{"id":33767,"date":"2023-09-17T13:20:18","date_gmt":"2023-09-17T13:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/opposition-leaders-vow-to-oust-matekane"},"modified":"2023-09-17T13:49:09","modified_gmt":"2023-09-17T13:49:09","slug":"opposition-leaders-vow-to-oust-matekane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/opposition-leaders-vow-to-oust-matekane","title":{"rendered":"Opposition leaders vow to oust Matekane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>LEADERS of eight opposition parties in parliament have accused Prime Minister Sam Matekane of \u201cmisusing\u201d state security agencies to scare them into silence and thwart their plans to oust him from power.<\/p>\n

The leaders cited last week\u2019s stop-and-search operation by the army on MPs outside the National Assembly premises and this week\u2019s statement by Police Commissioner Holomo Molibeli accusing some legislators of plotting to overthrow the government through a vote-of-no-confidence.<\/p>\n

The police commissioner accused those planning the vote of no confidence motion of coercing other legislators into supporting it. The political party heads said it was within their rights to discuss and lobby for a no confidence motion against a prime minister whom they described as a non-performer.<\/p>\n

That should never elicit their harassment by the army and police. The Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) has nonetheless said the search and seizure exercise was not aimed at the MPs perse, but was meant to search for illegal weapons as part of efforts to combat high levels of crime.<\/p>\n

But the political party leaders are not impressed. They addressed a press conference in Maseru yesterday at which they vowed not to let Mr Matekane off the hook.<\/p>\n

In attendance were Democratic Congress (DC) leader Mathibeli Mokhothu, All Basotho Convention (ABC) General-Secretary, Lebohang Hlaele, Basotho Action Party (BAP) leader Professor Nqosa Mahao, Mpulule Political Summit (MPS)\u2019s Reverend Remaketse Sehlabaka, Basotho Covenant Movement (BCM)\u2019s Dr Ts\u030cepo Lipholo, Basotho Patriotic Party (BPP) leader Tefo Mapesela, Basotho National Party (BNP)\u2019s Machesetsa Mofomobe, and Popular Front for Democracy (PFD)\u2019s Advocate Lekhetho Rakuoane.<\/p>\n

In his address, Mr Mofomobe said the time had come for Prime Minister Sam Matekane to leave office as he had failed to address Basotho\u2019s grievances since he came to power after the October 2022 general elections.<\/p>\n

The BNP leader, who has emerged as Mr Matekane\u2019s most virulent critic, and did much talking at the press briefing, accused the prime minister of having made lofty promises to the electorate which he was now failing to fulfil.<\/p>\n

He descried the premier as clueless and of failing to achieve any legislative breakthroughs. \u201cWhen the premier first came into office, we all agreed that we would be patient with him and give him time to implement his agenda,\u201d said Mr Mofomobe.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we have now come to a point where we feel that he has to go because he has failed. We definitely can\u2019t teach an old dog new tricks. \u201d<\/p>\n

He said PM Matekane had failed to address parliament nor answer questions from MPs as should be the routine of any prime minister. He had failed to bring a single piece of new legislation to parliament and appeared to be a \u201cdud\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever there are meetings, he takes more than two hours without speaking.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

. There is no contribution whatsoever from him. He and his other members of the government have not brought a single piece of new legislation to parliament.<\/p>\n

Since he came into office, he has never uttered a word (in parliament); We are all just so confounded by his incompetence,\u201d charged Mr Mofomobe. The BNP leader also accused Mr Matekane\u2019s coalition of opposing any sensible ideas proffered by the opposition in the National Assembly.<\/p>\n

He said the opposition leaders had thus resolved to vent their frustrations publicly, hence yesterday\u2019s press conference. His sentiments were echoed by all the other leaders at the media briefing, who vowed to press ahead with plans to oust Mr Matekane via a no confidence motion.<\/p>\n

Mr Mapesela, of the BPP, implored Mr Matekane to avoid \u201cabusing\u201d security agencies to settle political scores. There are always repercussions when such abuse happened, he said. He also urged the security forces themselves to avoid being abused by politicians.<\/p>\n

He said some LDF members were now facing lengthy prison terms \u201calone\u201d while their political friends on whose behalf they had committed political atrocities \u201care nowhere to be seen\u201d.<\/p>\n

This was in reference to former army commander Tlali Kamoli and many of his former soldiers, who have languished in jail for years now, facing trial for various atrocities they committed while in office.<\/p>\n

Mr Mapesela said it was the right of legislators to meet and organise for a no confidence motion against a former prime minister if they so wished. \u201cWe can\u2019t be threatened by the use of security agencies when we want to exercise our constitutional rights as parliamentarians.<\/p>\n

How then can we topple the premier if we are not allowed to lobby? \u201cThere are those who are saying that he should be given time; what does he need time for?\u201d Mr Mapesela asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t owe him anything and he is not an angel.<\/p>\n

Other prime ministers who have come before him have been toppled and I even tried it myself with former premier Moeketsi Majoro though he won in the end.<\/p>\n

We are not causing instability when we want to topple Matekane? We are doing what is expected of us. . . ,\u201d he said. \u201cThose causing instability are the police with their stupid statements.<\/p>\n

What does parliament business have to do with them (police)?\u201d asked Mr Mapesela in reference to Commissioner Molibeli\u2019s allegations that some legislators were trying to coerce others into a plot to topple the government.<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Lesotho. LEADERS of eight opposition parties in parliament have accused Prime Minister Sam Matekane of \u201cmisusing\u201d state security agencies to scare them into silence and thwart their plans to oust him from power. The leaders cited last week\u2019s stop-and-search operation by the army on MPs outside the National Assembly premises and this week\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":33766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233,246,245,747],"class_list":["post-33767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-police"],"yoast_head":"\nOpposition leaders vow to oust Matekane - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LEADERS of eight opposition parties in parliament have accused Prime Minister Sam Matekane of \u201cmisusing\u201d state security ...\" \/>\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\/opposition-leaders-vow-to-oust-matekane\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opposition leaders vow to oust Matekane\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LEADERS of eight opposition parties in parliament have accused Prime Minister Sam Matekane of \u201cmisusing\u201d state security ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/opposition-leaders-vow-to-oust-matekane\" \/>\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=\"2023-09-17T13:20:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-17T13:49:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/09\/sm_1694945852.905094.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"412\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"274\" \/>\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\/opposition-leaders-vow-to-oust-matekane#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/opposition-leaders-vow-to-oust-matekane\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Opposition leaders vow to oust Matekane\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-17T13:20:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-17T13:49:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/opposition-leaders-vow-to-oust-matekane\"},\"wordCount\":895,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/opposition-leaders-vow-to-oust-matekane#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/09\/sm_1694945852.905094.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"police\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/opposition-leaders-vow-to-oust-matekane#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/opposition-leaders-vow-to-oust-matekane\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/opposition-leaders-vow-to-oust-matekane\",\"name\":\"Opposition leaders vow to oust Matekane - 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