Africa-Press – Lesotho. TWO MPs from the ruling Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) were arrested briefly this week after their drivers allegedly violated some traffic offense. The duo, Thuso Makhalanyane and Lejone Puseletso, say they are not happy with the manner in which the police handled the matter.
They have now instructed their lawyers to sue the Police Commissioner Holomo Molibeli for malicious arrest. If this was a mere traffic offense the matter ordinarily should have ended there.
But it would appear there are much bigger issues surrounding the arrest of the two MPs. The two are claiming that their colleagues in the RFP are abusing state machinery, the police in this case, to go after political opponents.
That is a serious accusation. Makhalanyane and Puseletso are generally seen as rebels in the RFP who have openly defied the party’s National Executive Committee on a number of issues.
They have in the past accused the party’s leadership of betraying their founding principles of appointing people to key positions on the basis of meritocracy. Instead, they say the party has gravitated towards nepotistic practices that are at odds with the party’s founding principles.
It is on that basis that the two feel that they are now being targeted merely because they have opposed the party leadership on what they feel are matters of principle.
If it is true that they are being targeted through the use of law enforcement authorities, then that is highly unfortunate. In fact, that would be a very worrying development.
But if this is a straightforward traffic offense, the police must be allowed to proceed so that MPs do not think that they are above the law. We need order on our roads and that starts with our MPs setting an example.
While we can argue about the manner of the arrest and whether the police were justified to detain the two for hours only releasing them late into the night on Monday, it is clear that the RFP is dealing with a crisis of major proportions.
This is a new party that is not accustomed to resolving intra-party disputes. What we have seen in the last few months is a party leadership that has really struggled to whip its supporters into line and assert its authority.
The leadership of the RFP is therefore caught between a rock and a hard place. It is caught between being seen as an authoritarian party led by demagogues and being seen as a democratic and progressive entity that respects free speech.
So far the RFP has been prevaricating between the two extremes. It is also becoming clearer that these shrills of discontent within the RFP are not going to go away on their own.
The infighting will certainly test Matekane’s leadership skills as he battles to steer the ship towards safety. In the meantime, development projects that were the cornerstone of his campaign last year, will not move an inch.
The reform agenda which his government had pledged to complete will also be stalled. That is highly unfortunate. The RFP MPs in parliament will need to sing from the same hymnbook on the reforms agenda.
At present we have divergent voices in parliament even though they are from the same political party. They will need to discuss these issues at party level and come up with a single position that they will defend in parliament. So far, the party is a motley collection of discordant voices.
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