THE Lesotho Times will officially mark its first anniversary at a local hotel in Maseru tomorrow night. The belated ceremony, which will also serve as our official launch, is meant to celebrate our achievements over the past 13 months. We will be the first to admit that it has not been an easy journey. The […]
WE want to congratulate South Africa for hosting a near flawless Confederations Cup tournament over the past fortnight. Our neighbours have done us proud as a continent. For the past two weeks we watched in awe as South Africa put prophets of doom to shame. There were fears ahead of the competition that the tournament […]
JACOB Zuma last weekend called for a political solution to the current three-month crisis in Madagascar. The South African president said there should be an “inclusive political dialogue” in the search for a solution to the crisis in Madagascar. Zuma made the remarks as he addressed an extra-ordinary summit of Southern African Development Community (SADC) […]
IN last week’s edition of the Lesotho Times we carried a harrowing story about a woman who gave birth in a toilet at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Maseru. The woman alleged that she delivered the baby in the toilet after nurses had ignored her desperate pleas for help. The baby, who fell on the […]
AT least 84 illegal gold miners died a fortnight ago at Harmony Gold Mine in the Free State in South Africa. The illegal miners, who included 26 Lesotho nationals, are believed to have died at the mine after inhaling poisonous gases following a suspected underground fire. The disaster is the latest in a string of […]
IT is exactly 10 days before the Fifa Confederations Cup bursts into life in neighbouring South Africa. Eight nations – hosts South Africa, Spain, Brazil, Egypt, the United States, Iraq, Italy and New Zealand – are scheduled to take part in the football festival. The tournament will run from the 14th to the 28th of […]
INVESTIGATIONS by the Lesotho Times have revealed depressing details about the deteriorating standards at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, the country’s biggest and only referral health institution. As explained in our lead story, authorities have watched the hospital sliding into near-paralysis because of what we fear could be a blatant case of abdication of duty and […]
FORMER All Basotho Convention (ABC) women’s league boss, Mookho Mathibeli, last week became the latest high profile opposition official to dump the embattled party. Mathibeli, who was controversially suspended from her post last year for alleged insubordination, rejoined the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) party. She became the sixth senior ABC official to quit […]
LAST week National University of Lesotho (NUL) Vice-Chancellor Professor Adelani Ogunrinade came under renewed pressure to step down. Ogunrinade, who has been fire-fighting over the past two years over his management of the university, is being accused of violating university regulations and neglecting his duties. He has however defiantly resisted calls for him to step […]
MASERU – Journalists from Lesotho celebrated World Press Freedom Day on May 5 in Leribe district. It is a day celebrated around the world on May 3 by media practitioners to highlight mostly the challenges and dangers they encounter in their line of duty. I have always wondered what makes one a journalist. Does anyone […]
THE editor of the other weekly, Public Eye, has not been gracious enough to print my response to an article that appeared in their newspaper containing untruths about me and an erstwhile colleague. I suspect this is deliberate because the editor/proprietor has a history with the organisation in question. The editor is refusing to recognise […]
I HAVE read an article in your newspaper, Lesotho Times, of May 7 – 13, 2009. I wish to refer to an article titled “NUL pressed to suspend VC” where I have noted some incorrect statements attributed to me. I am erroneously quoted as saying: “It is nonsense that I am working in cahoots with […]
FINANCE Minister Timothy Thahane was reported last February promising to remain focused to achieve sustainable economic growth and protect the vulnerable. The budget speech presented to parliament last February caught my attention because of that aspect. But having gone through the speech again and listened to the finance minister’s speeches at other fora I wonder […]
THE long-awaited South African elections have come and gone. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) registered an emphatic victory during the polls held two weeks ago. This Saturday ANC leader Jacob Zuma will be sworn in as South Africa’s third democratically elected president. The whole world is watching to see if the new government under […]
WE wish to strongly condemn last week’s barbaric assassination attempt on Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili. It was a despicable and senseless attempt to destabilise the country which has enjoyed relative peace over the past few years. The assassination bid had all the hallmarks of a coup attempt. In fact, Mothetjoa Metsing, the communications minister, has […]
A LOCAL weekly two weeks ago carried a story quoting the leader of the main opposition All Basotho Convention (ABC) party, Thomas Thabane, threatening local journalists who failed to report issues “accurately.” “I beg you to report accurately. In other countries journalists are killed. Your biased reporting will result in the ‘falling’ of one of […]
THE lead story we carried two weeks ago exposed serious problems in the government’s school feeding programme. The scheme, started with noble intentions of feeding primary school children and empowering Lesotho’s poor communities through catering contracts, is now riddled with problems of monumental proportions. What was supposed to be a lucrative business opportunity for the […]
We would accept it if the failure to comply with government regulations was to due to genuine ignorance of what needed to be done. We however think this failure to comply is deliberate. It is quite clear that someone somewhere is abusing the government’s weak systems to get away with murder and fatten their pockets […]
TUESDAY’S dramatic events in parliament have deeper implications for democracy in Lesotho. As reported in our lead story All Basotho Convention (ABC) legislator, Nkhets’e Monyalotsa, crossed the floor to join the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) party. Monyalotsa, who was the legislator for Maputsoe constituency, dumped the ABC saying it had lost political direction. […]
MOKHOTLONG – The body of a three-year-old boy was found dumped in Mokhotlong River last week. The police in Mokhotlong say they are investigating a case of murder following the discovery. The police said the body was discovered by some herd boys who were looking for their cattle. The herd boys reported the matter to […]
MASERU – A 24-year-old Maseru man was this week sentenced to 10 years in jail after he was convicted of rape. Serope Mabusetsa Lekaka was charged with contravening the Sexual Offences Act of 2003. Lekaka was accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl without her consent at Phuthiatsana on the outskirts of Maseru last […]
QUTHING – A 63-year-old woman, ‘Matholang Khiba, appeared in court last week to answer charges of violating the Sexual Offences Act of 2003. Khiba, from Ts’oeneng in Masetise in Quthing, is accused of sexually assaulting her 89-year-old mother last Friday. According to the charge sheet, Khiba inserted her finger into her mother’s private parts following […]
MASERU – Charles Jenkins, the outgoing commissioner-general of the Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA), could assume the same title in Swaziland where he attended a job interview a fortnight ago. His three-year contract at the helm of the LRA ended last Friday. The much-travelled Jenkins, 53, said his next stop could be Swaziland where he was […]
MASERU – He is a taxman. A bad golfer. A saxophone player. An avid reader. A rock climber. A crossword fanatic. A fisher. He loves Africa. That pretty much sums up how the outgoing commissioner general of the Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA), Charles Jenkins, defines himself. Many colleagues he worked with at the revenue authority […]
THEY are routinely pilloried as Likuena or crocodiles. They endure daily lives of insults and abuse. They are blamed for every vice in society. The world is never short of epithets with which to stigmatise them. It seems no one ever spares a moment to reflect on what drives these young girls and women into […]
Jo! Bathong! This past weekend was something else! Something different…ok not really but then… After work Friday, I literally started seeing red! What! For a minute I imagined I had just been afflicted by a really bad, warped case of instantaneous colour blindness. Scar y hey! I tell you, everywhere and everything I looked there […]
Promoting impunity
LAST week 53 African heads of state and government met in Sirte, Libya, for the 13th summit of the African Union (AU). Among the issues they deliberated upon was the setting up of a federal government for the whole of Africa. They also discussed the warrant of arrest issued to Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir by […]