THE leaders of Lesotho’s 20 main political parties yesterday agreed to postpone local government elections which were scheduled for next month. The signing of the agreement vividly illustrates that with political will, we can sit down as Basotho to resolve our political differences in an atmosphere devoid of the usual bitter acrimony. The decision to […]
AS expected the Law Society of Lesotho boycotted the official opening of the High Court on Monday in a move that vividly illustrated that that all is not well within Lesotho’s judiciary. The Law Society last week urged lawyers to boycott the official opening of the High Court as part of a wider campaign to […]
LESOTHO Defence Force (LDF) commander Lieutenant General Thuso Motanyane last week told a commission set up to probe last April’s attacks on the prime minister that there were still elements within the army that were bent on subverting the constitutional order. The statement did not come as a surprise to us. The commission is investigating […]
IN HIS speech to the Private Sector Foundation of Lesotho last weekend, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili hit the proverbial nail on the head by identifying the urgent need for reforming the country’s investment climate to attract the much needed foreign investor inflows and arrest the scourge of poverty and squalor that have become a byword […]
THE African Nations Cup explodes into life on Sunday in Angola promising a football festival to a country still recovering from the ravages of war. The African Nations Cup tournament has been described as a tempting starter ahead of the sumptuous feast in neighbouring South Africa in June. The tournament is the first to be […]
This is the second Christmas since the first issue of this paper hit the streets and we could not be more thankful for having reached thus far. Tribute goes to our readers, who have consistently bought the paper every week. Each week, we have watched the Lesotho Times flying off the shelves. In no time, […]
LAST Thursday marked the end of Lesotho’s best known high-profile corruption trial. Two senior government officials accused of taking bribes from a German firm in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) scandal will now be going to jail. The Court of Appeal ruled that Reatile Mochebelele, who was Lesotho’s chief representative in the LHWP, should […]
LESOTHO on Tuesday joined the rest of the world in commemorating World Aids Day. Lesotho has the world’s third highest HIV prevalence rate, according to figures from United Nations aid agencies. There is no doubt that HIV/Aids has had a devastating impact on the lives of Basotho and continues to be a national emergency. At […]
YESTERDAY marked an historic day since Lesotho’s independence in 1966 as the country’s first world-class shopping mall opened its doors for business. Hearty congratulations to everyone who has made the milestone possible — from the project funders to the tenants. At a time the global economic crisis has started to bite in Lesotho, the Pioneer […]
AT least 150 illegal immigrants from Lesotho were deported from South Africa last week in what the authorities said was the biggest group of deportees to be kicked out of that country in recent years. Reports say most of the deported immigrants were working as labourers at 2010 World Cup construction sites in Cape Town […]
FOR a couple of weeks now we have watched our political leaders insult and tear each other apart. The opposition says it is not happy with the continued occupation of higher office by Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili. The opposition says Mosisili, who has been in power since 1998 and is serving his third term, has […]
HISTORICALLY factory workers have had it tough since the days of the Industrial Revolution in Europe. Factory work has always been associated with long hours, apart from the monotonous and back-breaking tasks. But granted a lot has changed from the days when industrialisation began in Europe in the 1800s. The advent of powerful trade unions […]
THE president of the Court of Appeal, Justice Michael Ramodibedi, was spot on last Friday when he lashed out at the slow pace of the justice delivery system in Lesotho. The president delivered a withering attack on High Court judges and other key officials involved in the dispensing of justice. In his damning verdict, Justice […]
A REPORT released last Friday by international relief agency, ActionAid, painted a grim picture about the state of agriculture in Lesotho. The 91-page report titled, Who’s Really Fighting Hunger, sought to investigate why a billion people worldwide go to bed hungry. The report made some scathing comments about the state of agriculture in Lesotho and […]
THE issue of land has always been an emotive one since Biblical times. Predictably, the Land Bill (2009) which is before parliament has elicited a similar response. Opposition political parties and civil society have been particularly scathing in their criticism of the proposed law. Political parties allege that the government of Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili […]
LAST week we reported that there had been calls from some quarters on the government to withdraw its financial support to the National University of Lesotho (NUL). Some government officials were quoted in the media saying they were not happy with the gross mismanagement at NUL. They wanted the government to take drastic measures in […]
IN this edition we carry a harrowing story about the plight of orphans in Lesotho. Much has been written about the predicament of orphans but it looks like much still needs to be done to mitigate their suffering. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that there are well over 160 000 orphans in Lesotho. […]
LAST week Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili hinted at retirement, saying he had little time as head of government and the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) party. This was the first time that Mosisili, who was elected as prime minister in 1998, had openly discussed his possible retirement. Ironically, Mosisili made the startling announcement […]
THE Communist Party of Lesotho, a long-forgotten political force in the country, is after all alive and kicking. A former senator and secretary-general of the party, Jacob Kena, last Friday made a surprise re-appearance on Lesotho’s political arena. At a press conference last week, Kena announced his political return with a startling call — drastically […]
MAKHARI Tsietsi, a 22-year-old student at Lerotholi Polytechnic, was allegedly murdered in the school campus last Tuesday. The tragic circumstances of his death raise serious questions about the manner we are running our institutions of higher learning. Tsietsi was allegedly battered to death after he refused to undergo bizarre initiation rites for first-year students at […]
LAST week we carried a disturbing story about six men who are suing Police Commissioner ‘Malejaka Letooane for torture. The six allege in court papers that they were brutally tortured by the police at Pitseng Police Station last April. Three men are claiming M90 000 each for injuries suffered during the torture, emotional suffering and […]
SOUTH Africa’s President Jacob Zuma was today expected to head north to help feuding members of Zimbabwe’s coalition government resolve their differences. At the time of writing, Zuma was expected to meet President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and other key members of the government. Almost a year after the signing of the agreement […]
TALKS between the government and opposition on the disputed proportional representation (PR) seats finally roared into life yesterday. The talks are being facilitated by the Christian Council of Lesotho and are chaired by retired Anglican bishop Phillip Mokuku. It is our fervent hope that the dialogue process will bring finality to this long-running saga that […]
LAST week the government unveiled a new media policy to regulate the broadcasting, print and publishing sectors. The draft media policy represents a major step forward for the media which had up until now operated without any written guiding principles. The media have been fumbling in the dark for too long. The new policy will […]
FOR the past three weeks we have watched in horror as the country teetered on the brink of political mayhem. The country was virtually on knife-edge. We saw how opposition political parties, emboldened by Sir Ketumile Masire report, sought to take on the government on the streets. The government of Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, which […]
LESOTHO is on the verge of yet another political upheaval. This time the mêlée is over disputed proportional representation seats. On Monday we could yet again show the world how incapable we are of solving our political problems without resorting to senseless confrontation. We might prove beyond reasonable doubt that we are a nation that […]
Below are comments posted on the Lesotho Times website in reaction to a call last week by the main opposition All Basotho Convention (ABC) to stage an indefinite stay-away. I do not see the stay-away bearing any fruit here. We know whom we are dealing with and we cannot expect different results this time […]
OPPOSITION parties last week said they will call for an indefinite mass job stay-away starting August 3 to press the government to address the contentious issue of proportional representation (PR) seats. The proposed stay-away comes in the wake of Sir Ketumile Masire’s dramatic decision a fortnight ago to abandon his mediation mission citing lack of […]
SIR Ketumile Masire, the envoy appointed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to mediate Lesotho’s dispute over the allocation of parliamentary seats, has abruptly abandoned the mission. Masire cited a breakdown of dialogue with Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili’s government for walking out on Lesotho. The mediation efforts had come about after opposition parties accused […]
Football in deep crisis
THE spectre of violence returned to haunt local football yet again last Sunday in a Vodacom Premier League match between Roma Rovers and Matlama Football Club. If we needed any sign that Lesotho’s football is in deep crisis, this was it. The violence in Roma comes hardly a month after similar scenes of violence were […]