Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho’s opposition parties appear to be beating war drums as they seek to oust Prime Minister Sam Matekane when parliament re-opens in two weeks’ time.
Last week, the opposition parties threatened to sue the Prime Minister if he does not re-open parliament. They argue that Matekane was delaying the re-opening of parliament to forestall an impending vote-of-no-confidence in his administration.
Party leaders who spoke to this newspaper last week were all in a buoyant mood predicting Matekane’s fall when parliament is reconvened. They claim they now have the required number of MPs to topple Matekane.
During the same week, a Democratic Congress (DC) activist, Bokang Ramatšella, petitioned the High Court to deregister Matekane’s ruling Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) party.
Ramatšella argues that the RFP was registered unlawfully by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in May last year. Tellingly, he has received backing from at least six MPs from the RFP who have provided supporting affidavits confirming that the party was illegally registered.
He wants the RFP barred from contesting tomorrow’s local government elections. Ramatšella’s court application has only served to vividly illustrate the huge fissures within the ruling RFP.
The RFP is in the midst of a bruising internal battle with three rebel MPs suspended from the party for challenging the party’s national executive committee.
The MPs have not taken their suspension lying down. They have accused Matekane and his national executive committee of undemocratic practices by seeking to stifle free speech.
In seeking Matekane’s ouster, the opposition appears to be reneging on the pledge they made last year that they would give the man the space to govern. As we have said before, this newspaper holds no brief for any politician. We have no dog in this fight.
However, we still think that in seeking to oust Matekane at this point just a year after his election, the opposition might be channeling their energy towards a wrong cause.
This appears to be a narrow battle that has nothing to do with the ordinary Mosotho in the village. The result is that political, judiciary and civil service reforms that have been touted by SADC as the panacea to Lesotho’s constant woes are now on the backburner.
Lesotho’s economy has tanked. The textile industry, the second largest sector after the civil service, is in distress. There is a high chance that the sector could collapse if no urgent measures are taken by the government to save it.
Such a scenario is just too ghastly to contemplate. Our infrastructure has largely collapsed. Our roads are now filled with potholes. Hunger is stalking thousands of Basotho both in urban and rural areas.
Our rural communities can no longer grow enough to feed themselves and have over the years relied on international relief agencies to survive. Inflation is on the gallop, putting a huge strain on Basotho who survive on less than one United States dollar a day.
The private sector is not growing. Some companies have been forced to send thousands home as they battled to stay afloat. In all this, we are on our own as Basotho.
We should not expect any “white man with a white heart” to come and save us. These, in our humble opinion, are the issues our politicians must focus on.
It would be a mistake for our politicians to channel their energy in seeking Matekane’s ouster when the house is already burning. If Matekane is to fail, he must fail of his own accord not because he was sabotaged through some shenanigans in parliament.
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