Staff Reporter
LESOTHO’S legislators are hogging the spotlight with their demands for a whopping 100 percent salary increment- a demand analysts say is “heartless and selfish” given the parlous state of the economy.
Their salary demands are not new as they were first made in November 2018.
At the time, the MPs who are also lavished with a number of perks including M500 000 interest free loans, also demanded that they be eligible for pensions after serving for only two years in the House. They are presently only eligible for pensions after serving two five-year terms.
Back then the MPs even coerced the then Prime Minister Thomas Thabane into ordering his then Finance Minister Moeketsi Majoro to establish an inter-ministerial team to consider a revised salary structure for them.
A massive public outcry eventually forced the MPs and the government to abandon the proposals to award the legislators salary increments.
While the salary demands appear to have united legislators from across the political divide, they have however estranged them from the larger society including their constituents, who rightly argue that the government cannot afford such a fancy scum. It should instead channel scare resources to the fight against the deadly Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and other more pressing socio-economic initiatives to improve the lives of ordinary people.
Even if the economy was in a much healthier position, analysts say, resources should not be expended in feathering the nests of politicians. They should be used in improving the lot of Basotho who live in abject misery and poverty. The MPs already rank amongst some of the highest paid people in the Kingdom. Yet a big chunk of the population, including hard working factory workers, the largest segment of workers after civil servants, earn barely enough to get by.
Aware of the backlash over the MPs’ outrageous salary demands, ABC parliamentary caucus chairperson ‘Mathato Phafoli tried to downplay the issue, saying although the legislators wanted salary increments, they were not demanding 100 percent increments to take them to M75 000 each per month.
But in seeking to downplay the issue, Ms Phafoli only succeeded in opening the window to reveal the even greater extent of the MPs’ selfishness and insensitivity.
“I don’t know where the M75 000 figure is coming from,” Ms Phafoli told the Sunday Express last weekend.
“People are making up stories. All that the MPs want is a review of their salaries but not to that figure.
“All legislators sat down and agreed that MPs’ salaries should be reviewed in line with salaries of their Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) counterparts. In other countries, MPs’ diplomatic passports are not revoked when they lose their seats. They continue to enjoy their former benefits and that is what Lesotho legislators want. They also want an official funeral when they die even after their terms have ended,” Ms Phafoli said.
By her own admission, MPs want salaries at par with their SADC counterparts even though it’s obvious Lesotho cannot afford that. Former finance minister now Prime Minister Dr Majoro has eloquently explained that Lesotho can only pay salaries that its depressed economy can afford. It boggles, the mind how a Lesotho MP expects a salary at par with a counterpart from South Africa, whose economy is a million times bigger than ours. Or even Botswana, Namibia and Angola, countries with viable economies and wealth?
This only shows our politicians go into politics for one thing; their own aggrandisement instead of serving the people, analysts note.
By revealing that the MPs want to continue enjoying their benefits even beyond their tenure, including hanging on to their diplomatic passports as well as being given state funerals, among other things, Ms Phafoli has only succeeded in painting them as a narrow minded selfish bunch.
Simple calculations show that if the government accedes to their demands, the legislators, who currently cost taxpayers M67, 9 million per annum, would then cost taxpayers M135 million annually. Each MP would cost the taxpayer M888 000 per annum once the hike is approved.
Lesotho’s parliament is made up of 120 members of the national assembly and 33 Senators.
When the MPs first made the salary demands in 2018, Montoeli Masoetsa, who is now the ruling All Basotho Convention (ABC) spokesperson, labelled the demands as “completely ridiculous and cruel”.
Mr Masoetsa said the MPs were exhibiting outright narcissism and should not be condoned by any self-respecting citizen of the country.
“There are people who are more deserving of pay rises and the MPs should be the last people to demand such increments.
“We have the police and teachers. Factory workers were also denied a M2 000 minimum wage and had to settle for M1 600 instead,” Mr Masoetsa said at the time.
He further argued that the MPs’ demands were not in sync with the prevailing dire economic state of the country characterised by declining Southern African Customs Unions (SACU) revenues and the Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA)’s inability to meet revenue collection targets.
He said that the country still had to attend to issues of food insecurity and poor infrastructure.
“Any reasons they (MPs) are giving for the hike cannot be justifiable under the current economic conditions in the country. The country is living from hand to mouth at the moment.”
Now if the MPs’ demands were unreasonable in 2018 and could not be met due to the precarious economic situation then, their demands are even more unreasonable now that the economy has taken an even bigger knock from the effects of the Covid-19 induced slowdown in global economic activity.
Less than a fortnight ago, Dr Majoro announced that the economy was expected to contract by a massive 10 percent in the current financial year due to Covid-19.
He said as a result of the Covid-19 induced global slowdown in economic activity, 6000 jobs were on the line in the country’s crucial textiles sector.
The former Finance minister’s dire forecast paints a far worse picture of the effects of Covid-19 on Lesotho’s economy than earlier assumed by the government.
Last month the Finance ministry said the economy, which was already shrinking at an average rate of 0,3 percent over the past three years, would contract by 1,2 percent in the 2020/21 fiscal year due to the impact of COVID-19. But Dr Majoro said the contraction will be much larger.
The contraction will mirror that of South Africa, predicted to contract by as much as between 17 and 20 percent.
The Finance ministry had also said important revenues obtained from Lesotho’s membership of the SACU would dry up with the country expected to lose as much as M1,2 billion as a result of the Covid-19-induced slowdown in regional and global activity.
The budget deficit is now projected at 11,8 percent of GDP up from the 4,7 percent earlier predicted by Dr Majoro in February when he unveiled the 2020/21 budget.
More worryingly, Lesotho is expecting its worst hunger crisis in recent years with about 900 000 people, almost half the population, projected to be in need of urgent food interventions during the current fiscal year which started on 1 April 2020.
Even without Covid-19, awarding salary increments would still have been a tall order as the government is under pressure from multi-lateral financial institutions most notably, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to implement tough fiscal measures to improve the economy.
The IMF has demanded that the government reduces the high public wage bill, undertakes public financial management reform as well as implement the multi-sector reforms recommended by SADC in 2016.
The IMF first tabled the demands in 2018 as a precondition to granting the government’s request for a financial bailout to reduce the budget deficit and boost foreign currency reserves.
Although the IMF-government talks began in June 2018, the bailout has so far not been given with some government sources attributing this to the government’s failure to meet the IMF’s demands.
It is therefore inconceivable that the government can be expected to prioritise the salary demands of the already well-paid MPs when it has more pressing issues to address with the meagre financial resources at its disposal.
National University of Lesotho (NUL) public administration lecturer Mamello Rakolobe says given the prevailing economic circumstances, “the MPs’ wage demands are uncalled for and highly unreasonable”.
“The government is not only operating at a deficit but is faced with the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic. It cannot afford the MPs’ demands. Making such demands under the current scenario is cruel and insensitive to the plight of the electorate who are mostly experiencing food insecurity,” Ms Rakolobe tells the Lesotho Times.
She accuses the MPs making the demands of sabotaging the new Dr Majoro-led government so that it is viewed as insensitive to the plight of ordinary people.
“This is sadly an indication that some of the MPs are not there to serve the interests of the populace but personal ones. What have they done to deserve a 100 percent increase on their already fat pay cheques? In fact, they should be proposing a cut on their salaries to lessen the financial burden that the government is currently facing,” she says.
NUL political science lecturer Mohlomi Mahlelebe says he is surprised by the MPs’ outrageous demands when the government is already struggling to meet its obligations.
“My take is that there would be nothing wrong with MPs demanding more perks if the economy was in a healthy state. However, making such outrageous demands at this time is an insult to the people who voted them into power.
“I am surprised by the MPs’ behaviour because in his February 2020 budget speech the then Finance minister Dr Majoro said the government already had a high wage bill and that money lending institutions like the IMF said they would not assist unless Lesotho reduces its wage bill. It is totally out of order for the MPs to be making such demands when they are fully aware of the government’s predicament. They are the very people who should be guiding the government to implement prudent economic polices instead of making such demands,” said Dr Mahlelebe.
Economics analyst Arthur Majara blasts the MPs for making “ridiculous, selfish and inconsiderate” demands when they are fully aware that the government is already operating at a deficit and is struggling to contain expenditure.
“Such demands are ridiculous in that they are coming from the same MPs who know very well that the government is operating at a huge budget deficit.
“Lesotho cannot afford such outrageous demands by the MPs especially at a time when the country, like all other countries, is faced with the Covid-19 threat. The government is already struggling to raise enough resources for testing suspected cases of Covid-19 as well as procuring personal protecting equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers. It does not need this additional problem (MPs’ salary demands),” Mr Majara says.
He and other analysts say instead of selfishness, the MPs should rather focus on helping the government device appropriate policies to reduce its high expenditure, fight poverty and Covid-19, high unemployment and achieve economic stability.
Debate on such critical and pertinent policies to achieve wealth for the nation is conspicuous by its absence in Lesotho’s parliament, meaning Basotho vote for selfish incompetents to become their MPs. Hence their focus on their welfare and not those they are elected to represent.
