asked the Constitutional Court to rule that the Act's bar on first-born daughters breached Lesotho's constitutional guarantees against discrimination. The High Court, sitting as the Constitutional Court, dismissed her petition. It noted that Lesotho had excluded customs on succession to the throne and chieftainship when it acceded to CEDAW. It held that the Act was not discriminatory because a senior wife could hold the title as caretaker, and that on her death the title returns to the male line. The Court of Appeal, Lesotho's highest court, dismissed her appeal and said modernising the rule was Parliament's job. Masupha said her case was "aimed at ending women's second-class status." In the sources checked, section 10 of the Act has not been changed^†.