# Roofing in Lesotho

> Most Lesotho homes have corrugated metal roofs, while thatched round houses (mokhoro) still make up over a quarter of households in survey data.

- URL: https://roof.wiki/roofing-in-lesotho/
- Topic: Roofing Around the World
- Also known as: Basotho roofing; Lesotho roofing
- Regions: Africa
- First published: 2026-11-02 · Last reviewed: 2026-11-02
- Cite as: "Roofing in Lesotho." roof.wiki. https://roof.wiki/roofing-in-lesotho/

## Key facts

- **Dominant material today:** Metal sheet, 68.5% (MICS 2018 file, unweighted)
- **Thatch share:** 27.5% of households (MICS 2018 file, unweighted)
- **Traditional form:** Mokhoro (round house with conical thatch)
- **Climate driver:** Cold highland winters, summer thunderstorms

Lesotho is a mountain kingdom where cold winters and summer thunderstorms shape the house. The traditional Basotho house is the round *mokhoro*, with stone or mud walls and a conical grass-thatched roof; the rectangular house with a corrugated metal roof has largely overtaken it.

## Climate and hazards

Highland winters are cold and summers bring thunderstorms. A thick thatch over heavy walls moderates indoor temperature, and the steep cone sheds summer rain (see Rondavel).

## Roofing history

Many round houses in the region now have corrugated iron or other sheet-metal roofs in place of thatch, which are quicker to fix but hotter and noisier in rain.

## Traditional and vernacular roofs

- **Mokhoro** (Basotho round house): a cylindrical wall of stone or mud, bonded with mortar of sand, soil and cow dung, under a conical roof of radial poles and ring purlins thatched with grass sewn on in bands from the eaves up. Floors are finished with a dung mixture. This is the Lesotho form of the rondavel.
- **Rectangular houses**: stone or block walls with corrugated metal or thatched pitched roofs.

## Roofing today

In the unweighted 2018 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey sample (8,847 households with a recorded roof):

| Main roof material (HC5) | Share of sampled households |
|---|---|
| Metal / corrugated (zinc sheets) | 68.5% |
| Thatch / palm leaf | 27.5% |
| Ceramic / clay tiles | 3.0% |
| Other (asbestos, cement, wood, shingles, no roof) | 1.0% |

## Local roofing terms

- *mokhoro* (Sesotho): round, conical-roofed house; the Lesotho rondavel.

## Sources and gaps

Detailed archaeological or documentary evidence specific to Lesotho's roofs: published information is limited. No national roofing standard was identified. No information on domestic roofing manufacturers was found in published sources. No roof-specific heritage listings were identified.

Survey shares are unweighted counts in the MICS sample. Sesotho thatching vocabulary, data from the 2016 census and documentation of Basotho thatching grasses: published information is limited.

## Sources

1. Lesotho MICS 2018: Main material of roof (HC5) — World Bank Microdata Library. https://microdata.worldbank.org/catalog/4162/variable/F4/V1210?name=HC5
2. Rondavel — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rondavel