…as officials “drag feet” on curbing the crisis
Rethabile Pitso
PRIME Minister Sam Matekane is frustrated by government officials who have failed to implement his proposed interventions to curb youth unemployment.
This according to his press attaché, Thapelo Mabote, who said the Prime Minister’s Sunday remarks – widely viewed as back-tracking on his earlier promise to create thousands of jobs for youths – were driven by mounting frustration over stalled implementation.
Addressing youths during the Revolution for Prosperity Student Tertiary League Elections held in Khubetsoana, Berea, Mr Matekane said his government was failing to fulfil its plan of curbing the high rate of youth unemployment.
Mr Mabote said Mr Matekane’s efforts to address the youth unemployment crisis were being repeatedly undermined by delays, resistance and poor reporting from ministries tasked with executing his interventions, leaving him with little confidence that the initiatives would be realised.
In July 2025, amid soaring joblessness among both recent graduates and older youth jobseekers, Mr Matekane declared youth unemployment a national disaster. The move was meant to unlock extraordinary measures to stem the crisis, including compelling ministries to ring-fence a portion of public tenders for youth-owned enterprises to cultivate a new generation of entrepreneurs. Mr Matekane had also asked ministries to present their individual work plans on combating youth unemployment.
The government also waived fees for registering sole trader businesses, a policy designed to lower entry barriers for young people seeking to formalise their ventures. The impact was immediate. Within a month, the One Stop Facilitation Centre at the Ministry of Trade and Industry—responsible for company registrations—was inundated with applicants. Its then public relations manager, Liahelo Nkaota, said the office was registering about 100 new businesses a day.
Satisfied that his initiatives were gaining traction, the Prime Minister stepped back, expecting officials to carry them forward, Mr Mabote said.
However, Mr Mabote said in some instances, the processes soon ran into disruptions beyond the government’s control, forcing a shift in priorities.
“It is unfortunate that soon after the PM made that declaration, some events beyond our control emerged out of nowhere and affected implementation,” Mr Mabote said.
He cited external shocks, including the imposition of steep tariffs by then US President Donald Trump, which hit Lesotho’s textile industry hard and required urgent intervention. At the same time, the mining sector was battered by a global downturn in diamond prices, prompting retrenchments and mine closures.
“These rampant job losses escalated the situation further. The Prime Minister was forced to broaden his focus, not only on youth unemployment, but also on absorbing workers newly displaced into the unemployment pool.”
Compounding the challenge, Mr Mabote said, was resistance or inertia within government itself. Ministries tasked with allocating jobs and implementing programmes failed to provide timely updates, leaving the Prime Minister in the dark.
“By the time the PM issued that statement on Sunday, he had not been satisfactorily informed by most ministries about the progress made. We don’t even know the nature of the issues they encountered because information was not forthcoming.”
He said only a handful of ministries delivered on the commitment.
“By December 2025, we announced that about 16,000 youths had been absorbed into employment through government-facilitated initiatives,” he said.
At the same time, Mabote added, the Prime Minister was warned about the government’s already bloated wage bill and advised to prioritise job creation in the private sector rather than expanding public employment.
Meanwhile, a senior government official, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, said the issue had become so politically sensitive that the cabinet agreed no minister should address it publicly until a clear resolution was reached.
The official revealed that following the disaster declaration, the Disaster Management Authority (DMA) was tasked with coordinating a national response to the crisis. The authority subsequently drafted a National Response Plan, informed by consultations with experts from both the public and private sectors.
“DMA convened engagement platforms bringing together representatives from agriculture, trade, health, youth and gender, as well as the private sector. There was a shared vision to resolve the problem,” the official said.
However, when the DMA finally presented the plan to cabinet, it ran into stiff resistance. Ministers were reportedly unhappy with key elements and repeatedly sent the document back for revisions—a process that dragged on for months.
The sticking point, the source said, was cost.
“The plan proposed a budget of over M2 billion to run until 2027,” the official said. “Cabinet felt approving such an amount would be negligent to their own ministries, which are also starved of funding.”
Ministers argued that if such resources were available, they should be channelled through existing structures rather than concentrated in a single authority. Finance, they added, lacked the capacity to bankroll such an ambitious programme.
In an effort to salvage the proposal, the DMA suggested sourcing funding from development partners and the private sector, which it said had shown willingness to back the Prime Minister’s vision. Even so, the impasse persisted.
According to the source, days before the Prime Minister’s Sunday remarks, he once again sought an update on the plan’s status—only to receive no clear response. “That is when he likely realised the initiative was not going to see the light of day,” the official said.
DMA officials were left dismayed that months of work failed to secure approval, meaning the plan could not inform the 2026/27 national budget presented yesterday by Finance and Development Planning Minister Dr Retselisitsoe Matlanyane.
Efforts to obtain comment from the DMA were unsuccessful. Its chief executive officer, Reatile Elias, declined to speak on the matter.
