{"id":36755,"date":"2023-12-10T16:54:43","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T16:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/beating-war-drums"},"modified":"2023-12-10T17:08:28","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T17:08:28","slug":"beating-war-drums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/beating-war-drums","title":{"rendered":"Beating war drums"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Lesotho\u2019s opposition parties appear to be beating war drums as they seek to oust Prime Minister Sam Matekane when parliament re-opens in two weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

Last week, the opposition parties threatened to sue the Prime Minister if he does not re-open parliament. They argue that Matekane was delaying the re-opening of parliament to forestall an impending vote-of-no-confidence in his administration.<\/p>\n

Party leaders who spoke to this newspaper last week were all in a buoyant mood predicting Matekane\u2019s fall when parliament is reconvened. They claim they now have the required number of MPs to topple Matekane.<\/p>\n

During the same week, a Democratic Congress (DC) activist, Bokang Ramats\u030cella, petitioned the High Court to deregister Matekane\u2019s ruling Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) party.<\/p>\n

Ramats\u030cella argues that the RFP was registered unlawfully by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in May last year. Tellingly, he has received backing from at least six MPs from the RFP who have provided supporting affidavits confirming that the party was illegally registered.<\/p>\n

He wants the RFP barred from contesting tomorrow\u2019s local government elections. Ramats\u030cella\u2019s court application has only served to vividly illustrate the huge fissures within the ruling RFP.<\/p>\n

The RFP is in the midst of a bruising internal battle with three rebel MPs suspended from the party for challenging the party\u2019s national executive committee.<\/p>\n

The MPs have not taken their suspension lying down. They have accused Matekane and his national executive committee of undemocratic practices by seeking to stifle free speech.<\/p>\n

In seeking Matekane\u2019s ouster, the opposition appears to be reneging on the pledge they made last year that they would give the man the space to govern. As we have said before, this newspaper holds no brief for any politician. We have no dog in this fight.<\/p>\n

However, we still think that in seeking to oust Matekane at this point just a year after his election, the opposition might be channeling their energy towards a wrong cause.<\/p>\n

This appears to be a narrow battle that has nothing to do with the ordinary Mosotho in the village. The result is that political, judiciary and civil service reforms that have been touted by SADC as the panacea to Lesotho\u2019s constant woes are now on the backburner.<\/p>\n

Lesotho\u2019s economy has tanked. The textile industry, the second largest sector after the civil service, is in distress. There is a high chance that the sector could collapse if no urgent measures are taken by the government to save it.<\/p>\n

Such a scenario is just too ghastly to contemplate. Our infrastructure has largely collapsed. Our roads are now filled with potholes. Hunger is stalking thousands of Basotho both in urban and rural areas.<\/p>\n

Our rural communities can no longer grow enough to feed themselves and have over the years relied on international relief agencies to survive. Inflation is on the gallop, putting a huge strain on Basotho who survive on less than one United States dollar a day.<\/p>\n

The private sector is not growing. Some companies have been forced to send thousands home as they battled to stay afloat. In all this, we are on our own as Basotho.<\/p>\n

We should not expect any \u201cwhite man with a white heart\u201d to come and save us. These, in our humble opinion, are the issues our politicians must focus on.<\/p>\n

It would be a mistake for our politicians to channel their energy in seeking Matekane\u2019s ouster when the house is already burning. If Matekane is to fail, he must fail of his own accord not because he was sabotaged through some shenanigans in parliament.<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho\u2019s opposition parties appear to be beating war drums as they seek to oust Prime Minister Sam Matekane when parliament re-opens in two weeks\u2019 time. Last week, the opposition parties threatened to sue the Prime Minister if he does not re-open parliament. They argue that Matekane was delaying the re-opening of parliament […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":36754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[233,246,245,163],"class_list":["post-36755","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-parliament"],"yoast_head":"\nBeating war drums - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lesotho\u2019s opposition parties appear to be beating war drums as they seek to oust Prime Minister Sam Matekane when parlia ...\" \/>\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\/beating-war-drums\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beating war drums\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lesotho\u2019s opposition parties appear to be beating war drums as they seek to oust Prime Minister Sam Matekane when parlia ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/beating-war-drums\" \/>\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=\"2023-12-10T16:54:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-10T17:08:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/12\/sm_1702215475.060813.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\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=\"3 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\/beating-war-drums#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/beating-war-drums\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Beating war drums\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-10T16:54:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-10T17:08:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/beating-war-drums\"},\"wordCount\":616,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/beating-war-drums#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/12\/sm_1702215475.060813.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"Parliament\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/beating-war-drums#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/beating-war-drums\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/beating-war-drums\",\"name\":\"Beating war drums - 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