Mohloai Mpesi
THE National Assembly is considering enacting a law to curb the persistent habit of Members of Parliament (MPs) absconding sittings.
Speaker of the National Assembly, Tlohang Sekhamane, says the proposed law could see MPs losing their seats for failing to attend parliamentary sessions.
His remarks follow the Monday’s abrupt adjournment of Parliament after the House failed to form a quorum.
Only 25 of the 120 MPs were present.
Standing Order No. 3(1) stipulates that, “unless the Constitution provides otherwise, the quorum for a sitting of the House or a committee of the whole House shall be 25% of the total membership of the House (being 30 MPs).”
Subsection (2) further provides that, “if a member objects that a quorum is not present in the House, the Speaker shall direct that members be summoned.
“All members present when taking objection shall remain within the Chamber, and if after ten minutes have expired, the Speaker is satisfied that a quorum is not present, the Speaker shall adjourn the House without question.”
Mr Sekhamane expressed frustration, noting that this was not the first time Parliament had been adjourned due to lack of quorum, describing the MPs’ conduct as increasingly becoming the norm.
A similar incident occurred late last year when MPs — including those from the ruling Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) and its allies — boycotted sittings.
Speaking to the Lesotho Times after Monday’s adjournment, Mr Sekhamane said it was embarrassing that MPs were failing to perform their core duties of legislating, allocating the budget, and exercising oversight over public funds.
Parliament is currently in the process of passing the 2026/27 national budget. Last week, the National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on the Economic and Development Cluster tabled its consolidated report on the Annual Budget and Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the 2026/2027 financial year.
This follows deliberations by parliamentary committees on the budget estimates presented by Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Dr Retšelisitsoe Matlanyane, last month.
MPs are now expected to scrutinise the committee’s report and allocate the budget accordingly.
However, the report itself flagged “poor attendance of Members of Parliament in the House and committee sittings” as a key challenge.
Mr Sekhamane did not hide his dissatisfaction.
“Today they did not come, and we were forced to adjourn the sitting because we did not have a quorum. That’s a bad thing because Basotho trust MPs because they voted for them.
“Then the same entrusted MPs are doing this. That’s very embarrassing. People go to work and then decide otherwise. They don’t even come at 06:00 in the morning — they start at 09:00am. That’s embarrassing.
“It is time to allocate the budget, and among the mandates of an MP is to represent the public, make legislation, allocate the budget and play an oversight role on the utilisation of those budgets.
“Now it is time for them to allocate budgets, and they do not attend when the budget is supposed to be allocated. It means those who are absent are saying the budget can be allocated anyhow, because it will be passed whether they are there or not,” he said.
Mr Sekhamane warned that absenteeism undermines the integrity of the budget process.
“There will be a quorum, and the budget will be allocated, but in the messiest of ways. When you are absent, it means you don’t care about the budget allocation, and that’s very unfortunate.
“I will speak with the MPs. I have realised that when you engage them, they improve temporarily, but as time goes on, they relapse until we reach this situation again.”
He warned that Parliament may soon resort to punitive measures if the behaviour persists.
“Parliament is an arm of government that can make laws for itself. If this problem continues, we will introduce punishments that will make it difficult for MPs to skip sittings,” he said.
Although no current law provides for MPs to lose their seats due to absenteeism, Mr Sekhamane said such legislation could be introduced if necessary.
“MPs are mature and prominent people, and ideally there should be no need to force them to do their job. But if situations like today persist, we will introduce measures — some of them very severe and painful.
“An MP can lose their seat. At present, there is no law providing for that, but it is something that can be introduced if the problem continues,” he said.
