- His ministry is still failing to issue passports to Basotho
- Despite the minister’s claims to the contrary
Mathatisi Sebusi
MINISTER of Local Government, Chieftainship, Home Affairs and Police, Lebona Lephema, has been accused of lying to Senators that his ministry was now seamlessly issuing passports to Basotho.
Members of the Senate’s Government Assurances Committee (GAC) this week lambasted Mr Lephema for misleading them that his ministry was now on top of the passport crisis which has seen Basotho unable to access passports and national identity documents (IDs), imperilling many of them from travelling to seek economic opportunities elsewhere. A huge number of Basotho work in South Africa because of lack of viable job opportunities at home. Many are now losing their jobs because they cannot renew their passports.
The GAC had summoned Mr Lephema a fortnight ago for an appraisal of measures taken by the Department of Home Affairs to address its inability to issue thousands of Basotho with passports and ID cards.
The Committee’s ire against Mr Lephema was ignited after it decided to tour the Department of Home Affairs by itself on Tuesday only to discover that the rosy picture Mr Lephema had painted a fortnight before was in fact a hoax. The minister’s presentation before the GAC was a far cry from the actual reality on the ground.
Mr Lephema had told the Committee that the passport crisis had been resolved and that the Department of Home Affairs had resumed issuing Basotho with passports flawlessly.
Minister Lephema had also told the Committee that his ministry had been confronted with logistic challenges after the government’s middleman, NIKUV International Projects, failed to deliver passports and identity documents on time.
However, Mr Lephema had assured the committee that things were back on track after the government’s resolution to terminate its contract with NIKUV. Government was now procuring directly from the manufacturer, Mr Lephema had said.
But to the Committee’s utter shock during the tour, the situation on the ground was different. Basotho, who had applied for passports last year, remain stranded with no access to the documents. Many are queuing at the department daily to seek answers on when they will get their travel documents.
And contrary to Mr Lephema’s rosy story, Department of Home Affairs’ Acting Director of Passports, Mochesela Ntiisa, told the Committee that the passport crisis had in fact worsened, further suggesting that it would take years for the mess to be cleared.
This, Mr Ntiisa said, was because the department’s current inability to issue passports was tied to the perennial lack of funds. It was also the culmination of a decision made in 2018 by former Prime Minister Thomas Thabane’s coalition administration, to issue Basotho with free new e-passports as it had begun phasing out the older versions.
The idea was to encourage Basotho to surrender their old passports in favour of the electronic ones to enable the State to modernise and update its civil registry. Basotho who got passports from between 2018 and 2020 were thus not required to pay the usual M130 passport fee as an inducement. However, the downside to that noble initiative was the cost to the government, which had not budgeted for it.
Still even though applicants are now required to pay the M130 fee, it remains much lower than the M500 it actually costs the government to produce a single passport.
The situation, Mr Ntiisa said, was not sustainable. The fee of procuring a passport needs to be hiked from M130 to a much higher price to help resolve the problem, he said.
Shocked
During the tour, the Committee’s members were shocked to find hundreds of Basotho queuing for passports.
Many complained they had not been issued with passports despite applying way back in 2023. They had been making umpteen follow up visits to no avail.
This angered the Senators, who accused Mr Lephema of lying to them. They said the minister had assured them that things were now going smoothly yet that was not the case.
One Committee member, Seabata Matsamai, said Mr Lephema had assured them that Basotho were now getting passports without any hitches and that “the ministry had resolved whatever problem it had”. That was obviously a lie, he said.
“I did not expect to see hundreds of Basotho siting here waiting for passports. We were told that the passport challenge was now a thing of the past. The minister or Principal Secretary must come here and explain themselves,” a fuming Mr Motsamai said.
But neither Mr Lephema nor his Principal Secretary, ‘Mamphaka Mabesa, were present to explain themselves.
The Committee’s chairperson, Dr Thabiso Lebese, also chastised the minister for lying.
Dr Lebese said Mr Lephema had even accused Basotho of failing to collect their travel documents once they had been processed.
“He (Lephema) told us that after cutting the middleman, passports were now being issued seamlessly. But by the look of things, he was not being honest,” Dr Lebese said.
Huge backlog
Mr Ntiisa narrated to the Committee his department’s struggles in meeting requests for new passports. His department was lumbered with a backlog of 37 000 passports dating back from 2018, which they were “trying to clear amidst scant resources”.
According to Mr Ntiisa, they had a backlog of 4000 passports for 2024 only but there were no resources to clear it.
“That then means that the Department of Home Affairs is overwhelmed by applications,” Mr Ntiisa said.
Mr Ntiisa said in Maseru only, they could only issue 50 passports daily against more than 100 daily applications.
Only this year, Mr Ntiisa said, Maseru’s Department of Home Affairs office received 13 000 applications. That then called for vigilance in issuing the documents, prioritising emergencies and overlooking non urgent applications.
“The Maseru office is only allowed to issue 50 passports a day, which must be distributed among emergency applicants …,” Mr Ntiisa said.
Background
According to Mr Ntiisa, the problem started in 2018 with the directive to issue passports for free to Basotho who still held the older versions of the Lesotho passport. As a result, the department could not charge even the low M130 passport fee for a period of two years.
He said for each passport to be printed and designed to finality, the government had to fork out M500, while applicants did not have to pay the M130 for a period. Even though they must now pay, the subsidy for passports is huge.
“The government’s subsidy on passports is very high and the ministry takes long before it can raise funds to cater for batches of the passports. Also, the passports are delivered nine months after an order has been made. And the longer it takes the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning to approve the order, the longer it will take for the passports to be delivered to Lesotho,” Mr Ntiisa said.
Mr Ntiisa said they had requested a budget to cover the procurement of 100 000 passports for the 2024-25 financial year. They were, however, allocated just about enough to secure 47 000 passports only.
Bribes
The department’s inability to deliver its mandate was thefore the main reason for the long daily queues.
To skip the long queues, Mr Ntiisa noted, scores of Basotho had resorted to illegal measures “to get a passport, all out of desperation”.
“Despite the scarcity of passports. We are still taking new applications, but priority of issuance is based on the urgency necessitating that an applicant be issued with a passport.
“We are walking a tight rope here and understand that all people need passports for different reasons. To accommodate all people, with the 50 passports we are allocated per day, we accommodate emergencies including patients who need to seek medical services in South Africa, people working in South Africa and students….,” he said.
“Sadly, Basotho do resort to acquiring passports through illegal means such as bribing officials.”
He said the scarcity of passports had also seen Basotho flocking to apply for emergency passports, having realised that the general route was not working for them.
Heartbreaking
Mokebe Nkone is one of the applicants who have queued for passports at the Department of Home Affairs since 2023.
He narrated to the Senators his heart-breaking story of how he had lost his job because he could not renew his passport after the expiry of his old one.
He said to date, he had not been issued with an emergency passport despite his circumstances. He had been camping at the department for a whole week without getting any assistance, he said.
Mr Nkone, who works in South Africa, said he therefore cannot return to his job. His last salary had even been blocked by his bank because he could not renew his work permit without a valid passport.
Mr Nkone’s story resonated with those of many who are now hamstrung by the brazen incompetence of Mr Lephema’s ministry.
GAC members vowed to pursue Mr Lephema to get him to account for his lies.
