{"id":29995,"date":"2023-06-13T11:19:13","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T11:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-protest-next-week"},"modified":"2023-06-13T11:51:19","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T11:51:19","slug":"big-protest-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-protest-next-week","title":{"rendered":"Big protest next week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>SOME disgruntled Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) members are touting labour unions and other disaffected groups to join their protest march against Prime Minister Sam Matekane\u2019s government next week.<\/p>\n

Plans for the protest have been gathering momentum since last week, with the members\u2019 list of grievances growing. The members, whose numbers and influence in the party is not known, accuse the government of breaking its promises to curb spending, hire on merit and suspend a M5 000 fuel allowance for MPs.<\/p>\n

They also allege that Matekane has been \u201ccaptured\u201d by people who are ill-advising him. The march was supposed to be tomorrow but one of the organisers, Francis Ramosetle, said they had to postpone it to next week because they are still persuading other groups to join.<\/p>\n

Ramosetle said so far several organisations have shown interest to join the protest whose agenda is \u201cto show the Prime Minister that his government has been derailed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are currently in and out of meetings with different associations lobbying them to support the protest,\u201d Ramosetle said.<\/p>\n

He said they have invited the National Clothing and Textile Workers Union (NACTWU), the Independent Democratic Unions of Lesotho (IDUL), and the Maseru Route Transport Operators (MRTO).<\/p>\n

BachaShutdown, a civic group that pushes for youth empowerment, has also been invited but says it will make a decision today. Teachers\u2019 associations have also been invited to join the protest.<\/p>\n

The MRTO said they are yet to receive the letter. IDUL representatives were unavailable for comment while the NACTWU leadership said they received theirs but are yet to decide.<\/p>\n

Ramosetle said the RFP-led government has diverted from its agenda and \u201cis now hurting and disappointing many people who elected it\u201d. He said the government has reneged on its campaign promise to cancel the MPs\u2019 fuel allowances.<\/p>\n

Instead, he said, the government has published the Members of Parliament Salaries and Statutory Salaries gazette that includes the allowances. Ramosetle, widely known as Thaba-Telle on social media, told thepost that the invited organisations \u201cwill soon declare that they are on board after our meeting scheduled for Thursday (today)\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said their march will be from Setsoto Stadium to the Moshoeshoe I Statue where they will hand over their letter of grievances to Deputy Prime Minister Nthomeng Majara.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe (Justice Majara) is the leader of the House, this is her responsibility,\u201d Ramosetle said. Justice Majara is also the RFP deputy leader.<\/p>\n

Ramosetle said Justice Majara, as leader of the House, should have seen to it that the fuel allowances are cancelled as per the RFP manifesto. \u201cOne of our priorities while campaigning was to cut those allowances, we want it removed as soon as now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people ended up voting for the RFP after its leadership promised to cut all the unnecessary costs to prioritise job creation and other things.<\/p>\n

\u201d He complained that instead of cutting the positions in government, Matekane has added more.<\/p>\n

Ramosetle said Matekane fired people in the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Home Affairs but hired more people in other ministries. \u201cThey also expelled the principal secretaries in the name of reducing costs.<\/p>\n

He said if the party doesn\u2019t immediately change course \u201cthe party will soon lose all its support and popularity because of bad decisions made to create opportunities for others while shutting doors for others\u201d.<\/p>\n

Teboho \u2019Molotsi, an RFP member from the Abia constituency who is also organising the protest, said they believe Matekane has been \u201ccaptured\u201d by people who are now sabotaging the RFP\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people must stop surrounding our leader there, we now know he is not making decisions of his own,\u201d Molotsi said.<\/p>\n

\u2019Molotsi said their gripe is that Matekane has created several positions in his office instead of reducing them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will lobby and sensitise as many people as possible to hand over their letters of grievance to the Deputy Prime Minister,\u201d \u2019Molotsi said.<\/p>\n

Some people who claim to be RFP members have taken to social media to criticise the government for allegedly abandoning its election manifesto. \u201cWe did not vote the RFP into power to do what it is doing now,\u201d one post reads on Facebook.<\/p>\n

\u201cCancel the fuel allowance or we cancel you,\u201d another reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cFulfil your promises.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreate jobs for all and not the selected few.<\/p>\n

\u201d The RFP\u2019s spokesman, Mokhethi Shelile, said the allowances have been there since the Pakalitha Mosisili era.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are disappointed with our members who now speak the same language as the opposition parties,\u201d Shelile said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey must stop listening to the enemy.<\/p>\n

\u201d Shelile said former Prime Minister Thomas Thabane had about 40 assistants while Moeketsi Majoro had 29.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is new here? The Prime Minister will just analyse and see how many workers he needs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that the only new thing in the gazette is the 2.5 percent salary increment for the MPs. He said the government is working hard to cancel the M5 000 allowance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not dumped our promise to cancel it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. SOME disgruntled Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) members are touting labour unions and other disaffected groups to join their protest march against Prime Minister Sam Matekane\u2019s government next week. Plans for the protest have been gathering momentum since last week, with the members\u2019 list of grievances growing. The members, whose numbers and influence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":29994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[233,246,245,328],"class_list":["post-29995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-matekane"],"yoast_head":"\nBig protest next week - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SOME disgruntled Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) members are touting labour unions and other disaffected groups to join ...\" \/>\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\/big-protest-next-week\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Big protest next week\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SOME disgruntled Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) members are touting labour unions and other disaffected groups to join ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-protest-next-week\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-13T11:19:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-13T11:51:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/06\/sm_1686640531.896589.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-protest-next-week#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-protest-next-week\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Big protest next week\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-13T11:19:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-13T11:51:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-protest-next-week\"},\"wordCount\":841,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-protest-next-week#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/06\/sm_1686640531.896589.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"Matekane\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-protest-next-week#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-protest-next-week\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-protest-next-week\",\"name\":\"Big protest next week - 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