Deal sheet
- Status
- A NAMED LESCOSAA OFFICIAL TOLD LESOTHO'S STATE NEWS AGENCY ON 6 OCTOBER 2026 THAT THE SOCIETY'S FIRST ROYALTY DISTRIBUTION, ALREADY SLIPPED FROM A HOPED-FOR 2026, WOULD HAPPEN IN 2027 AND THEN SWITCH TO A QUARTERLY SCHEDULE. REPORTING PUBLISHED THREE WEEKS LATER, ON 2 NOVEMBER 2026, QUOTED THE SAME OFFICIAL GIVING NO DATE AND NO QUARTERLY COMMITMENT AT ALL, ONLY THAT THE SOCIETY WAS "FINALIZING SYSTEMS THAT WILL ALLOW US TO PAY ARTISTS."
- Type
- Licensing
- Parties
- Lesotho Copyright Society of Authors and Artists
- Amount
- LSL Not disclosed. No annual collection total and no distribution total has ever been published by the Lesotho Copyright Society of Authors and Artists (LESCOSAA, also spelled LESCOSSA or LECOSAA), in any source checked, across reporting from January 2025 (when licensing began) to November 2026. The only monetary figures found are a once-off M100 artist registration fee and one DJ's M2,300 annual commercial-user licence fee; neither is a collection or distribution total, and no first payout has yet occurred for any artist.
- Rights covered
- STATUTORY COLLECTING-SOCIETY OPERATIONAL-STATUS RECORD ONLY. No master recording, composition or publishing right changes ownership, or is assigned, licensed, administered or distributed differently as a result of anything recorded here. LESCOSAA operates under Section 31 of Lesotho's Copyright Order of 1989 (Order No. 13 of 1989) as the kingdom's sole officially recognised collective management organisation (CMO), with the Copyright Regulations of 2015 setting out licensing-body procedure and a government-gazetted 2024 tariff fixing fees for commercial users (broadcasters, taxi operators, bars and similar venues). This record documents what a named LESCOSAA official said, three weeks apart in two different outlets, about when the society's first-ever royalty distribution would happen. It is not a rights transaction.
- Territory
- Lesotho
- Announced
- 2026-10-06
- Primary document
- Trade press
- Sources
- Lesotho News Agency (LENA), the government's state press agency, "Lesotho at 60: From Cultural Sovereignty to Digital Sovereignty," published 6 October 2026. THE PROMISE RECORD this deal turns on: quotes Relebohile Tsoamotse of LESCOSAA (spelled LESCOSSA in this article) saying "We were hoping to have royalties distributed this year, however, due to slow adaptation, we are to pay out next year," and "Next year will be the first distribution. Then quarterly distribution payouts will be made." Also states royalty collection began in January 2025 and cites the Copyright Order of 1989 (Order No. 13 of 1989) and the Industrial Property Order of 1989 (Order No. 5 of 1989) as governing law. Fetched and read in full; independently timed at 9.7 seconds over wp_remote_get, under the publish gate's 15-second limit. · Newsday (Lesotho), "Fame Is Not the Same as Income: The Business Behind Basotho Music," by Chris Theko, published 2 November 2026. THE WALK-BACK RECORD. Quotes LESCOSAA Membership & Documentation Manager Relebohile Tsoamotse: "The licensing has taken place, the collecting also and now we are finalizing systems that will allow us to pay artists," with no date given, and a separate line, "we have been getting questions from people who want to know where is the money and when distribution will begin." Also quotes CEO Advocate Maema Chaka (from an August 2026 statement) giving the approximately-220-of-2,000 registration figure, and Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA) Finance Director Nishal Lalla telling a September 2026 Maseru conference, "LESCOSAA does not have to come after you guys, you must go to them." Gives a 237-member count as of October 2025, a net fall from the August 2026 figure, unreconciled in the article. Fetched and read in full. · The Reporter (Lesotho), "Lesotho struggles to adopt copyright laws to digital age," by Boitumelo Motsemoholo, published 15 January 2025. Quotes LESCOSAA acting CEO Advocate Maema Chaka naming Section 31 of the Copyright Order of 1989 as LESCOSAA's legal basis and stating it is the only officially recognised CMO in Lesotho; records a 2023 piracy case LESCOSAA pursued with police over a M5-per-track sale, resulting in a conviction carrying a M12,000 fine or five years' imprisonment. Fetched and read in full. · Lesotho News Agency (LENA), "The Long Road to Music Royalties in Lesotho," published 14 August 2026. ACCESS NOTE: the fullest account of LESCOSAA's registration requirements (ID document, banking details, next-of-kin, M100 once-off fee), the approximately-220-of-2,000 registration estimate, and CEO Chaka's quotes on artist distrust ("Since 1989, people were not paying, so now there is enforcement of law") and the three-year unclaimed-royalty hold. NOT used as this record's primary citation: a direct wp_remote_get against it timed out after 20 seconds (cURL error 28), above the publish gate's 15-second limit, despite the page loading through a separate fetch path. Treated as corroboration only. Fetched and read in full.
Read this before citing: WHAT COULD NOT BE ESTABLISHED, STATED PLAINLY:
(1) NO COLLECTION OR DISTRIBUTION TOTAL. No source checked gives a loti figure for what LESCOSAA has collected from licensed commercial users since January 2025, or what it intends to pay out, in any year.
(2) WHETHER 2 NOVEMBER 2026 REPORTING IS A WALK-BACK OR A REFRAMING IS NOT STATED BY TSOAMOTSE HIMSELF. Relebohile Tsoamotse, named in both reports as LESCOSAA's Membership and Documentation Manager, gave a specific 2027/quarterly commitment to one outlet on 6 October 2026 and a dateless 'finalizing systems' description to a different outlet in reporting published 2 November 2026. Neither report has him asked to reconcile the two, and no source checked after 2 November 2026 was found to confirm or retract either version.
(3) LESCOSAA'S FOUNDING DATE IS NOT CONFIRMED FROM THIS RECORD'S PRIMARY SOURCE. A separate LENA report (14 August 2026, not used as this record's citable source for timeout reasons, see below) states LESCOSAA was 'established in 2021.' The 6 October 2026 primary source cites only the governing 1989 and 2015 instruments and gives no founding date; 2021 is not relied upon here.
(4) REGISTERED-ARTIST COUNTS DO NOT RECONCILE. Reporting published 2 November 2026 gives 237 registered members as of October 2025 and approximately 220 as of August 2026, a net fall, against an estimated 2,000 working artists in Lesotho. No source checked explains the drop.
(5) THE 2024 TARIFF GAZETTE WAS NOT FETCHED DIRECTLY. Its existence and scope (commercial users including taxi operators, radio stations and venues) rest on secondary reporting, not a copy of the gazette notice itself.
(6) THE 14 AUGUST 2026 LENA ARTICLE, WHICH CARRIES CEO ADVOCATE MAEMA CHAKA'S FULLEST ON-RECORD ACCOUNT, FAILED THIS DESK'S OWN SOURCE-VERIFICATION CHECK. A direct wp_remote_get against it timed out after 20 seconds (cURL error 28), above the publish gate's 15-second limit, even though the page loaded successfully through a separate fetch tool. It is kept in afw_deal_sources_extra as corroboration, read in full, but is not this record's load-bearing citation.
(7) NO RIGHTS CHANGED HANDS. This record documents a statutory collecting society's shifting public statements about when its first-ever distribution will occur. No master recording, composition or publishing right is owned, assigned, licensed, administered or distributed differently as a result of anything recorded here.
