We, the majority MPs, have to be heard and people should stop trying to solve the problems of a coalition government which has effectively collapsed. It is like trying to take a dead man to the clinic for treatment, says the outspoken BBDP leader
SEVENTY-TWO legislators from eight political parties gathered at Lesotho Sun Hotel on Monday this week to discuss Prime Minister (PM) Thomas Thabane’s reluctance to reopen Parliament tomorrow as recommended by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Dr Thabane suspended the August House for nine months on 10 June 2014 to avoid a no-confidence vote in his leadership by opposition Members of Parliament (MPs), who accused him of failing to govern, among other alleged transgressions. However, after an outcry from several stakeholders over the prorogation, the PM and his coalition government partners, namely Thesele ‘Maseribane of the Basotho National Party (BNP) and Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) leader, Mothetjoa Metsing, signed a SADC-brokered agreement on 1 September, which committed the All Basotho Convention (ABC) leader to reopen the Parliament on 19 September 2014.
But as of Monday this week, Dr Thabane had remained adamant that he would not reopen the House unless there was absolute security in Lesotho, prompting the legislators’ gathering.
The MPs were from the Democratic Congress (DC), National Independent Party (NIP), Progressive Democrats (PD), Basotho Congress Party (BCP), Marematlou Freedom Party, Lesotho People’s Congress (LPC), Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) and Basotho-Batho Democratic Party (BBDP).
BBDP leader Jeremane Ramathebane, who led the abortive no-confidence move in March this year, was at Monday’s meeting, as was DC leader, former Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili. The MPs are proposing Dr Mosisili to become premier again once they remove Dr Thabane. Dr Mosisili quit the country’s top post in June 2012 after 15 years in power, and after his party had failed to garner the 61-plus seats in the previous month’s general election, for him to remain premier.
In this interview, Mr Ramathebane tells the Lesotho Times (LT) reporter, Lekhetho Ntsukunyane, how the no-confidence proposal came about and what Monday’s meeting was all about.
LT: The vote-of-no-confidence motion you sought to move against the prime minister and his government in March this year is said to be the reason why there is this political and security tension in Lesotho at the moment. How do you respond to this?
Ramathebane: The decision to move the motion against Ntate Thabane and the coalition government came after I had assessed and realised that the partnership was souring by the day and that there was no clear vision about where they were leading this country to. I also suspected again that Ntate Thabane was no longer being supported by the majority in parliament, as required by the constitution for him to remain prime minister. It was my right to initiate the motion having made this assessment. There are many other reasons why I initiated the no-confidence motion, but I will not mention them now as this matter is now before the courts, so it is sub–judice.
LT: What was the reaction of the prime minister following this?
Ramathebane: He tried everything he could to ensure my motion was not tabled in the National Assembly for debate because I think he also had a feeling the majority was going to vote him out. Mind you, just around that time, two of his ABC MPs, namely Mophato Monyake and Thabiso Litšiba, had quit the party. Monyake decided to go independent, while Litšiba joined the DC. After losing the two MPs, the coalition government now had 59 seats in parliament, instead of the minimum 61 as required by the law. This development meant the coalition could not legally remain in power. After the motion, I found myself being arrested for an offence I had allegedly committed eight years ago. I was preparing to leave my home in Mohale’s Hoek for parliament, when the police showed up to arrest me.
LT: What happened next?
Ramathebane: Ntate Thabane went on to prorogue parliament for nine months on 10 June, thereby avoiding the motion. He later made all sorts of ruthless decisions, among them forcing the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Attorney General (AG) to retire. He continued on his crusade and attempted to dismiss the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) Commander, Lieutenant General (Lt. Gen) Tlali Kamoli and replace him with Brigadier Maaparankoe Mahao, who is facing charges before a court martial. You see, Ntate Thabane is trying to shake-up all these departments so that he can have absolute power to rule this country as he pleases, and not according to the law of this land and the needs of the public. He fled the country to seek asylum in South Africa on 29 August 2014, saying there was an attempted coup in Lesotho when there was nothing of the sort. He only did this to shift focus from reopening the Parliament. Remember the reason why he does not want Parliament reopened is because he is running away from the vote-of-no-confidence. He staged all this simply to attract the attention of the international community, and make it appear as if there is instability in Lesotho. His excuse now for not reopening the parliament is that the issue of security needs to be addressed first.
LT: Are you saying what happened on the morning of 30 August 2014, when members of the LDF raided three police stations in Maseru, resulting in the death of one police officer, was not an attempted coup d’état as was later reported by the Prime Minister?
Ramathebane: Not at all. There was never an attempted coup in this country. That operation was clearly explained by the army as an exercise to disarm some elements in the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) after there was disturbing information that they were going to handover weapons to some people who would cause chaos during a street protest that had been organized by the LCD on 1 September in Maseru, to protest the continued prorogation of Parliament. Indeed those weapons were found in the police stations and the army displayed them to the media as proof. But Ntate Thabane ran to South Africa and reported to SADC that the army was after him and his coalition partners in an attempt to overthrow him. How ridiculous of the prime minister! There was no such thing as the LDF commander going to State House in the early hours of 30 August, looking for him with the intention to overthrow the government as Ntate Thabane has been saying. If the commander needs to meet with the prime minister, he won’t even have to look for him because he knows his whereabouts all the time. That is his duty.
LT: You say all is well in this country as far as security is concerned yet we see the prime minister now under the guard of the South African police. Isn’t this a contradiction on your part?
Ramathebane: You are forgetting to mention the highly trained sniffer dogs. Ntate Thabane is not only being protected by the South African police but also highly trained sniffer dogs. It is an expensive breed, so we are told. Look, during the so-called attempted coup, the police suspended services under the excuse that they were being targeted by the army for attack. Judicial services were also suspended and we were told that was because the police were not on duty, as if court services rely entirely on the police presence or its services. The Executive was dysfunctional. In other words, there was no government. But while all this took place, peace reigned throughout the country. There were no riots. Private businesses continued without interruption. But when our prime minister came back from exile, we now saw him being guarded by the South Africans. The consequences of this are a huge bill for the government of Lesotho. These high-ranking South African police officers protecting Ntate Thabane are being accommodated in top hotels in our country. The bills are payable by the Lesotho government while, on the other hand, we hear some public servants might not receive their salaries this month due to lack of funds.
LT: As legislators, what has been your role to prevent this?
Ramathebane: This union (of 72 MPs) you see here today is the beginning of the end of all this. It is a unity so strong no one can break it, even if that person was to sue an assault rifle. Together, as we are now, Ntate Thabane will not defeat us. We are determined to put an end to this entire dispute.
LT: You say the MPs met for a single purpose, which is to pressurise the premier to reopen Parliament on 19 September. But exactly what do you intend to do once it is reopened?
Ramathebane: We believe once the Parliament is reopened, all these issues causing problems in our country will be resolved by the people of Lesotho themselves. We are representatives of many Basotho in Parliament. They tell us what we should discuss in Parliament. We don’t necessarily need guidance from international organs while Basotho are here to resolve them on their own. But it becomes a problem when there is no proper platform to discuss this if Parliament remains closed. We say open the Parliament and see how Basotho want to be governed.
LT: After King Letsie III lifted Parliament’s suspension on 5 September, it remains closed to this day. Based on the law, what do we call this period when it is not operative yet the prorogation was lifted?
Ramathebane: We take it as if the Parliament is closed sine die, meaning its closure is indefinite. In this regard, the law stipulates that if the majority of MPs come together like this and call for its reopening, the onus lies with the Leader of the House, the Speaker and Clerk to open the Parliament. We are here to prove to the nation that indeed, the MPs who want Parliament reopened on 19 September, constitute the majority. We, the majority MPs, have to be heard and people should stop trying to solve the problems of a coalition government which has effectively collapsed; a government which does not exist anymore. It is like trying to take a dead man to the clinic for treatment.
