Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Leader of Opposition in parliament Hon. Monyane Moleleki has come out guns blazing against the Prime Minister (PM) Dr Moeketsi Majoro led government
on Wednesday this week. He said the governance is in tatters. “It is a rag,” he charged. Also, the former Deputy Prime Minister (DPM), Moleleki further said Dr Majoro is a “de
facto”, in practice PM not “de jure”, legal, one. This follows an impasse in the august house where the All Basotho Convention (ABC) caucus letter was read, stating that the party pulled out of government and coalition.
Some members of ABC were supportive of the move to pull out of government while others objected the move. Despite the call for the Speaker to crossover to
opposition seats, they remained seated at government seats. The chaos that broke afterwards in the house prevented the budget from being tabled and adopted as the Minister of Finance was disrupted while attempting to table
it. There have been mounting calls from the leader of ABC the Hon. Nkaku Kabi and a “faction” of ABC MPs linked to him and some political parties to have Dr Majoro
relinquish the premiership position for the former. ABC is the majority leading in the grant coalition Democratic Alliance (DC). Moleleki said, “one man” from Ha-Thetsane is a Prime Minister despite the party having
elected the person to lead them and is “resistant” saying he was elected by the parliament to be the PM and not the party. The PM has however resisted the pressure which pushes for his step down.
He had only resigned from the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) where he held the position of Deputy Leader this is after losing the leadership elections to
Kabi. Section 87 (2) of the Constitution says “The King shall appoint as Prime Minister the member of the National Assembly who appears to the Council of State to be the
leader of the political party or a coalition of political parties that will command the support of a majority of the Members of the National Assembly.
” Since the inception of the coalition of governments in Lesotho in 2012, they have
been followed by episodes of collapse before their time and the current one has had only two Prime Ministers. The leader of the Opposition in parliament Hon.
Monyane Moleleki said they surpassed the budget deficit by 13 percent which translates to over M4 billion. “The very party that has pulled out of government wants to pass the budget, so my
question is has it pulled out or not and if it had not pulled out, then it can proceed with the budget. Machache No.39 Member of Parliament (MP) also referred to the Auditor General’s report
which highlighted the unexplained difference in the government’s finances. “Note 15 to the financial statements show that Government had 374 accounts totalling
M5.311 billion as [of] 31 March 2020 however, the Consolidated Statement of Cash Receipts and Payments reflect that Government had cash of M8.724 billion
resulting into [an] unexplained difference of M3.474 billion. “The Government of Lesotho had 374 bank accounts with a total amount of M5.311 billion as [of] 31 March 2020 whereas March 2019, there were 387 accounts
totalling M6.328 billion resulting [in] cash decrease of M1.017 billion and a decrease by 13 accounts. However, the Statement of Consolidated Receipts and
Payments reflect cash increase of M1.877 billion,” said the Auditor General’s report. The former DPM has previously said his party will resist the passage of the budget earlier this year.
Informative
Newspaper interviewed some members of the coalition government to hear their views on disruption of the budget speech and the ABC’s intention to withdraw from the pact.
DC leader and Deputy Prime Minister Hon Mathibeli Mokhothu indicated that the concern now is of ABC caucus that wrote the letter that stipulates that ABC is
pulling out from the coalition government with DC. He added that now part of the ABC members do not know about that decision thus they are reluctant to follow what the Speaker Sephiri Motanyane directs.
“He asked ABC members that agree with the letter to go and sit on the opposition
side, he announced or shouted that several times but there was no movement. If the single entity did move to the suggested side that would have been clear
that ABC has left governing including their prime minister. Then the speaker would also order we leave and let him know of the new configuration, that is
which party has more numbers than the other,” Mokhothu stated. “They want the speaker to say to them ABC should leave the side of governing which is on the right side of the speaker and the left side of the speaker the
opposition parties rather he said the owners of the letter to leave to the left and there was no movement,” Mokhothu said. For his part, the Minister of Communications, Science and Technology Hon.
Tsoinyane Rapapa, who is also ABC Chairperson said they are still part of the governing party. He noted that the ABC committee had decided on this two weeks ago, “that
is why they had several meetings but from the caucus, no decision and on 02/03/2022 9 members out of 33 held a meeting without our knowledge that they have made a decision “that is why in a parliament I suggested they verify the numbers.”
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