Lekhetho Ntsukunyane
THE main opposition Democratic Congress (DC) has dismissed allegations of fierce infighting within the party over the upcoming parliamentary elections.
According to reliable sources, the DC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) is divided over two issues — Monyane Moleleki’s continued deputy leadership of the party in light of his illness and going to the snap election with All Basotho Convention (ABC) leader, Thomas Thabane as prime minister.
“Right now, debate is raging over the two issues, with some of the NEC members asking if Mr Moleleki would be strong enough to lead party campaigns since he is recovering from cancer,” the sources told the Lesotho Times.
“The issue of resources is also troubling the DC leadership, with fears that, because some of the aspiring MPs would not have adequate funds, the party might not realise the 41 constituency and seven proportional seats it garnered in 2012, when it had the advantage of state resources because it was in power then,” added the sources.
However, a member of the NEC, Tlohang Sekhamane, yesterday dismissed the allegations as baseless.
“Those are fabrications intended to bring the DC’s name into disrepute ahead of the elections,” said Mr Sekhamane, who is also the Mokhotlong Constituency Member of Parliament (MP).
“You are not the first one to raise the issue; we have also heard the allegations through the grapevine that the DC was trying to push for the elections to be held in their original year of 2017 because the party was not ready.
“But I should refer you to our slogan which says, ‘’Nete ke Thebe. Sechaba ke Poho,’ which simply means, as the DC, our fundamental principle is nothing but the truth. Our slogan instills the truth in what we do or say. It adds we get our mandate from the people; Sechaba ke Poho.
“Having said that, our leaders have signed the Maseru Facilitation Declaration, which is the guiding tool to the February 2015 elections. There is no doubt whatsoever, that as the DC, we are more than ready for those elections. It is not true at all that we are trying to push for a delay of the elections. Infact, the DC, through our leader Ntate (Pakalitha) Mosisili, has always maintained that the Ntate Thabane-led coalition government would not last its five-year term following its establishment in 2012. So we had always anticipated that we would go for early elections because the government would collapse before the end of its term.”
However, Mr Sekhamane also told the Lesotho Times that some of the sitting DC MPs “held the view that it was rather expensive to go for the snap elections when all we should have done was to remove Ntate Thabane and nominate someone to replace him.”
He added: “Actually, you will recall that there is an alliance of 72 MPs, and I am the spokesperson of that alliance. We have always said as the majority in parliament, we no longer have confidence in Ntate Thabane. We have said that we are ready to nominate, from among ourselves, the next prime minister.
“The purpose of going to elections is to elect new MPs who will ultimately appoint a prime minister. But we are saying there is no need to take that route because it is expensive, and we still have MPs whose five-year term has not lapsed. All we need is a change of the prime minister, which we can do the cheaper way – simply nominating a replacement. We need about M300 million to conduct the elections, so why waste this kind of money when there is a cheaper way?”
Mr Sekhamane further dismissed allegations that there was a dispute over Mr Moleleki’s position in the party.
“It is not true that because Ntate Moleleki was ill with cancer, the DC intended to replace him. In fact, that suggestion is insulting to our party.
“Ntate Moleleki has fully recovered from his illness and there is absolutely no need to even think that he might want to relinquish his position in the NEC.”
