Africa-Press – Lesotho. THE All Basotho Convention (ABC)’s Nkaku Kabi, will be at the helm of the party for the next five years after he was endorsed as party leader at a special conference held in Hlotse last weekend.
The decision comes three months after the ABC was clobbered during a general election in which it failed to win a single constituency in last October’s election.
The special conference was meant to carry out a post-mortem to find reasons why the party, which was the darling of the urban masses since its formation in 2006, performed so dismally.
From the 51 seats the ABC won in the last general election in 2017, the party only managed to win eight seats, thanks to the Lesotho’s Proportional Representation (PR) electoral system.
The ABC’s secretary general, Lebohang Hlaele, told thepost that the party had reaffirmed its confidence in Kabi’s leadership. When the party goes for an elective conference next year, Kabi’s position will not be contested, Hlaele said.
This means Kabi will lead the ABC into the next election due in 2027. Kabi was elected the ABC leader in February last year after he beat the then Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro to the top post.
He succeeded party founder, Thomas Thabane, who was hounded out of the party after a major scandal in which he was accused of killing his estranged wife, Lipolelo Thabane.
“The conference did not amend the constitution but just decided that Kabi’s position should not be contested in 2024,” Hlaele said.
“We are doing this to have a smooth healing period,” he said. Hlaele said the decision was also done to bring about stability and unity after four years of turbulence.
“We are aware that our infightings start from the party leadership race, we are tired of the fights,” he said. The ABC’s internal fights can be traced to February 2019 when Thabane and his faction rejected Professor Nqosa Mahao as the party’s deputy leader.
The party’s troubles worsened until Professor Mahao packed his bags to form the Basotho Action Party (BAP) in 2020. He left with a sizeable chunk of the party’s supporters.
The BAP went on to win four PR seats in the last election. Hlaele said when candidates lose internal elections, they normally defect to other parties with their followers.
“That reduces the power of the party and we want to stop it,” he said. Hlaele said they expect a leadership race in 2029 when the party would be much more stable.
Meanwhile, party spokesman Montoeli Masoetsa was suspended at the conference last weekend pending his disciplinary hearing for a voice note the national executive committee said was inappropriate.
Hlaele said Masoetsa was suspended pending a hearing “for releasing an insulting audio on social media”. The conference has also instructed the Mafeteng constituency to take disciplinary action against Temeki Tšolo, a former Mafeteng MP, for allegedly insulting other party members on social media.
Speaking at the conference, Kabi warned members against insulting others on social media platforms. He said he was glad that the party members are leaving the conference with happy faces.
“Party members should know that we want to build a new image of our party as we do not want to tolerate insults,” Kabi said.
“You should go to each other and ask for forgiveness where you did wrong,” he said.
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