Deputy premier says religious leaders only answer to Lesotho’s political woes
Billy Ntaote
DEPUTY Prime Minister (DPM) Mothetjoa Metsing says Lesotho should establish an “all-inclusive” structure led by church-leaders, which would decide what the country needs to adopt from a report submitted last month by the Commonwealth’s Expert Adviser to Lesotho, Rajen Prasad.
The report was prepared following a weeklong tour of New Zealand by a Lesotho delegation led by Mr Metsing, during which the politicians, public servants and civil society representatives studied the island nation’s governance system.
The 28 June – 4 July visit followed a bitter fallout between Lesotho’s three ruling parties — Metsing’s Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), the All Basotho Convention (ABC) led by Prime Minister Thomas Thabane and Basotho National Party (BNP) led by Thesele Maseribane — which nearly saw the two-year-old coalition government collapsing two months ago.
However, according to Mr Metsing, whose party was very vocal in criticising Dr Thabane for not consulting his fellow government leaders when making key decisions with a bearing on good governance, only a neutral body led by religious leaders could help mend the rift between the feuding parties.
Speaking at a forum held by the Development for Peace Education (DPE) and Action Aid-Lesotho in Maseru on Monday this week, Mr Metsing said: “My feeling is there should be an umbrella body to look into the New Zealand report and what could be adopted from its recommendations.
“Such a structure should probably be led by Heads of Churches which are members of the Christian Council of Lesotho (CCL), and act just like the mediation which followed the Sir Ketumile Masire report (which followed disputes between parties over seat-allocations in parliament after the 2007 general election).
“However, there is no hurry as the reforms (among them depoliticising the civil service and reforming parliament) need to be carefully analysed by all stakeholders, which include the government, political parties, opposition parties, civil society representatives, faith-based organisations and the general public.”
Mr Metsing further said whenever there is such a report from experts, the cabinet must first adopt it so it becomes government’s working document.
“Government would then look into what it should adopt whenever time allows. But it must be understood that this New Zealand report is not necessarily a bible we have follow to the letter; we have to adopt what is necessary and good for Lesotho.”
Mr Metsing also said some of the recommendations dealing directly with parliament would be referred to the august house, where a decision would be made about whether or not they should be adopted.
He added: “Some of the recommendations in the report relate directly to cabinet and would be left to the cabinet to decide whether to adopt them or not.
“The Independent Electoral Commission would also be expected to take up some of the recommendations and consider which ones would be worth adopting.
“But I am strongly convinced that church-leaders would be ideal towards leading the process of looking at what it is we should take from the report and apply to our own situation.”
Mr Metsing reminisced how, even when former Botswana president Masire, had given up on mediation in Lesotho, church-leaders soldiered on.
“After Masire left us, and we had frequent stayaways organised by the opposition and our then Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili was unmoved by the opposition, I worked with Archbishop Khoarai and transport operators, who were always crucial in these stayaways, and we eventually found common ground.
“I particularly liked using church-leaders as we knew Ntate Mosisili, even having been so unmoved, would listen to the Heads of Churches. That is why I propose a similar mediation going forward.
“I believe these Heads of Churches are still neutral, which makes them acceptable to all the stakeholders.”
Talking about some of the recommendations, Mr Metsing said it would be impossible to reform the public service in three months as Dr Prasad has suggested.
The reforms, according to Dr Prasad, would ensure government continues to function even in the event of a change of the ruling party or parties, as the recruitment of civil servants would be based on merit and not political affiliation as is largely the case now.
“We are already in a long-running reform process of the public service and it’s been 10 years now. We can’t have reforms in three years as Prasad suggests,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to the DPE National Coordinator, Sofonea Shale, Monday’s forum sought to form a collective civil society opinion on what Lesotho should adopt from the New Zealand report ahead of the 34th Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State and Government summit to be held in Zimbabwe from 17-18 August.
“The SADC meeting is around the corner and we realised Lesotho would be among issues on the agenda.
“That is why we felt there is need for us to speak with one voice as civil society on what should be adopted from this New Zealand report,” Mr Shale said.
