Cheap, cheaper, cheapest

Some crumbs, a bit of liquor and empty promises of jobs are enough to rent a battalion of youths to do your bidding.

Of course the youths of this country have always been a cheap lot but over the past few months their prices have hit rock bottom.

The youths are now on a “clearance sale” and they are selling like hot makoenya (fat cakes).

This is thanks to some Lesotho Congress (confusion/commotion/chaos/corrosion) for Democracy (LCD) youths who have now taken it upon themselves to sabotage the once luctrative Mob Rent industry by charging ridiculously low prices for their services.

In fact everything about those LCD youths is cheap these days: their price on the Rent-a-Mob market, their politics, their reasoning and their talk.

They are just cheap.

So cheap that if you buy one LCD youth, you get five for free.

Last week these heavily “discounted” youths descended on Moshoeshoe 1 International (or Airlink) Airport to welcome their leader Pakalitha Mosisili who had attended a United Nations meeting in the US.

Their real mission, as it soon emerged, was not really to welcome their leader but to attack Mothetjoa Metsing, a man they accuse of having “sold out” their leader to the Americans.

Metsing’s “crime” is that he told a US ambassador in 2009 that Mosisili was a “dictator” and was reluctant to give others a chance to rule this country.

The matter of why Metsing went to the Americans instead of confronting Mosisili is for another day when we talk about the cheap politicking of adults.

For now let’s talk about cheap youths.

So bitter were those rented youths that you would think that Metsing had peed into a village well or committed treason for merely expressing his opinion about Mosisili.

But their anger did not shock Scrutator for they were doing precisely what they had been paid for.

They were at “work”.

What really startled Scrutator was one of the placards they carried.

“Mosisili for life,” said the placard which seemed to have been scribbled in a hurry as the rented mob rushed to the airport.

That placard could either mean that they want Mosisili to rule for life or that they will support him for life.

Either way it’s a shockingly asinine message.

If the message was that they will support Mosisili forever then those youths are a blinkered lot.

There is no way any young person with something substantial between their ears can commit to supporting a politician forever.

The youths have no business creating personality cults around politicians.

Politicians, by their nature, are like diapers that must be changed frequently.

Smart youths don’t support people but values and ideals. They support policies and not personalities.

Any young person who commits to supporting a politician forever is either limited, blinkered or both.

Our future in this country will not be decided by personalities but by policies that are informed by the challenges we face.

If their message was that Mosisili must rule forever then Scrutator pits them for their lack of foresight and ambition. Why should young people kick, shout and scream for another man to rule them for life?

It just doesn’t make any sense at all.

By insisting on another man ruling for life the youths are admitting that they are incapable of growing up to be leaders of this country.

Youths who have no ambition are of very little use to their country.

Without ambition such youths are only there to populate the country and consume  its resources.

By calling on the leader to rule for life those youths are trying to take Lesotho where the rest of Africa is running away from.

This world has no place for life presidents or prime ministers.

Scrutator is sure that even Mosisili, the man they are trying too hard to please, is not interested in ruling this country for life for he knows that will be patently wrong.

Lesotho is probably one of the few countries where the youths are enthusiastic about bootlicking and kowtowing politicians.

Elsewhere the youths fight for their corner.

They talk about substantial issues like employment, empowerment, human rights, health, education, corruption and so forth.

The youths of this country must stop this nauseating habit of ingratiating themselves with politicians because they have more serious things to do, sort out and achieve.

No demographic group in this country is as disenfranchised and disempowered as the youths yet most of them are busy being used as pawns in the political game.

It is sad that the youths of this country have come to be a lot that represents nothing, stands for nothing and fights for nothing.

They are more enthusiastic about beer, casual sex and House music than shaping the future of this country.

They allow politicians to manipulate them when they should be manipulating politicians.

The youths of this country are yet to realise that they have the power to change governments and shape policies.

Yet to realise this potential they must learn to be independent thinkers and to fight for what is rightfully theirs.

Until they realise that they have cheapened themselves they will forever remain on the fringes of real politics that make real things happen.

That was until she read last week’s story about the massive looting that happened during the funeral of the late assistant sports minister Lekhetho Phakisi four years ago.

We indeed have no shame.

If we can allow ourselves to sink to such depths of depravity then we have thrown the values that defined us as Basotho to the dogs.

When we start looting in the name of the dead then there is certainly something wrong with us as a people.

Now you have to learn that making M800 per month without NMDS’ help is not easy.

Be strong for this world is cruel to those who give up easily or are hostile to hard work.

Ache!