If our politicians spent just a quarter of the time they expend on their xenophobic pursuits debating such critical issues like how to build an industrial economy to create jobs for the youth, how to tackle astronomically high crime rates and how to end endemic poverty, among others, then Lesotho will become a country that Donald Trump actually knows of.
But alas, our politicians always want to spend their energies on crass pettiness, ensuring that Lesotho remains a glorified Bantustan masquerading as a country.
Scrutator holds no scruples against the All Basotho Convention (ABC)’s senior official, Lebohang Hlaele, but his newfound crusade to “protect” Lesotho from naturalised citizens feels like a solution in desperate search of a problem. One would think Ntate Hlaele and his fellow travellers in parliament would be seized with convening forums to discuss how best to tackle unemployment, corruption, or the endemic poverty that mock our modernity. Instead, our learned MPs are hell bent on ensuring that no foreign-born Mosotho sneaks into the State House with chopsticks hidden in their briefcase.
Mr Hlaele has tabled a private member’s bill that bars naturalised citizens from ever touching high offices — from Prime Minister down to Minister, Principal Secretary, Deputy Principal Secretary or even Divisional Director. I have never heard of a private member’s bill tabled by Ntate Hlaele or any of his fellow travellers in the National Assembly or Senate speaking to what the country needs to do to grow economically and industrially. And yet here is a grown man seeking to put in place a patently xenophobic law to exclude naturalised Basotho from partaking in the Kingdom’s economic life?
The bogeyman, apparently, is one Zhenyu Shao, the China-born entrepreneur who once had the audacity to stand for elections. Never mind that Mr Shao – a naturalised Mosotho – never came close to becoming an MP, let alone Prime Minister; the mere sight of his name on a ballot paper seems to have sparked in Mr Hlaele a constitutional panic attack of volcanic proportions.
It is a peculiar kind of patriotism that burns with fury at the possibility of a foreign-born Mosotho rising through democratic means, yet yawns at the daily plunder by native-born Basotho leaders. After all, who bankrupted Lesotho’s economy? Who looted state tenders? Who abandoned court judgments to gather dust? Who is thieving daily at the expense of the poor? Not the naturalised citizens, but the so-called “sons of the soil.”
Scrutator is left to wonder: is “indigenousness” now a qualification superior to competence, ethics, and vision? Shouldn’t we rather be worried about whether our leaders are honest, not whether they can trace their umbilical cord to Thaba-Bosiu? If birth certificates are all it takes to guarantee integrity, then Lesotho should already be paradise — a Switzerland in the mountains. Instead, it is what it is: a land of eternal crisis and perennial squalor, governed exclusively by the indigenous.
Perhaps Mr Hlaele’s bill will pass, and Lesotho will be protected forever from the grave danger of “foreigners” bringing in new ideas, discipline, or efficiency. But until then, Scrutator can only sigh: in a country where naturalised citizens have never stolen a cent of public funds, it is indeed poetic that they, not the native crooks, should be constitutionally barred from office.
And what’s the point of naturalizing foreigners into becoming citizens if after naturalisation, they are going to be excluded from all viable economic life.
What shall it ever take for the likes of Ntate Hlaele to realize that without skilled foreigners who can bring capital, ideas, good governance skills and competence, our beloved Lesotho will remain nothing but a baracloo of textile slaves?
Doesn’t Ntate Hlaele know that the greatest and wealthiest country on earth – the United States of America – was built on immigration. Contrary to belief, even the SOAB, Donald Trump, likes immigrants. Only that he likes immigrants from Norway, Denmark, France and elsewhere and not those from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Sudan, Zimbabwe and any such failed states.
Ntate Hlaele, allow me to engage you directly. Have you ever heard of the name Arnold Swarzenegger? This was a mere bodybuilder from Austria who migrated to the United States and ended up as Governor of the great State of California. Have you ever heard of Elon Musk? He is a serial entrepreneur who was born in Benoni, some even allege he was born in Khubetsoana. He was welcomed in the United States where he built a great company called Tesla that has now made him the richest man in the world.
So you tell me Ntate Hlaele, if Elon Musk decided to migrate to Lesotho and naturalise, would you want him barred from becoming Minister of Technology – and from catapulting this God forsaken Kingdom to the heights of prosperity? Under your demented law, the answer is obviously yes. You want the likes of Musk to be barred? Yet Musk can migrate to the USA and, apart from running his business, even serve as a Minister of Government Efficiency in the world’s most prosperous country. Should anyone therefore wonder why Lesotho will remain a Bantustan or a growth point of a country?
Have you ever heard of one Rishi Sunak Ntate Hlaele. He emigrated all the way from India and ended up becoming Prime Minister of the great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Even Trump himself is a migrant from Scotland but now occupies the Oval Office, the most powerful office on earth.
What’s wrong Ntate Hlaele if a naturalised but competent Prime Minister Zhenyu Shao is the one to deliver Lesotho to the promised land? What’s wrong if a naturalised Zhenyu Shao is the one to bring us the prosperity and the good governance that has remained elusive since 1966? Would you rather have a Prime Minister Hlaele, Machesetsa, Mapesela or even Lipholo to continue with the tradition of mass looting simply because they were born in the mountains? What has this country ever gained from its long line of indigenous Prime Ministers? Tell us Ntate Hlaele. Why do you want to keep us as the laughing stock of the world? What the hell is wrong with you, Ntate Hlaele? Why are you neglecting your brain? What are you smoking or sniffing through your wide nostrils? Ntate Hlaele.
Your obsession with “indigenous leadership” is the kind of political theatre that makes you wonder whether Parliament has turned into a circus or a xenophobic support group.
Apparently, according to you, the biggest threat to Lesotho is not corruption, not joblessness, not the collapsing health system, not crime — it is the nightmare of a naturalised citizen sneaking into State House. One can almost hear the war drums: “Defend Thaba-Bosiu from the invading birth certificates!”
Ntate Zhenyu Shao never came close to becoming Prime Minister, let alone minister or even MP but in Ntate Hlaele’s imagination, Ntate Shao was already rehearsing a state-of-the-nation address in Mandarin.
Scrutator must ask: since when did nationality become a guarantee of integrity? Have the “sons of the soil” not looted this kingdom enough? It wasn’t a naturalised Mosotho who stole more than M50 million using front companies that never delivered a service? It wasn’t a naturalised Mosotho who left 191 judgments rotting in drawers. It wasn’t a naturalised Mosotho who turned Lesotho into a permanent ward of the European Union and before Trump, American charity. Those honours belong to our home-grown, umbilical-cord-certified “patriots”.
But here we are, debating how to keep “foreigners” from the government, as if incompetence is imported and corruption comes stamped “Made in China.” If passports determined performance, Lesotho would be Switzerland by now — only with more sheep.
Scrutator can’t help laughing at the irony: naturalised citizens are being barred from high office for fear they might one day plunder the country. The tragedy is that the plundering has already been perfected by indigenous Basotho, who need no lessons from outsiders.
If Mr Hlaele’s bill succeeds, future generations can rest easy knowing that no foreigner will ever lead Lesotho into ruin. That, my fellow citizens, will remain the sacred duty of our very own Basotho.
Ntate Hlaele’s “defend-the-nation” crusade against naturalised citizens is proof that when Basotho politicians run out of ideas, they reach for the nearest foreign scapegoat.
In Ntate Hlaele’s warped imagination, the greatest existential threat to Lesotho is not unemployment, not collapsing hospitals, not potholes large enough to swallow taxis whole — no, it is the mortal danger of a naturalised Mosotho daring to become Prime Minister. Imagine that! A foreign-born citizen stealing the throne from the seasoned crooks who have already perfected the art of ruining this country since independence.
In Ntate Hlaele’s fevered imagination, Ntate Shao was already redecorating State House with dragons and lanterns the moment Ntate Shao announced his bid to become MP. One would be forgiven for thinking Ntate Shao had campaigned on a manifesto of turning Thaba-Bosiu into Chinatown. Yet that was never the case. As a patriotic naturalised Mosotho, all Ntate Shao wanted to do was serve his country of naturalisation and see its prospects improve. That is the wish of every naturalised citizen. No one naturalises to see their adopted country go under.
Please Ntate Hlaele, show us one naturalised Mosotho who has done anything wrong?
Every heist, every scandal, every national embarrassment since 1966 has been home-grown, 100% indigenous by indigenous Basotho.
If “indigenousness” were a measure of competence, Lesotho would be Dubai by now. Instead, we are a country where the only thing local leaders manufacture reliably is poverty. But fear not — Ntate Hlaele’s bill will make sure that only real Basotho continue the noble tradition of plunder, incompetence, and endless coalition chaos.
So yes, dear citizens, sleep peacefully. With Ntate Hlaele’s law, Lesotho will never, ever be destroyed by foreigners. That solemn privilege will forever remain in the safe, greasy hands of your very own indigenous leaders.
After all, since 1966 when the British packed their bags and left, ruining this country has been our leaders’ full time job. Ntate Hlaele wants that tradition to continue.
He wants Lesotho to be protected from naturalised citizens, while indigenous crooks continue to run the buffet.
The sad thing is that Ntate Hlaele’s Bill is receiving bi-partisan support. The only thing that local politicians agree on is xenophobia. They want only the “sons of the soil” or “real Basotho” to continue enjoying the privilege of stealing your future. But facts are facts.
Without good foreigners with the money to invest, the brains to start and run viable companies, and to assist in ensuring government efficiency, our beloved Kingdom will remain an impoverished Bantustan.
Ache!!!
