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Molapo quits parties forum

by Lesotho Times
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MASERU — The co-ordinator of the Lesotho Opposition Forum, Majara Molapo, resigned on Tuesday citing serious infighting within the opposition group.

The forum is an umbrella body that was formed in 2007 to co-ordinate activities among opposition parties and push for the fair distribution of proportional representation (PR) seats.

Molapo, who is also a senior member of the opposition Basotho National Party (BNP), said leaders of the forum were locked in a fierce struggle for power.

He said the power struggles had left the forum virtually paralysed and ineffective.

Molapo blamed All Basotho Convention (ABC) leader Thomas Thabane, the BNP’s Metsing Lekhanya and Marematlou Freedom Party’s Moeketse Malebo for the problems within the group.

“Those three old men are such a closed book whose outer cover can be disastrously misleading,” Molapo said.

“With them you’d think you have purchased a Bible, only to find that you have purchased a very obsolete and outdated dictionary.”  

Molapo said the opposition leaders could hardly agree on simple issues that came up for discussion.

“It also dawned on me that there were so many antagonistic streams of political thought that showed there was no chemistry between some of the leaders.

“There was just too much back-stabbing and pretence. Being torn asunder by so many groups made my job awfully unpleasant, intolerable and difficult.”

Molapo claimed opposition leaders with a bigger representation in parliament were now undermining the smaller parties following the PR seats debacle.

In his role as co-ordinator, Molapo was the driving force behind the opposition’s quest to have the PR seats resolved amicably.

He was the link between the government, opposition parties and the Christian Council of Lesotho (CCL) which is arbitrating in the seats dispute.

Molapo said matters came to a head when he differed with the three opposition leaders on the form of the ballot paper that should be used in the 2012 elections.

He said he had also differed with the leaders on the status of the leader of the opposition in parliament.

The government has since 2007 refused to recognise Thabane as leader of the opposition in parliament arguing the ABC leader does not have the minimum 25 percent of MPs in parliament.

The ABC and the Lesotho Workers Party all had 27 MPs, three short of the minimum requirement.

“I was primarily part of the decision reached that no one is constitutionally entitled to be recognised as leader of the opposition in the present parliament,” Majara said.

“They also had grievances on the inputs I was party to during the redrafting of the CCL progress report on the mediation process.”    

Molapo said he had not shared his decision to quit with his own party’s boss Lekhanya.

“For tactical reasons, I did not share this with him. He and probably some other leaders he is aligned to must be the happiest that I have quit,” Molapo said.

When contacted for comment, Lekhanya said Molapo was as good as “salt that has lost its flavour”.

“I take his resignation as good riddance to bad rubbish. He’s a loose cannon. I’ve no apology to make,” Lekhanya said.

Lekhanya said the BNP was disappointed that Majara had backed the LCD on the single ballot system that it is proposing for the 2012 elections.

The BNP stalwart also accused Popular Front for Democracy leader Lekhetho Rakuoane of being a “rogue element within the opposition movement”.

“Rakuoane is a destabilising factor for the opposition. Molapo along with Rakuoane work very hard to undermine our cause,” Lekhanya alleged.

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