MASERU — Opposition leaders have reacted angrily to Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili’s attack, in which he called on opposition leaders to retire.
Mosisili said he was surprised that certain opposition leaders wanted him to step down, when they were much older than him.
All Basotho Convention (ABC) party leader, Thomas Thabane, labelled Mosisili’s speech “scandalous”.
“Mosisili’s speech is scandalous to say the least,” Thabane said.
“In any democratic dispensation a leader has to be limited to no more than two terms in office.
“There has to be a limit and Mosisili is misled to think we refer to him as a person.”
Thabane said he had moved a motion in parliament to limit the prime minister’s tenure to two terms “but the LCD met the proposal with aggression”.
“I moved a motion of two terms for each leader occupying government office. But the LCD met the motion with so much aggression and resistance. It is one of the reasons why I resolved to desert the party.”
“For one leader to occupy office longer than necessary leads to failure. The situation currently reigning in Lesotho is a clear indication that we are being led by a tired leadership. The pace of service delivery has declined dramatically. Even if it was not Mosisili at the helm of power I would still insist that such a leader retire,” Thabane said.
Thabane said it was worrying that Mosisili “has resorted to taking everything we say personally”.
“It is extremely worrying that Mosisili takes everything we say personally. It is high time he realised that we don’t always necessarily refer to him as a person. When one holds government office, he is no longer the leader of his party alone but the nation in general,” Thabane said.
Marematlou Freedom Party, Moeketse Malebo, said Mosisili’s statements show that he is lost.
“He doesn’t know which way to go. We gave him the opportunity at the beginning of the seventh parliament to do the right thing but he failed,” Malebo said.
The visibly annoyed Malebo said although he commended Mosisili for winning elections thus qualifying him for government office “he had no right to steal seats which belonged to other parties”.
“I commend him for winning elections and qualifying for office. But he had no right to steal other parties’ seats. He had only one seat. Now there’s no way of escaping other than relinquishing those seats to their rightful parties.
“I am both mentally and physically stronger than he’ll ever be. I can even run and see much clearer than him. He keeps on hurling insults at us and complaining because it’s what cry-babies do,” Malebo said.
Basotho National Party (BNP) leader, Metsing Lekhanya, said Mosisili was trying to duck the real issue at stack.
“He knows for a fact that this country’s constitution talks about the MMP model instead of parallel. He is just playing games with our intellect,” Lekhanya said.
“He cannot look us in the face. How does he expect us to discuss the way forward when he cannot even look us in the face and discuss the PR issue?” Lekhanya said.
He said Mosisili was very much aware of the fact that the seventh parliament was illegal “which makes it null and void”.
“He is aware that the seventh parliament is non-existent. He has entangled himself in a web and has no way out. He should just find a smooth exit and bow out gracefully.”
“Age is irrelevant. But if he wants to make an issue out of it, I would say unlike him we are mature enough to try to leave Basotho a healthy political legacy. Young as he is, he is power hungry,” Lekhanya said.
He denied that the opposition’s performance was dismal at the polls and took a swipe at Mosisili for “deliberately stifling us”.
“Mosisili is wrong to say our performance at the polls is dismal. We are stifled by him.”
“I am sorry to say it, but he is weak and naïve and looks down on us. I respect him for his position but strongly oppose his attitude towards the opposition.”
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