Moorosi Tsiane
DEMOCRATIC Congress (DC) leader Mathibeli Mokhothu has urged party members to put aside their personal ambitions for the greater good of the party.
The selfless dedication to the party would enable it to win this year’s national elections, the deputy prime minister said.
He said this while addressing DC members at the party’s weekend special congress at Lesotho High School, Maseru.
He also said a legislator had recently joined the party and two more had promised to join the party in the coming days. He did not name the MP who had already joined the party. Yesterday, DC spokesperson, Serialong Qoo said it would be premature to disclose the MP’s name before he had been formally accepted into the party fold in parliament.
Should the MPs join as envisaged, their capture from other parties will send a strong message of intent from the DC to its rivals that it means business in the upcoming polls which are due anytime from September this year.
Mr Mokhothu said they expected two MPs to join them in the coming days. This would be in addition to the two, opposition Alliance of Democrats (AD) legislators, Mothepu Mahapa and Mokherane Tsatsanyane, who joined the DC in April 2021.
“We have three MPs who have already joined this party and two more have promised to cross over this week,” Mr Mokhothu said.
“Hundreds of people have also joined including 60 councilors. The last time I checked, we had about 315 000 members countrywide. It is incumbent upon us not to lose any of our members but continue growing the party,” said Mr Mokhothu.
He said they should focus on the huge task of preparing for the national elections.
“We have to forget about our individual ambitions for power and put the party first if we are to win the national elections.
“We should desist from infighting at the constituency committees and focus on the upcoming national polls. Some people have negative things to say about the party on different media platforms and that should stop.
“Your utterances should help build the party and we should always put the party and its aspirations before anything else,” Mr Mokhothu said.
Meanwhile, the DC has resolved to hold its national executive committee (NEC) elections early next year.
The elections were due in January this year when the current Mokhothu-led executive’s three-year mandate was supposed to have ended. However, the elections could not be held at the time due to the ban on political gatherings which had been imposed by the government as part of the restrictions to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
Following the lifting of the restrictions late last month, the party then decided to hold a special congress to map the way forward.
The congress, which was held over the weekend, resolved to hold the NEC elections next year.
In an interview this week, DC secretary general, Tšitso Cheba, said the NEC polls had been moved to next year to allow the party to focus on the forthcoming national elections.
“We discussed the issue of the youth league, women league and national executive committee conferences which haven’t been held due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” Mr Cheba said.
“It was resolved that there will not be any conference this year to choose members of the various committees including the NEC.
“The conference resolved that we shift our focus to the upcoming national elections. Another issue which was discussed was in connection with the fate of MPs and councilors who joined the DC from other parties and were not eligible to participate in any party activities (without serving the 18 months probationary period) as per our constitution.
“It was resolved that the new MPs and councilors should be allowed to participate in our primary elections for the various party committees. It has to be stated that being an MP or councilor doesn’t guarantee anyone an automatic right to represent the party in this year’s elections. They would have to earn that right by winning the party primaries,” he said.
