THE government must urgently fix the country’s prisons and bring them up to the acceptable standards for human habitation. For a long time, our prisons have attracted negative attention due to overcrowding, poor diet and rampant disease. Despite the numerous reports of such terrible conditions, the authorities have always looked the other way and […]
WE are glad that the government has finally decided to investigate the troubling issue of police brutality. This was revealed last week by Deputy Prime Minister Mathibeli Mokhothu who said the cabinet was considering setting up a commission of inquiry to investigate widespread allegations of police brutality. Mr Mokhothu said the cabinet had already ordered […]
SOMEWHERE in the Bible, we read of the fool who said in his heart that there is no God. Here in the streets of Maseru- in its pubs, malls and homes- we have fools who say there is no Coronavirus (Covid-19). All the messages, frightening statistics and images of people dying in their thousands […]
MOVEMENT for Economic Change (MEC) legislator Thabo Ramatla couldn’t have put it better when he asked if police ever investigate crimes against ordinary people if they cannot be bothered to probe offences committed against high profile people like him. As we reported last week, Mr Ramatla was shot to within inches of his life […]
Justice was finally done yesterday when former first lady ‘Maesaiah Thabane was remanded in custody ahead of her trial for the June 2017 murder of Lipolelo Thabane. As a disclaimer we are not saying that ‘Maesaiah is guilty of the crime as that will only be decided by the courts after the trial is done […]
ON two occasions outgoing Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has ridden to power on the back of popular discontent against incumbent governments. On both occasions he has failed to last the distance due to his own failures to fulfil his electoral promises of achieving stability and growing the economy, among other things. That ought to be […]
OUR people rightly feel cursed after almost 55 years of independence. They have been routinely misgoverned. The country is routinely mismanaged. Our leaders just cannot seem to do a single thing right to ensure stability and progress. Basotho must be asking how a whole government can wait until after the expiry of the nationwide lockdown […]
IT is time the heads of security agencies moved from condemning and apologising for acts of brutality against citizens by their subordinates to taking concrete action against their rogue juniors. For a very long time our security agencies, particularly the army and the police have hogged the headlines for torture, assault and other human rights […]
THIS week marked the start of a nationwide lockdown ordered by the government to curb the spread of the deadly Coronavirus pandemic which has infected more than 800 000 people worldwide and killed about 40 000, with many more casualties appearing inevitable. Lesotho has hitherto been spared of the mayhem. But we cannot afford any complacency. The […]
WE can only applaud the ruling All Basotho Convention (ABC)’s national executive committee (NEC) and the party’s legislators for setting aside their differences and holding a peaceful election to choose Thomas Thabane’s successor as party leader and hopefully Prime Minister. But with the ABC having morphed into a wholly different animal in recent times, we […]
BASOTHO must be worried. Extremely worried by the government’s lackadaisical approach in dealing with the deadly Corona virus which has infected tens of thousands of people and killed many worldwide. Every week since the outbreak of the pandemic which has since been declared a public emergency in most countries, our health ministry conducts briefings to […]
IT cannot be business as usual for the government and everyone in the medical cannabis industry following last week’s announcement that Malawi has joined the ever-growing list of African nations that have legalised the cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes. Ours may have been the first country to legalise the production of medical cannabis but […]
NOW that the national executive committee (NEC) of the ruling All Basotho Convention (ABC) has nominated its chairperson, Samuel Rapapa, to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, the decision should be accepted by everyone in the party so that the government can move on to the more pressing task of getting development programmes back on […]
PRIME Minister Thomas Thabane must be applauded for his decision to step down. Whether his sudden departure, after he had initially vowed to cling to power till the late 2020s, is purely voluntary or has been foisted upon him by circumstances surrounding the death of his former wife, Lipolelo, is now largely irrelevant. What is […]
It has been said that promises by politicians are as brittle as lovers’ oaths. This is certainly true of the current ruling coalition which appears to have forgotten its promise to stamp out corruption in the country. It is only two and half years since Prime Minister Thomas Thabane romped to victory in the June […]
OURS cannot be a soulless nation where human life has no value and people are brutally massacred at the drop of a penny. We have said this before and we will continue repeating this message until someone finally listens. We will repeat it until the police finally begin to apprehend the cold-hearted criminals and until […]
When magistrates, who are the custodians of justice in any given country, decide to sue their own government, then things have gone horribly wrong. In fact, it’s a scenario that we have never fathomed, let alone heard of anywhere. Yet it has just happened here in Lesotho. It can only happen in Lesotho, the cynics […]
EXASPERATED investors’ threats to dump the country over safety concerns should not be taken lightly. The government and in particular, the Lesotho Mounted Police Service should re-think its strategy and do more to protect investors from marauding criminal gangs. As we reported in our last edition, at least 12 000 jobs are on the line […]
IT is really sad that at a time when Basotho and this country’s well-meaning development partners should have been celebrating the second anniversary and achievements of the governing coalition, we are now staring at the possibility of the premature collapse of yet another governing regime. We ask and Basotho ask. Everyone who wishes this […]
IT is almost two years since the advent of the All Basotho Convention-led four party coalition and it seems the two-year syndrome of governments collapsing in their second year in office is about to strike again. At about this time last year when we were reviewing the government’s performance as it approached the end of […]
THE budget presentation came and went this week and while many particularly, civil servants will feel hard done by the failure to award them salary increments, most Basotho will agree that Finance Minister Moeketsi Majoro did his best under the circumstances. Unlike last year when civil servants were awarded a four percent salary increment, this […]
THE ongoing chaos in the All Basotho Convention (ABC) makes for sad reading especially at this time when the party and the government should be focusing all their energies on ensuring the successful implementation of the multi-sector reforms. It has been said that history repeats itself because we fail to learn from mistakes and repeat […]
THE Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s decision not to extend the tour of duty of its Standby Force is understandable. However, it should also be a cause of worry to all and sundry eager for permanent peace and stability in our perennially troubled Kingdom. The objectives for which the force was deployed have not yet […]
MOST of us are on cloud nine as we continue to celebrate the milestone of our country’s 52nd anniversary of independence. However, we feel that such momentous occasions would be better used to reflect on where exactly we got off the rails and got left behind by our peers in terms of socio-economic development. It […]
WE only know of one instance where the biblical Joshua successfully petitioned God to make the sun stand still and not set until he had defeated his enemies. Could it be that our leaders and Lesotho’s development partners have also stumbled on that secret formula to justify their snail’s space in the current reforms process? […]
HISTORY is littered with so many examples of once iconic political movements or parties that eventually imploded into complete ignominy. Take for instance the example of once gigantic parties like KANU in Kenya – the party of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta; the once formidable UNIP in Zambia and its successor the MMD; the MCP of Kamuzu Banda […]
ONE lesson we have learnt from the resolutions of this week’s Southern African Development Community (SADC) Double Troika Summit is that the regional body’s patience is wearing thin as a result of the failure to implement multi-sector reforms that were recommended in 2016. We did not even need to learn this from the Tuesday summit […]
THE call by the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) for the extension of the tour of duty of the SADC Standby Force should not come as a surprise to anyone who has a keen interest in the affairs of our country. The call is welcome because the objectives over which the force was deployed have not […]
MEMBERS of our coalition government are erudite and well-travelled enough to be familiar with the saying that “what is the sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander” too. An alternative proverb enjoins everyone to practice what they preach. The government will do well to heed this time-honoured wisdom by taking the same medicine […]
National Peace and Unity Bill: it’s not about partisan interests
LIKE the rest of the nation, we have been keenly following the exchanges between the All Basotho Convention (ABC) and the Democratic Congress (DC) over the National Peace and Unity Bill. The two main governing parties are clearly at loggerheads, having adopted diametrically opposed positions with regards to the controversial Bill. For those who may […]