Pretoria — President Jacob Zuma is to pay a two-day State Visit to the Kingdom of Lesotho next week, says the Department of International Relations.

The visit, scheduled for 12 and 13 August, is a gesture by Lesotho King Letsie III on behalf of his government to enhance relations between the two neighbours.

Generally, the two countries share strong relations, with thousands of Basotho people seeking job opportunities in South Africa.

On bilateral relations, the most significant and visible beacon reflecting South Africa is the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which qualifies as a New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) project.

The project was started in 1986 as a joint venture to supply water to South Africa, especially the rapidly growing urban population of Gauteng, and to meet Lesotho's electricity needs. The project delivers about 780 million m3 of water to South Africa per year.

The countries have also engaged in a strategic partnership to help Lesotho in accelerating its economic development to raise its status from that of a least-developed country.

For this purpose, South Africa and Lesotho signed the Joint Bilateral Commission of Co-operation (JBCC) agreement in April 2001.

In addition to strategic areas of co-operation, the JBCC also promotes the process of consolidating relations between South Africa and Lesotho.

Since 2001, there has been significant sectoral co-operation between the two countries.

Various projects have been identified and implemented, such as the hydrological project, whereby the South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry is providing Lesotho with technical assistance and capacity-building to improve hydrological data quality and quantity by modernising data-collection equipment and network design.