. . . accuses TRC and NUL of doing the opposition’s bidding ahead of elections
Lekhetho Ntsukunyane
PRIME Minister Pakalitha Mosisili has launched a withering attack on the Transformation Resource Centre (TRC) and the National University of Lesotho (NUL), accusing both institutions of doing the opposition’s bidding ahead of Saturday’s National Assembly elections.
Dismissing the TRC as a “political party in another name” and NUL as an “improper academic institution led by politicians” the premier says the two bodies were openly delving in politics at the expense of their mandates.
Dr Mosisili, who leads the Democratic Congress (DC) party, said this in an interview with the Lesotho Times early this week on the sidelines of the joint DC and Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) rally in Ha Foso.
The rally was held to drum up support for the two parties ahead of Saturday’s National Assembly elections.
Basotho will go to the polls on Saturday for the third time in five years after the tenure of Dr Mosisili’s seven-party governing coalition prematurely ended due to a 1 March 2017 parliamentary no-confidence vote sponsored by four opposition parties.
Dr Mosisili spoke out for the first time over the bitter wrangle between the DC on one side and NUL, TRC and other civil society organisations ahead of the watershed polls.
The TRC and NUL have been organising debates for political parties in the run up to Saturday’s polls of which the DC was invited along with its governing counterpart LCD.
The NUL debate was held on 18 May 2017 in Maseru.
The opposition All Basotho Convention (ABC), Basotho National Party (BNP) and Alliance of Democrats (AD) had also been invited to debate on the themes of education, the economy and unemployment, rule of law in a democracy, service delivery and local governance as well as professionalism in the public service.
While the other parties sent their representatives to participate in the debate, NUL Vice-Chancellor Nqosa Mahao announced that the DC had rejected the invitation “for a number of reasons”, without elaborating.
Last Friday, the DC, LCD, ABC, AD, BNP, Reformed Congress of Lesotho (RCL) and Movement for Economic Change (MEC) were invited to participate in a debate at ’Manthabiseng National Convention Centre by the TRC.
All the parties, except the DC participated in the debate which delved on the themes of the economy and unemployment, as well as the rule of law in a democracy.
Asked last Friday why the DC had not attended the debate, TRC Programmes Director Tsikoane Peshoane blamed Prime Minister Mosisili’s Political and Economic Adviser, Fako Likoti, saying he influenced the DC to boycott the debate despite the TRC and the party having worked harmoniously in constituency forums.
Mr Peshoane said Dr Likoti had “persistently interfered” in the preparations for the event.
However, in responding to a question from this publication this week, Dr Mosisili laid into the TRC, describing it as “a political party in another name”, adding therefore his DC party would not be associated with its activities.
“Those debates are not in any way important to us,” Dr Mosisili said.
“Those are academic issues which are not important to us, particularly when they are organised by TRC. TRC is a political party in another name. What is important to us as the congress movement is the nation.
“Until the TRC becomes a non-governmental organisation and not a political party by another name, we shall not have anything to do with them.”
Dr Mosisili also dismissed NUL as an “improper academic institution led by politicians who masquerade in classrooms as educators”.
The premier said the DC would not attend any activities organised by NUL “until the university becomes a proper academic institution that is not led by politicians masquerading in classrooms as teachers”.
Dr Likoti, who is also a DC activist, last week confirmed in an interview with the Lesotho Times that the DC leadership shunned the NUL debate because the institution’s management was “actively fighting the government”.
Dr Likoti singled out Prof Mahao and Prof Mafa Sejanamane, saying it was “clear to everyone” that the two academics had nailed their colours to the opposition mast.
Meanwhile, Dr Likoti this week backed Dr Mosisili’s claims by penning a detailed response to the Lesotho Times, attacking the TRC as well as the Lesotho Nongovernmental Organisation (LCN) and the Development for Peace Education (DPE).
In the article, Dr Likoti says Lesotho like any pluralistic democracy “has endured a spectre of undemocratic nongovernmental organisations which strive to undermine our hard fought democracy”.
Dr Likoti argues that when Lesotho attained independence in 1966, there were very few NGOs, “but as time went on, their numbers progressively increased”.
“While this growth is impressive for a country that is 50 years old and for the health of our democracy, it would appear that, these important civil society institutions are becoming loose cannons engaging in an unpalatable agenda of undermining our democracy.”
Dr Likoti said the collective role of TRC, LCN and DPE was to influence the policy formation of the government of the day “not to subvert the government of the day and connive with some negative forces or even opposition parties to destabilise the government of the day”.
“The influence function of these interest groups is very important in any democracy. These groups also influence the direction of the state towards a better democratic end. They seek to influence government but not to be part of it. Put differently, to become a formal part of government or the opposition block of parties.”
According to Dr Likoti, since 2012 elections the three NGOs “have been fighting the congress parties by engaging in concerted strategies of de-campaigning them from power. These strategies came to the fore during the 2015 elections. There were serious allegations against these three NGOs to the effect that they were influencing the elections of the ABC and BNP”.
He said during the 2015 election campaigns, the trio employed supporters of these political parties (ABC and BNP) “who conducted house-to-house campaigns under the banner of these organisations”.
“There were various claims that they were recruiting voters on pretext that they were conducting voter education. During these so-called voter education, they were telling people to vote for nationalists and not congress parties.
“Several reports of these disturbing trends were received about these allegations where the LCN, TRC and DPE staffers were attempting to recruit or demonstrating to voters how to place a tick inside a box of either the ABC or BNP.”
Dr Likoti further accused the three NGOs of conniving with some chiefs to convene rallies where voters were persuaded to vote for these parties in the Mafeteng and Berea districts among others.
“They were always quick to embrace these parties openly and promoting their agenda at every occasion,” he said.
During the current election period, Dr Likoti claimed while trying to change tactics, the three NGOs “have been convening purported constituency debates where candidates of the congress movement were often ridiculed by opposition parties together with the staffer of these partisan organisations”.
“In fact, the purported debates have been a stage where DC members were harassed and ridiculed – the case of Mafeteng, Qalabane constituency being one example.
“All their debates have been geared towards boosting the opposition parties not proper and clean voter education. These are surely not the functions of NGOs which aim to influence public policy but those contrived to promote the opposition.”
Mr Peshoane told the Lesotho Times this week that the three NGOs will be working on a collective response to Dr Mosisili and Dr Likoti “soon after elections”.
For their part, Prof Mahao and Prof Mafa Sejanamane opted not to comment on the allegations.
