–criticises his own party for failing voters
–accuses RFP officials of awarding themselves tenders
‘Marafaele Mohloboli and Moroke Sekoboto
THE Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) is losing the plot and digressing from its promises to voters, one of its members of parliament has charged.
The RFP’s MP for Abia constituency, Thuso Makhalanyane, said the party was not appointing people to key positions on merit. Some senior party officials were hiring their relatives into key parastatal board positions at the expense of people with merit, he charged. Others were busy getting government tenders for themselves while not much was being done to address the plight of ordinary people.
Mr Makhalanyane spoke in the wake of the appointment of two Revolution For Prosperity (RFP) founding members, Ntšiuoa Sekete and Matete ‘Nena, to plum diplomatic jobs.
The MP said the appointments – at least one of them – proved the party had deviated from its pledge to appoint people on merit. He accused officials he did not name of hijacking Prime Minister Sam Matekane’s vision.
Ms Sekete is Lesotho’s new ambassador-designate to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. She will also serve as the country’s permanent representative to the African Union. Mr ‘Nena has been appointed as Lesotho’s new ambassador to the United Nations in New York.
He leaves his post as the Director: Asia and Pacific in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations. Postings to the UN in New York are any diplomat’s dream job. Ms Sekete’s post is also a plum diplomatic posting as she will be based in Addis Ababa, the seat of continental diplomacy. She contested in the Lebakeng constituency under the RFP banner but lost to the Democratic Congress’s in the 7 October 2022 elections.
Mr Makhalanyane said while he and other RFP MPs were fine with Ms Sekete, they were not happy with Mr ‘Nena, whom he described as incompetent. He said many RFP members of parliament had complained about ‘Nena’s appointment because he was absolutely not up to scratch in terms of his competence levels. But their concerns had not been heeded by the party’s national executive committee (NEC).
The two new diplomats were commissioned at the Royal Palace yesterday by His Majesty King Letsie III.
“His Majesty King Letsie III has commissioned Ms Sekete as the new Ambassador of Lesotho to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union while the Director Asia and Pacific in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations, Matete ‘Nena, is the Ambassador to the United Nations,” reads a statement issued by the government yesterday.
“Mr ‘Nena is an experienced diplomat, who rose through all the diplomatic ranks in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations, to the position of Director Asia and the Pacific Realm. He has served both locally and abroad.
“Ms Sekete is an outstanding media practitioner whose public relations record spans over 20 years. A staunch Pan Africanist whose career began with Lesotho Television and recently was a Senior Media and Communications Officer, for the Pan African Parliament (PAP) in Midrand, Republic of South Africa,” The statement said.
His Majesty wished the duo well in their new assignments, ordering them to represent Lesotho with humility and dignity.
“We aspire to strengthen relations between Lesotho and other countries of the world, therefore, we trust that you will represent us well,” His Majesty said.
While Ms Sekete was said to a better bet, that was definitely not the case with Mr ‘Nena who Mr Makhalanyane described as a career diplomat with nothing to show for his many years of service.
“We have talked about this issue of Mr ’Nena before and rejected it. Our position (as MPs) has always been that, in as much as ambassadorial posts are political, we will not be awarding them in that fashion but on merit.
“There are a lot of people who helped the RFP win elections and who are better qualified than ‘Mr ‘Nena and one wonders why they were not picked.
“He (‘Nena) has been to the embassies for six years in previous governments, but he has failed dismally. He is not the only one. There is another one by the name of Jafeta, who is also going to be appointed. He has also served in the foreign missions for six years and has failed as well. One wonders why these people are made to leave their permanent and pensionable positions in government and then awarded diplomatic posts which could be granted to more deserving and qualified people,” charged Mr Makhalanyane.
“No one is talking about the voters down there, they are neglected. We are tired of people who are busy hiring their relatives into the parastatal boards. Someone somewhere, has hijacked the leader (Sam Matekane)’s vision, because these issues have been deliberated on in all the party platforms but all in vain.
“There are no developments at all on the ground. Our (RFP) people are busy with their own contracts. You see them all over where there are new bridges that are being built. They are there because their companies are sub-contracted. Seemingly no one cares because our advises seem to be falling on deaf ears.”
Efforts to get a comment from the RFP were fruitless as both the party spokesperson Mr Mokhethi Shelile and his deputy Mr Thabo Maretlane’s phones went unanswered at the time of going to print last night.
But Mr Makhalanyane’s withering criticism will certainly resonate with those who worry that the RFP is being slow in addressing real bread and butter issues, in addition to other vices such as spiralling crime.
