Africa-Press – Lesotho. THE motion to topple Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro suffered a blow this week after the Basotho Action Party (BAP) said they will not support it. Basotho Patriotic Party (BPP) leader, Tefo Mapesela, was banking on the nine BAP MPs to support his motion to oust Majoro next week.
Mapesela has proposed Alliance of Democrats (AD) leader Moleleki as Majoro’s replacement. But Professor Nqosa Mahao, the BAP leader, says his party will not vote for the motion.
Prof Mahao said King Letsie III should rather dissolve parliament and call for an election within 90 days instead of MPs voting to replace Moeketsi Majoro with Monyane Moleleki.
He said while Majoro’s coalition government is inept and corrupt the BAP believes that Moleleki “is worse”. “We already know those people they are recommending.
We know their bad deeds while in the government. We have seen how they do things,” Professor Mahao said. “Their replacement (Moleleki) was part of the past government where some of the bad things happened,” he said.
“Instead, we call for the MPs to make two-thirds and vote for the dissolution of parliament so that Majoro advises the King to dissolve it and call for an election.
” The BAP has also rejected overtures from the two factions in the ABC. One faction supports Majoro while the other, which is said to be led by the party’s secretary general Lebohang Hlaele, wants him out.
Both factions have been trying to court the BAP to vote with them when the motion is put to a vote. The BAP national coordinator, Moshoeshoe Fako, told thepost yesterday that “we rejected their proposals for support”.
“We see a problem of people who want to oust the prime minister when parliament is left with only nine months before being dissolved,” Mahao said.
“Politicians have failed therefore the people should be given chance to decide,” he said. He said giving the people the chance to go to election “will show that we still have conscience and integrity as politicians”.
“The people who want to oust the government do not talk about service delivery to Basotho, they just want to have access to government funds for next year’s election campaigns,” he said.
“Lesotho politics have lost direction.
The party’s spokesman Motlatsi Maqelepo said the BAP doesn’t believe the “motion will fulfil our policies as the plan should be helping Basotho and Lesotho”.
“Majoro is a prime minister with no vision, a weak Prime Minister without the capacity to hold anybody accountable.
But he is better than this (Moleleki) one who wants to replace him. We know how they act when in government,” Maqelepo said. “We think this issue should be solved by Basotho through elections.
”
So far it is unclear how many ABC MPs will support the motion against Majoro. Both factions however insist that they have the numbers. The Democratic Congress (DC), the ABC’s main governing partner, has said its 27 MPs will vote against the motion.
The Basotho National Party (BNP) and the Movement for Economic Change (MEC), both junior partners in the government, will not support a motion that will push them out of power.
The Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) has always favoured a government of national unity rather than a coalition led by a few parties. The ABC chairman, Sam Rapapa, who supports Majoro, told his supporters over the weekend that the motion will not succeed because only a few MPs will support it.
Rapapa said the ABC has 36 loyal MPs, while the Democratic Congress (DC) has 27, the MEC has seven, the Basotho National Party (BNP) has five, while the Popular Front for Democracy (PFD) has three.
Those numbers, he said, are enough to defeat the motion. “The AD has 11, LCD (Lesotho Congress for Democracy) has 11, DPL (Democratic Party of Lesotho) has one, BPP has one,” Rapapa said.
He also said some eight ABC MPs and two from the MEC might vote with the opposition but the number will not be enough to carry the motion. He said the Basotho-Land Congress Party, National Independent Party and the Reformed Congress of Lesotho which have one MP each will not support the motion.
“Maybe they will only make about 42 while about 70 members would still be behind the government,” Rapapa said.
“Their number is very small,” he said. Chalane Phori, Rapapa’s deputy whose faction is hostile to Majoro, is however confident that they the numbers.
In a recent video, Phori said his faction was still negotiating with other parties to support the motion. He said so far 16 ABC MPs had pledged to support the motion.
This, he said, brings to 42 MPs who will vote to remove Majoro. This, he said, is in addition to five ministers and three party leaders in parliament.
“We are still finishing up negotiations with other leaders,” Phori said.
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