. . . Mochoboroane advises pro-Majoro ABC MPs to support Kabi to secure their political future
Bongiwe Zihlangu
MOVEMENT for Economic Change (MEC) leader, Selibe Mochoboroane, has called on Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro to vacate the premiership and make way for newly elected All Basotho Convention leader, Nkaku Kabi.
Once he steps aside, Dr Majoro should form his own political party if he wants to continue heading the government, Mr Muchoboroane said this week.
It was also prudent for ABC legislators who are aligned to Dr Majoro’s faction to dump the premier and support Mr Kabi “to secure their political future”, he said.
Mr Mochoboroane, who is also the Development Planning minister in the Dr Majoro-led government said this in an interview with the Lesotho Times this week.
Dr Majoro’s refusal to step down for Mr Kabi had created a political crisis and compromised ABC MPs’ political futures, he said.
The MEC leader said as a matter of principle, Dr Majoro should form his own party with its own MPs if he wanted to remain premier. For now, he must cede the premiership to Mr Kabi who is now the leader of the ABC after being elected in January this year.
Mr Kabi beat Dr Majoro in the race to replace the ABC’s founding leader, Thomas Thabane.
Mr Mochoborane said it was only prudent for the DC to engage with the new ABC leader and find common ground in the run-up to the elections expected this September. The current statusquo has created a political crisis.
Mr Muchoboroane spoke after Mr Kabi declared that his party had withdrawn from government last week. In an interview this week Mr Kabi told the Lesotho Times his party’s withdrawal from the coalition with the DC meant the “government had effectively collapsed”.
In the same interview, Mr Kabi also accused the DC of fanning divisions in his party by electing to work with Dr Majoro who he said had resigned from the ABC’s national executive committee (NEC) to avoid accounting to the party.
In the weeks leading to the ABC’s eventual purported withdrawal from government, Mr Kabi and other political players such as Alliance of Democrats (AD) leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Monyane Moleleki had been calling on Dr Majoro to step down and “allow the rightful ABC leader to assume the premiership”.
Mr Kabi leads an ABC faction comprising 16 MPs while Dr Majoro commands the support of 18 of the party’s 34 MPs.
Mr Mochoboroane insisted that Dr Majoro must vacate the prime minister’s office.
In fact, if Dr Majoro is a genuine ABC member, he should leave his party’s leader to ascend into the prime minister’s office. If he is no longer interested in being a member of the ABC, then he must form his own party, said the MEC leader.
“Currently we are just watching a political game unfolding, where the party with the majority numbers in parliament is exercising its democratic right to ensure that the new ABC leader assumes the premiership as is a tradition that the leading party heads the government,” Mr Mochoboroane said.
“In as much as I am minister in Dr Majoro’s government, I believe there are two things he should have done. Firstly, if he is still an ABC member, Dr Majoro should recognise the new leader, step down and leave the premiership to one who was elected by the membership. But, if he does not want to be an ABC member anymore, he should form his own political party as a matter of principle, as that would give him an identity.
“For me, one has a clear identity when he is a leader of a political party. My argument is that MPs are lobbied by leaders of political parties to form a government. You will recall that Dr Majoro was appointed prime minister by those MPs because the ABC leadership endorsed the decision. The fact that he assumed that post was due to influence from the ABC leadership. The DC formed a coalition government with ABC as a result of negotiations with the leadership of that party.”
Mr Mochoboroane also called on the DC to engage with the ABC to forge a way forward.
“As a matter of principle, the honourable thing for the DC would be to engage the ABC leadership to find common ground on which to work going forward. But since it seems that that is not happening, the right thing would be for Dr Majoro to form his own party because he has no intention of stepping down. He should form his own party and lead government with the support of his own MPs,” Mr Mochoroane said.
Dr Majoro’s insistence to stay on as premier, Mr Mochoroane noted, compromised ABC MPs who supported him, as that had dampened their future political prospects.
