Billy Ntaote
DEMOCRATIC Congress (DC) leader, Pakalitha Mosisili, has urged Prime Minister Thomas Thabane to do “the honourable thing” by reopening Parliament tomorrow “as expected”.
Dr Mosisili, who was succeeded by Dr Thabane in June 2012 after 15 years as Lesotho prime minister, was speaking during a press conference held at a local hotel on Monday this week following a crisis meeting attended by 72 of the country’s 120 Members of Parliament (MPs).
The MPs sought to “strategise” how to put pressure on Dr Thabane to reopen the National Assembly on 19 September 2014, in line with an agreement brokered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) early this month.
According to the deal, the All Basotho Convention (ABC) leader was expected to lift Parliament’s nine-month suspension he imposed on 10 June 2014, by the 5th of this month, and immediately announce 19 September as the August House’s reopening date.
But while Dr Thabane has lifted the prorogation, he has refused to open Parliament citing lack of security due to the refusal by Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli to leave office following his sacking as Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) commander late last month.
Dr Thabane fired Lt Gen Kamoli on 29 August for alleged insubordination and replaced him with Lt Gen Maaparankoe Mahao, but the former has refused to leave office, insisting his removal was illegal.
And to compound the security situation, LDF members raided three key Maseru police stations on the morning of 30 August “to seize illegal firearms”, and Dr Thabane, who had fled the country for South Africa the previous night, called the army action an attempted coup by Lt Gen Kamoli.
However, the legislators, alongside Dr Mosisili, on Monday accused Dr Thabane of fabricating the coup to justify Parliament’s continued closure, yet the real reason why he cannot have it reopened is his fear that MPs would revive their bid to pass a no-confidence vote in his leadership.
In March this year, Basotho Batho Democratic Party (BBDP) leader, Jeremane Ramathebane, proposed the no-confidence motion after accusing Dr Thabane of alleged maladministration, and nominated Dr Mosisili as his replacement. Mr Ramathebane’s proposal was seconded by the Makhaleng constituency MP, Mootsi Lehata, of the DC.
On Monday, the MPs—from the DC, National Independent Party (NIP), Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP), Basotho Congress Party (BCP), Lesotho People’s Congress (LPC), BBDP, Progressive Democrats (PD) and Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), which formed a coalition government with the ABC and Basotho National Party (BNP) two years ago but has since fallen out with its two partners over Dr Thabane’s alleged autocratic leadership — took turns to lambast Dr Thabane for his “lack of honesty and failure to honour regional agreements” on the reopening of Parliament.
The parliamentarians later told a press briefing that they intended to collectively write a letter to SADC informing the regional bloc that the “sole source of Lesotho’s problems” was Dr Thabane, and in particular, his alleged disrespect for mediators in the conflict between him and LCD leader, Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing.
Mr Metsing has also been calling for the reopening of Parliament, with the opposition MPs and some LCD legislators openly announcing over recent weeks, that they would oust Dr Thabane through a no-confidence vote once Parliament reconvenes.
In his address to the media soon after Monday’s meeting, Dr Mosisili said once opened tomorrow, the expectation was that Parliament would “do its job”.
Dr Mosisili added, with some sarcasm: “If this marriage of the ABC, LCD and BNP is dissolved, Parliament will decide who should be the prime minister. It doesn’t mean when one was married before, they can’t tie the knot again and have a successful marriage. But for that to happen, Parliament should be opened first.
“I believe once Parliament is opened, some of the issues that need to be dealt with as a matter of urgency are constitutional amendments informed by recommendations from the New Zealand study tour (which was undertaken by a group of Lesotho MPs, senior civil servants, and members of civil society from June 28-4 July this year).
“We need to have constitutional reforms and amendments to other laws. When we formed this coalition government, it seems our country did not have the relevant laws to support this form of government. All we had was this constitutional provision that we could have a coalition of parties forming a government but not how it would operate.”
Dr Mosisili also complained that the on-going negotiations being facilitated by SADC, which seek to diffuse the country’s political instability, were being held without representatives of “a large portion” of Lesotho society.
“We feel that a large representation of the Lesotho population is being left out of these mediation efforts aimed at ending the differences between the coalition government partners. We, as MPs, are not playing a role in the mediation, which is why Parliament should be opened for us to be also involved in finding a lasting solution to this country’s current problems.
“Ntate Thabane should let the House do its job of deciding who should lead Lesotho, and for this to happen, he must ensure Parliament is opened on 19 September.”
Tlohang Sekhamane, who was among the MPs at Monday’s meeting, later read a statement to the media, which he said had been signed by all the 74 legislators in attendance. In the statement, the MPs accused Dr Thabane of failing to honour an agreement he signed in Windhoek, Namibia, on 31 July 2014 alongside Mr Metsing and BNP deputy leader Joang Molapo, where the premier had agreed to open Parliament by August 14.
“When Ntate Thabane returned from Windhoek, he did not say or mention anything about Parliament reopening,” said Mr Sekhamane, who is the DC MP for Mokhotlong and was government secretary during Dr Mosisili’s rule.
“Ntate Thabane later went to the SADC heads of state and government summit (held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, from 17 – 18 August 2014) where he committed himself to reopen Parliament but upon his return, he did nothing to honour this pledge.
“The same man was in Pretoria two weeks ago, where he promised to end Parliament’s prorogation and reopen it by 19 September, but he has only lifted the suspension and refuses to reconvene it. He has failed to honour the Pretoria agreement in its entirety under the false pretence that there is a security problem in this country.”
Mr Sekhamane added the MPs were “appalled by the prime minister’s actions, which have caused this instability in the coalition government. If you remove one man from the equation, all the problems of this country would be resolved.”
The MPs also called on Dr Thabane to “stop meddling in the affairs of institutions that support good governance and democracy”.
The statement, as read by Mr Sekhamane, continued: “We saw him dismissing Chief Justice Mahapela Lehohla, and then he went for the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Michael Ramodibedi.
“Now he has removed the Director of Public Prosecutions and Attorney General although their cases are still pending in the courts of law. He used the police to forcefully evict the two men from their offices, which was not called for considering their standing in society.”
The MPs also noted to have the South African Police Service (SAPS) providing Dr Thabane’s security was a “disgrace”. The premier has been under SAPS protection since he returned home on the third of this month after fleeing the country on 28 August 2014, claiming fired Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) Commander, Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli was out to capture him and stage a coup.
“It is not right; in-fact, it is a shame that our own prime minister is being guarded on our own soil by foreigners.
“We are now abusing our scarce resources to pay for the upkeep of high-ranking South African police officers and their highly trained sniffer dogs. This undermines our independence as a sovereign state,” the MPs noted.
According to the statement, Lesotho was left with a “huge bill” to pay after a similar intervention by South Africa in the wake of political disturbances in 1998.
“I fear that the same is going to happen again this time around. That is why we are calling on the prime minister to move fast and ask the South Africans to leave, lest this country will be saddled with a huge bill when all this is over.”
