Africa-Press – Lesotho. There is one ugly term that is often used in Lesotho’s politics. Of course, one might say that Lesotho’s politics are full of nothing but ugly terms but the one I am referring to in this instance is “Thepa ea lekhotla”. The term roughly translates to property of the party.
From my understanding thepa ea lekhotla is used to refer to women, often younger and pretty, who are invited to and get special treatment at rallies and other political events because they double up as entertainment for the powers that be.
Of course, the practice does include women of a mature age but honestly past a certain age one should know better. For the younger women in question being a consort to the party leaders is often done with the hope of gaining favours in the form of jobs, scholarships and for the truly desperate, that month’s rent money. Far be it from us to judge these women when the unemployment rate in this country is staring us all in the face.
However, the whispers are that even after prancing around in little political party covered skirts and providing more entertainment than just a hearty conversation, they are often left disappointed as the promises of jobs and scholarships fail to materialise and they are instead served excuse after excuse till they exhaust their usefulness.
I am still to decide as to whether I feel pride that my political leaders are so pious as to not let a meeting of the bodies sway their hiring decisions or whether I am angry at them for not living up to their promises.
It is a moral dilemma of sorts, but today is not about that practice. Indeed, today is a most happy day as for once Lesotho’s political field has instead of subjecting young women to the usual tomfoolery done something deserving of praise.
For the first time since I was old enough to recognise the happenings in governance, we have an established political party having a younger woman contesting for party leader.
I could not be more proud; proud of course that the political powers that be have stopped relegating younger women to thepa ea lekhotla status (of course I am not as naïve to think the practice has stopped entirely, but it is a step in the right direction), proud that younger women are recognising their worth in the political landscape and are standing up and taking space and proud at how the nation is receiving this news.
I have so far seen nothing but support from men and women alike and it is truly heartwarming. I had long ago lost hope in our governance system but this new development has pleasantly shaken me out of my apathy.
I would like to think this is equally true for many other young people. Of course, I cannot stand and say that the younger woman in question deserves our votes.
I have no knowledge of what she actually stands for and it would be foolish to vote for somebody based only on sex and gender but what I can indeed say is that just the fact that she would be on the ballot is enough victory for me, for now.
Of course, she still has to actually win the race for party leader but even if she does not it is no small feat that a world established party endorsed her in that regard. This small victory should in no way be isolated.
That is because there are scores of younger women and indeed younger men who are serving in political parties and this should be a challenge to the other well-established political parties to also call up their young people and place them in line for leadership ahead of the 2022 electoral race.
After all, if one party can do it, why can they not? If our leaders are serious about the gospel they always preach about supporting and teaching young people, now is the time to put their money where their mouth is and show us that they have indeed been grooming the young people in their circles and not merely just using them as political tools and mouthpieces.
The nation is watching. As happy as I would like to see more women on the ballot papers, nothing would reflect our growth as a country more than seeing many young faces, backed by established parties.
The reality is that the youths can simply start their own movement. Those older, more established movements have the numbers and numbers are what our young candidates are going to need to bring about change.
And so it befalls on them to put up young people on the ballots so that we may vote for them. Should those faces be female, it would be even better. Of course, it is not enough that our chosen leaders be young people.
We still need them to stand for ideals that are in the interests of this country as a whole and not the self-serving interests we have grown to see in this place. In the face of a changing world, it is very clear that we need young people who actually know what is indeed going on around them.
One also has to just look at countries currently being governed by young people, with a healthy mix of genders to see the progress they have made, as opposed to countries that are holding on to the archaic view that governance is a forte for men with one foot in the grave.
Look at the Scandinavian countries, New Zealand and Rwanda and the developmental growth that those countries have achieved by electing younger officials with a healthy percentage with regard to gender. Surely there is nothing stopping Lesotho from achieving this and for the first time this indeed seems possible.
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