’Marafaele Mohloboli
OPPOSITION Basotho Patriotic Party (BPP) leader, Tefo Mapesela, has thrown his weight behind Prime Minister Sam Matekane.
The firebrand politician told the Lesotho Times this week that the Mr Matekane, who was sworn in on Friday, “deserved a chance to govern without any hindrance”.
He said supporting Mr Matekane “doesn’t make me any less of a leader but it is necessary to back him for the sake of progress in our nation”.
“I’m willing to support Ntate Matekane’s administration without any strings attached. Whenever my support is needed, I will give it to him.
“Giving him my support doesn’t mean that I’m giving up my position as a leader of a different political party. Nor does it mean that I will be supporting everything that the government does even when it defies logic. What it simply means is that I will vote with the government when I feel they are in the right. I’m not expecting anything in return.
“Matekane is new to politics. He deserves a chance to govern just like all those who came before him but blew their chance. We should not set him up for failure or pray that he falters and falls. He must be afforded a chance to govern and even make his own mistakes. After all, he is only human like the rest of us,” added Mr Mapesela.
Mr Mapesela has been in government before as a member of the once powerful All Basotho Convention (ABC). He has held powerful cabinet portfolios including that of Defence and National Security under former Prime Minister, Thomas Thabane.
He dumped the ABC to form the BPP in April 2021. This after falling out with then Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro, who he had described as the “worst-ever prime minister Lesotho has had”.
He was legislator for the Mokhotlong constituency but failed to retain the seat after losing to Adontsi Letsema, a member of Mr Matekane’s Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) party at the 7 October 2022 elections. Mr Mapesela polled a measly 470 votes to surrender the constituency to Mr Letsema who garnered 2680 votes.
Dismal as his performance was, Mr Mapesela still outperformed the garrulous former First Lady, ‘Maesaiah Thabane of the ABC, who obtained a paltry 190 votes.
Despite his crushing defeat, the former ABC stalwart could still be heading to parliament. This after the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) indicated its intention to take back four proportional representation (PR) seats it had “erroneously” allocated to the Democratic Congress (DC) and Alliance of Democrats (AD) parties. One of these will be reallocated to Mr Mapesela’s BPP.
Should the IEC succeed in its quest to reallocate the PR seats, the AD, which is part of the Matekane-led governing coalition, will remain with four seats. This will not affect the new coalition as it will still have a combined 64 seats – more than enough to retain power.
