Africa-Press – Lesotho. WE may never know why the government abruptly cancelled the curfew last week. It could be a decision informed by the fierce backlash from the public. That the curfew was deeply unpopular was apparent even to those who reluctantly nursed some hope that it might, at the very least, reduce the murders that have rocked the country over the past few months.
Perhaps there were other internal considerations informed by either economics or politics. But whatever the reason, it is clear the curfew didn’t work.
The less charitable would call it a disaster. The four murders during the curfew that lasted a week is ample proof of that. The somersault has been a boon for our frenzied opposition parties always on the lookout for signs of the government’s bungling.
And so the chiding of Prime Minister Sam Matekane’s administration as fumbling amateurs is now a gear up. Never mind that most in the opposition presided over some of the worst waves of murders when they were in power.
Hearing them mock the government, you would think the rampant murders are Matekane’s problem to fix alone. Yet this is a national disaster for everyone to help fix.
The focus should not be garnering cheap political capital but on finding solutions. There are lessons from the curfew’s failure to curb the murders. First is that strategies should be informed by research to understand the problem.
The second is that just because a solution is drastic doesn’t mean it will work. Not every nail needs a hammer. Third, strategies that seem popular might quickly turn out to be extremely unpopular if they don’t work.
Matekane should resist the temptation to reach for populist policies in times of disaster. Fourth, short-term solutions have never worked in fighting crime.
This crisis will be with us for long. And that is not fearmongering but a reality we should accept. We hope the government has gone back to the drawing board to come up with a nuanced strategy to fight crime.
The discussion on what needs to be done next should be led by experts, not politicians. The strategy should be informed by research coupled with serious political will from the government to fight crime.
We say this because it will be self-sabotage to have a crime-busting strategy implemented on a shoestring. While it might be tempting and somewhat fashionable to chastise the police for being inept, there is no denying that it has been severely hamstrung by the perennial lack of resources.
Ours is a police force being sent to gun battles with pocket knives. True, their training needs to be overhauled to move with the new trends. Yes, they should care a little more about their work.
But unless you give them the resources, it will be tough to hold them to account because they will always blame their failure on a lack of resources. This is where the political will comes in.
And we don’t mean “will’ from the government alone but the opposition as well. Let’s hear the opposition in parliament fight for the police to get more resources.
The strategy should involve the people, the very victims of crime. They have to be part of the solution. The elitist idea that the people should be mere recipients of solutions handed down from towers of power is part of the reason the curfew was doomed to fail.
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