BNP lashes coalition partner

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BNP lashes coalition partner
BNP lashes coalition partner

Africa-PressLesotho. All is not well in the coalition government. This time, it is the Basotho National Party (BNP), a junior partner in the coalition government that is lashing out at one of its coalition partners, the Democratic Congress (DC).

Speaking at a rally in Khubetsoana, BNP leader Machesetsa Mofomobe said he was not happy that the DC, one of their avowed enemies, had been given a sniff at power.

He blamed BNP supporters for allowing the DC back into office. Mofomobe claimed that he had warned his party leadership not to allow the DC back into government.

“I warned you that you should not let the Congress people win the elections,” Mofomobe said.

“How is it today?” he asked. Mofomobe was the BNP deputy leader when the DC entered the coalition government. The BNP, under his leadership and his uncle Chief Thesele ’Maseribane who is now Lesotho’s ambassador to Italy, helped bring the DC into government.

At the time they were in a hurry to remove the then Prime Minister Thomas Thabane and replace him with Dr Moeketsi Majoro, working together with the anti-Thabane faction of the All Basotho Convention (ABC).

The DC came to the table pulling behind it several congress parties that include the Basotho-Land Congress Party (BCP) and the Movement for Economic Change (MEC).

Mofomobe’s statement is the clearest indication that the new BNP leadership remains hostile to the DC’s presence in the government. Mofomobe, who is also the Minister of Small Business Development, called on all his supporters who have defected to other parties to come back home.

He said they need to return home to help grow the party to the next level. He said this after last week’s defection of three senior members to the Alliance of Democrats (AD) led by former DC deputy leader Monyane Moleleki.

A week earlier a party stalwart in Machesetsa’s own home constituency of Sebapala, Jacob Vuyisile, also defected to the AD together with 300 people. Mofomobe told his followers that his party has the answer to Lesotho’s long-lasting economic problems.

He said the BNP has sound and valid policies to help the country get out of its wretched economic situation. He said his party wants to file a private motion in parliament to declare youth unemployment a national crisis.

Mofomobe attacked the Congress parties for failing the country. He said the BNP has always been grounded on its principles to move this country forward as compared to the congress parties that have been coming with different leaders lying to the people.

He said when the congress parties are out of government, they will say they want to change the lives of people but once they get into power, they forget about the electorate who voted them into power.

Mofomobe said it was the congress parties that gave MPs M5 000 petrol allowances when they came into power while the rest of the nation is wallowing in poverty.

He said the congress parties also spoke against police brutality while in the opposition but when they got into power, they quickly forgot about the matter.

He said the congress parties do not take into consideration the needs of the people while in power adding they are in power just to steal from the nation’s coffers.

Mofomobe said the former leader of the BNP, the late Chief Leabua Jonathan, built homes for low and middle income people such as those in Khubetsoana.

He said Chief Jonathan also built a market place in Khubetsoana for the people in a bid to change their lives. He said the BNP-led government used to have permanent secretaries in its civil service but today the civil service is polluted with politics.

He said politicians should not interfere with duties of the security institutions and should let them do their work while following the Constitution. He said some army commanders had landed into trouble because they did not align themselves with the Constitution.

Mofomobe accused Congress party leaders of over-staying in power with some going for more than 10 years in office. He said it was only the BNP which had five-year terms for leaders which could only be renewed once. Mofomobe said if after five years his party no longer wants him, he would peacefully vacate the leadership post.

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