Utloang Kajeno
DESPITE my best wishes and, at times, solemn prayers, the first-ever coalition marriage that was to benefit not only Basotho but the entire African continent has irretrievably broken down. This is also despite countless attempts to reconcile the coalition parties by both the international community, most notably Southern African Development Community (SADC) and local mediators. To a large extent, the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) is to blame for the political mess and the fall-out this country finds itself in.
However, I am not for one moment suggesting the All Basotho Convention (ABC) and the Basotho National Party (BNP) are exempt from blame for the acrimony in the coalition government. What I am saying is their blameworthiness pales into insignificance when judged against that of their (erstwhile) coalition partner.
In law if I were a judge, I would order that the guilty party, LCD, forfeit the benefits of the marriage owing to their adulterous affair with the Democratic Congress (DC). If only you forgive my analogy, for argument sake.
However, as fate would have it, the party that has suffered the most damage in the fall-out and subsequent break-up of the marriage is inevitably the LCD. I will be vindicated in my view when the following scenarios unfold, in the aftermath of the inevitable dissolution of Parliament after it is reconvened and when there is stability and peace, throughout the country. The LCD is going to suffer irreparable harm both financially and among the voters.
My forecast is that even if the LCD elects a new leadership (which seems unlikely) largely because under its leader, Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing, it has been dealt a harmer blow, it is likely to slowly cascade down the political abyss. Mr Metsing has done the party he was entrusted to lead to revival, a mortal blow from which it is unlikely to recover. In plain language, he has written his own political epitaph. What a sad end to a promising political career. Frankly, I do not see him reviving has career. If he has enough foresight, he should have seen the writing on the wall when SADC, after several attempts to reconcile the parties failed, advised the coalition government to advise His Majesty King Letsie to bring forward the general election initially penciled for 2017.
I’d bet my last penny that, in his wildest dreams, Mr Metsing never foresaw that he would bring his party and himself to the doldrums. Ominously for him and his party, the ABC and BNP seem to hold all the aces. That is why the LCD, and the main opposition Democracy Congress (DC), its offshoot, are fighting a losing battle in holding onto the military insignia of the erstwhile discredited former commander of the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF).
On this front too, the LCD, DC and the renegade general, Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli, are destined to lose dismally. By his own admission the firebrand former government secretary and DC Member of Parliament (MP) for Mokhotlong, Tlohang Sekhamane, said former Lt Gen Kamoli was the last vestige of democracy in Lesotho.
In his view democracy was dealt a mortal blow by Dr Thabane a long time ago. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the honourable MP is being delusional and living in denial. I also previously opined in this column that the LCD’s ideology is closer to the DC’s and cannot make a long-term political any, under the leadership of Mr Metsing.
If anything, the roots of democracy in Lesotho have been further deepened by Dr Thabane. The LCD-DC alliance are holding onto the renegade general because they are using him, because of the considerable armoury under his command, to seize power from the democratically-elected government. In all honesty, how they hope to foist him onto this nation, despite a gazette terminating his services, is beyond me.
In any event, even if we were to expect the impossible and he remained at the helm of the LDF, I fail to see how he will orchestrate their ascension to power in this country, without the people’s mandate. Or is it that they are they planning to use him to assume power by some unconventional means? I sincerely hope not since they are democrats. Furthermore, their standing by him is political suicide of the highest order.
They are further compounding their problems and therefore eroding their integrity by encouraging him to openly and contemptuously defy His Majesty’s order issued on the advice of the prime minister, as required by law.
Surprisingly, these are the very laws that were enacted under the single-party LCD, and later on DC government. This begs the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg? Or rather impishly; is the dog wagging the tail or the tail wagging the dog? Simply put; political leaders encouraging the army and the nation to defy lawful orders is unheard of. The political damage they have done to themselves is incalculable.
How, in all honesty, does a political and national leader worth his salt associate with a renegade general who is on the prowl, heavily-armed, and terrorizing and attacking at will, an innocent nation that he is supposed to protect and indeed, as is his calling, die for.
To make matters worse for the recent LCD-DC alliance, the Minister of Communications, Science and Technology, Selibe Mochoboroane, even when he is espousing a position that borders on insubordination of His Majesty and his boss, Dr Thabane, professes to speak on behalf of the government and not only the LCD.
This inevitably drags the King’s revered office into this political mess and creates further confusion in the nation, which is unacceptable. He better be warned that you don’t defy His Majesty and get away with it. You will inevitably incur the wrath of this nation at the polls. They will give you a kick in the teeth, metaphorically speaking, that will send you to permanent political slumberland never to rise again.
If early snap elections are called, as seems inevitable at this stage, I bet Dr Thabane will ask the King to dissolve Parliament. Whereupon the Council of State will advise His Majesty to ask Dr Thabane to form the interim government in the run-up to the election. Dr Thabane, an astute politician that he is and to ensure a smoothly-run government that was previously so many times frustrated by the LCD, will sack some LCD Ministers and appoint his own people to cabinet posts.
For starters, let us not lose sight of the fact that the LCD will have no say at all in the affairs of state. They will join the opposition, together with the DC, holding a megaphone to protest decisions of the interim government. Sadly, this time they will be on the other side of government and their voices will hardly ever be heard.
Ominously, again, the top echelons of their leadership are facing numerous charges of corruption. Let’s suppose the unlikely happens and they get convicted of these offences. This will almost certainly decimate the entire leadership of these parties.
My advise to the LCD would be to negotiate a withdrawal of these charges and turn a new page, then perhaps, maybe, all will be forgotten. However, perilously for them, they always seem to go against common sense and want to play into the hands of the ABC. This is precisely where the ABC wanted them. To sign their own political death warrant. Once they get convicted they will not contest any election even if they would wish.
On the financial front, the LCD leaders will have suffered irreparably, moreso those who will be asked by Dr Thabane to vacate their cabinet portfolios. We all know it is a sad reality that most politicians in this country go into politics to gain wealth expeditiously. In cabinet positions, the perks are even more handsome and the salary is attractive. This explains why our politicians fight so eagerly for constituencies, let alone cabinet posts.
Further, if you are an MP you are entitled to a daily allowance for attending each session coupled with a handsome monthly salary. To crown it all, MP’s are entitled to a M500 000 interest-free loan. Their projection, I bet, is that they will have serviced the debt by the end of the five-year term, which sadly in this case, seems highly unlikely.
In all probability, as happened to one MP previously, the legal juggernaut of writs and sale in execution of judgment to satisfy these massive debts will be set in motion. This sad scenario will apply in equal measure to all MP’s, irrespective of their political affiliation, save those who will remain or be appointed to interim cabinet positions.
I bet even though Ntate Metsing never saw this scenario unfolding, he and his ilk, are kicking themselves. I would advise him, as politicians are never ashamed to do, to the chagrin of this impoverished nation, to legislate or force the interim government to act as their guarantor. Remember the Pakalitha Mosisili-led government and his infamous block-farming scheme; that is the notorious scheme implemented by government to ostensibly benefit the poor rural farmers. It ultimately benefited the ruling LCD-DC elite. To this day, they have not repaid the loans.
If the interim government takes this route, owing to its massive financial magnitude and because some dumb politician decided to, excuse the hyperbole, kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, then this nation will wallow in a huge debt. This, coupled with the huge unbudgeted for expenditure on a snap election is a terrain that even angels fear to tread. In Sesotho, there is a saying which loosely translated says: you cannot expect to reap corn when you planted thorns.
We can only hope that LCD politicians who have seemingly lost integrity can only take into cognisance this sad scenario that will ruin, not only them but this country as well.
