{"id":19947,"date":"2022-09-20T12:50:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T12:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fresh-push-to-sabotage-reforms"},"modified":"2022-09-20T12:50:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T12:50:00","slug":"fresh-push-to-sabotage-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fresh-push-to-sabotage-reforms","title":{"rendered":"Fresh push to sabotage reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>THERE is a groundswell of legal fights to sabotage the national reforms as organisations and individuals file applications to roll back the recently passed constitutional amendments.<br \/>\nThe latest volley that has thrown the reforms into doubt is an urgent application by the Law Society of Lesotho on Monday, seeking to nullify all the constitutional amendments that received the royal assent on August 29.<br \/>\nBefore this application, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Lesotho) filed an urgent application seeking the nullification of the declaration of the state of emergency that subsequently led to the recalling of parliament and the passing of the amendments that underpin the reforms.<br \/>\nMISA-Lesotho argues that the decision to recall parliament was premised on a contrived state of emergency.<br \/>\nMISA-Lesotho\u2019s legal action came on the heels of an application by local journalist and activist Kananelo Boloetse challenging Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro\u2019s state of emergency.<br \/>\nBoloetse wants the High Court to declare the state of emergency unconstitutional, null and void.<br \/>\nThis week the Law Society\u2019s president, Advocate Tekane Maqakachane, asked the court to nullify all the Bills the king signed into law.<br \/>\nAdvocate Maqakachane, by virtue of being the Law Society president, is a member of the Council of State that approved the state of emergency that paved the way for the King to recall parliament to pass the amendments.<br \/>\nIn his affidavit, Advocate Maqakachane said the declaration of the state of emergency to pave the way for the king to recall parliament he had dissolved resulted from the international community\u2019s pressure on the government.<br \/>\nHe said Lesotho received \u201cthreats and intimidation by SADC and development partners\u201d after parliament got dissolved before it could pass the national reforms.<br \/>\n\u201cThe Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho\u2019s only way out of the quagmire was to have the 10th Parliament recalled,\u201d Advocate Maqakachane said.<br \/>\nAdvocate Maqakachane argues that the two houses of parliament did not agree on the contents of the Omnibus Bill until the Lesotho Council of NGOs facilitated talks between them.<br \/>\nAt the talks, he said, it was agreed that only the Omnibus Bill and the National Assembly Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2022 would be passed when the king recalled parliament.<br \/>\nHe said all other bills that the king signed into law were unconstitutional because they were premised on the unlawful declaration of the state of emergency and the subsequent recalling of the dissolved parliament.<br \/>\nOn the amendment of the constitution, Advocate Maqakachane said the constitution does not permit parliament to effect changes or reforms through the use of emergency powers.<br \/>\n\u201cConstitutional re-making and re-designing reposes in the constituent authority of and exercise of popular sovereignty by the people of Lesotho,\u201d he said.<br \/>\n\u201cParliament cannot do and achieve through the subterfuge of emergency powers used solely in exceptional circumstances, that which has nothing to do with the public emergency,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nHe said the passing of the laws could have been done \u201cduring the ordinary life and tenure of parliament\u201d.<br \/>\nHe argues that in terms of the constitution \u201ca bill that alters specified sections and parts of the constitution of Lesotho shall not be submitted to the King for his assent unless that bill has been submitted to the vote of electors and the majority of electors voting have approved the bill\u201d.<br \/>\nApart from the Omnibus Bill that the king assented, Advocate Maqakachane is asking for the nullification of seven other Bills that have been enacted into law.<br \/>\nThe Bills are the Millennium Challenge Account \u2013 Lesotho Authority (Winding Up and Repeal) Bill 2022, Specified Officers Defined Contribution Pensions Fund (Amendment) Bill 2022, Public Officers\u2019 Defined Contribution Pension Fund (Amendment) Bill 2022, Harmonisation of the Rights of Customary Widows with Legal Capacity of Married Persons Bill 2022, Metolong Authority (Amendment) Bill 2022, and the National Assembly Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2022.<br \/>\n\u201cParliament failed to pass the aforesaid bills into law so as to be assented to by the King, during the wash-up period in July,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\">Lesotho<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. THERE is a groundswell of legal fights to sabotage the national reforms as organisations and individuals file applications to roll back the recently passed constitutional amendments. The latest volley that has thrown the reforms into doubt is an urgent application by the Law Society of Lesotho on Monday, seeking to nullify all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":19946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12,16],"tags":[233,246,245],"class_list":["post-19947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fresh push to sabotage reforms - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fresh-push-to-sabotage-reforms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fresh push to sabotage reforms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. THERE is a groundswell of legal fights to sabotage the national reforms as organisations and individuals file applications to roll back the recently passed constitutional amendments. 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THERE is a groundswell of legal fights to sabotage the national reforms as organisations and individuals file applications to roll back the recently passed constitutional amendments. 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