Dear Ntate Bothata
A VERY warm welcome to the realm of forming political parties, Lesotho’s ever flourishing “industry”.
It has been a while since I heard that a new political party had been formed in Lesotho (three weeks to be precise).
That is an inordinately long-time to go without a new political party being formed in Lesotho.
I was beginning to think that Basotho are beginning to lose their mojo. Thank God, you have covered that gap. Lebohang Thotanyana has also registered his (I am trying to contact him to get the name) . All well and good.
I ask for forgiveness from those Basotho who contacted me from ‘Marakabei (who were the last to form their party three weeks back) for forgetting the names of their leaders and that of their party. The rate at which political parties are formed in Lesotho is so fast. It’s difficult to keep pace without a secretary to help me keep a record of new parties.
Your – as yet to be named – party has aroused my interest the most, Ntate Bothata.
I am always excited when wealthy individuals form political parties. The fact that you are the only other Mosotho (aside from Ntate Sam), who owns a Maybach is quite fascinating. You have already declared you are so rich that five generations of the Mahlalas will not need to work to make a decent living. All sounds interesting. Since Basotho are easily impressionable, it would immensely help your political cause to get yourself a helicopter as well. The more you can hover over Basotho villages, the more votes you can capture.
The assumption the world over is that when a wealthy person and their cronies form political parties, it is because they have become bored with making money. So, they really want to serve the people. They are not up to opening new avenues for enriching themselves when their wallets are already bursting, the assumption goes.
In America, never even try to seek public office if you are poor.
“Show us that you have made enough dimes for yourself first before we entrust you with our public purses?” Americans often demand of their would be politicians.
If you are poor, how are you going to make us wealthy? Make yourself wealthy first for us to believe your promises to deliver for us? How can you manage a national fiscus when you have never managed a spaza? All that is the philosophy of Americans and it works.
As a result, the only poor Americans ever elected president were Barack Obama and career politician Bill Clinton. But that was all because they were too handsome to resist for American women, who turned out to vote for them in record numbers. The other poor American elected president is the irredeemable moron and SOAB, Donald Trump (my publisher has cautioned me against describing this acronym in full. I have no doubt you have already figured it out). But that was because Trump, a man who has never heard of a country called Lesotho and a King called Letsie 111, a man who has never paid any state or federal taxes, a convicted thief, rapist, and certified scumbag, lied all his way to the White House. Pity America.
However, you will also know Ntate Bothata that the assumption that the wealthy go into politics only to serve has been proved to be a hoax, at least here at home in Lesotho. We had all hoped that Ntate Sam and his cronies would deliver us to prosperity. We thought they were serious about launching a revolution for prosperity. But alas, Ntate Sam’s cronies have been busy lining their pockets and snatching any state assets they can find. And they are not even ashamed of it. Witness Ntate Lebona Lephema’s arrogance in not even bothering to explain to Basotho how he will manage the affairs of Mothae while remaining a cabinet minister of a government with a stake in the same mine? As far as he is concerned, he will relinquish the task to his beloved sons? And we must all believe him. Also witness Ntate Matjato Moteane’s shameless justification of his decision to award to a Consortium, in which his “former” company – Khatleli Tomane Moteane Architects (now renamed Khatleli Tomane Arhitects) is an eminent member, the massive contract to refurbish the Moshoeshoe 1 landing strip (it’s an insult to the global aviation industry to call it an airport). Apparently, as far as Ntate Moteane is concerned, he “exited” his architectural firm when he was appointed minister. And when the decision was made to give the Consortium the lucrative tender by his ministry soon after his appointment, he was all having at the Maseru Golf Club. He therefore had nothing to do with that decision, he opines. Ntate Moteane seems to have convinced himself that we are all children, or idiots who can swallow all his bunkum on this matter without raising our eyebrows. Sadly, for him, we are not. Even if we were to ask him why he spent most of his time at the offices of his “former” company soon after his appointment, he would probably tell us that he was going there numerous times to practice how to put a good signature on the forms to “exit” the company. Because we don’t want any more annoyance from him, we will not bother to ask him any more questions? Save to say, we wait for him to do the honorable thing as recommended by PAC. But he won’t anyway because he knows Ntate Sam is fond of his cronies.
Scrutator will nonetheless give you the benefit of the doubt Ntate Bothata, despite the now proven lie that the wealthy go into politics to serve (thanks to our own Moruo experiment). Your heart appears to be in the right place. Your wrap in this publication last week describing the work of your BMDF shows your empathy for the poor.
By wanting to lead a political party, you have nonetheless opened yourself to scrutiny. The more criticism you are willing to take, the more listening than speaking you are able to do, the more scrutiny you are subjected to, the better your chances of succeeding. After all, if you get constant scrutiny, it means you are a worthwhile politician. Which media outlet would for instance want to bother knowing what Tefo Mapesela and his political “party” (whose name I have forgotten) are doing for instance? Is the “party” even still registered? At least it earned him a PR seat and a salary and living. All good.
Allow me therefore to start by proffering some helpful criticism to you Ntate Bothata.
Firstly, I was not impressed by your initial statements as you moved towards forming your own party. I won’t be rude and accuse you of lying. But I would say you were economical with the truth. Considering that we have been subjected to decades of pilfering, cheating and lying politicians, I did not think it was helpful for you to declare that you would remain in the DC and would not form a party when you knew this was not the case. From the look of things, you had long decided to exit the DC and go your own separate way (by forming your own party). So why lie about it?
Secondly, when a politician decides to form a political party, they often must start with a strong punchline to capture their initial audience. They must summarize their philosophy in crisp, straightforward terms.
Ntate Sam and his cronies were able to con Basotho into believing that they were already too rich to want to venture into government to make more money but only to deliver a revolution for prosperity (aka Moruo) to the poor folks of this country. Aided by their helicopters, Basotho believed them hook, line and sinker. The rest is now history. What’s your own con job, Ntate Bothata?
Now that Basotho know very well that the rich cannot be trusted (thanks to the Moruo conmen), you will need to do a better job explaining how you hope to transform the fortunes of long suffering Basotho. You have huffed and puffed about how you intend to slash the allowances of MPs and foreign trips for politicians and state bureaucrats. What more?
Granted, these are noble symbolic objectives to conscientize politicians on the need for modesty. But how are they going to create the much-needed jobs and transform Lesotho from a rag tag tiny textiles economy into a prosperous, giant industrial powerhouse?
How will slashing an MPs M150 lunch allowance by half to M75 and their fuel allowance by half from M5000 to M2500 going to benefit 2.2 million Basotho? As a businessman, you can do the maths. What significant savings will accrue from these measures?
Let’s suppose your party wins all 80 seats and you persuade all your MPs to be good Samaritans and forgo all their salaries and allowances? Let’s suppose you discontinue all state funded foreign junkets and you save all the money? On my own count, you will be able to save much less than M1 billion annually. So what? How is that measly figure (not to say that it’s not worth serving) going to create real prosperity for 2.2 million Basotho. For goodness sake, we may already be nearly five million Basotho since we have not had a credible census in a while. The last census was a hoax.
Yes, you are right that there is a lot of wastage of government resources in paying our already obese MPs to sleep on the job and get more obese. But I frankly don’t think that slashing MPs allowances is a viable philosophy on which to found a political party. It might even be counterproductive. Those poor MPs who went into politics to earn a living will de-campaign you in their constituencies and if they are popular, you may lose crucial votes. Instead, why not pronounce yourself on a real plan to grow Lesotho’s economy and promise to double the MPs’ wages and allowances. If you really look at it Ntate Bothata, the MPs allowances are trivial compared to regional standards. What decent lunches can an MP as pretty as Mme Matlanyane or Majara buy with a mere M150 to nourish their perfect complexions? The only issue here is that most MPs don’t deserve their allowances because most of them are incompetent. Not because these are a drag on the fiscus.
What we need from you Ntate Bothata is a crisp, well-articulated plan on how you will get Lesotho out of perpetual penury and to work for all her citizens. In a very few words, please explain to us what your economic philosophy/policy is?
If I were you, I would also get a copy of the first Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew’s instructive biography: From Third World to First World. The story of Kuan Yew is not only Economics 101.
It is a basic manual on how to run a country for prosperity.
It proves that a country does not necessarily need abundant natural resources to prosper. It only needs competent leaders. It needs well educated, productive citizens with good entrepreneurial ideas and incorruptible politicians. If a country already has abundant resources like Lesotho, it’s a bonus. It should be on top of the world. Sadly, that hasn’t been the case with our Kingdom.
What Lesotho needs are entrepreneurs who can produce products and services that can be consumed locally and globally. We want politicians who can build durable institutions of democracy. We need citizens who can create global value.
How will you ensure that Lesotho gets such citizenry and not more and more of car wash entrepreneurs Ntate Bothata?
You will learn from Ntate Kuan Yew’s experience that countries that moved from poverty to developed status aggressively pursued education, knowledge and intellectual grit.
Intellectual capital is at the heart of economic growth, industrialization and development.
I am yet to meet a single Mosotho politician who expounds on these simple principles. You have the opportunity to be the first one Ntate Bothata.
You will also know that countries with the most corrupt politicians tend to stagnate more and more. Apart from Lesotho, witness the DRC, both Sudans, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and many others. Zimbabwe remains a tale better forgotten than told.
If I were you, I would have promised to behead all corrupt politicians in Lesotho upon entering the State House. That is a better philosophy and punchline than slashing the already measly M150 lunch allowances.
The least Lesotho needs is more and more politicians looking to sponge off the state, politicians who have never worked in the real economy. How will you block such from ascending? That’s what I want to hear from you. You are lucky to have done well in business Ntate Bothata. So please tell us the real stuff.
If I were you, I would also read and pay attention to the critique of you by columnist Ramahooana Matlosa. Even though the very important column appeared in the moribund 16 page “competition”, that does not make it less important.
Matlosa did a pretty good job in explaining your shortcomings thus far. It’s these kinds of critiques that you must pay attention to if you are to ever succeed.
You also have not done a good job of explaining how different your party will be from the millions others existing in our body politic. Other than your claim(promise) to be a very nice guy, once you are in the State House, you actually have not explained why we should believe you are any different from the other political conmen who continue to plague our country?
My other biggest worry is the inordinate amount of time you have spent praising Ntate Sam. Normally new political parties are formed because of unhappiness with the incumbents.
Your decision to form a party to oppose an incumbent Prime Minister, you are so fond of, is a first in politics. Let’s see how it will pan out for you in the end. Did you perhaps have some kind of deal with Ntate Sam to destabilize the DC? Only time will tell.
Lastly, I can only end this congratulatory but critiquing note by urging you to explain how you will avoid the scourge of infighting that, like cancer, afflicts almost every political organization in Lesotho.
The last thing Scutator wants to hear is the breaking and splitting of your party before you have even decided its name and colours. It would be sad if factionalism starts even before your party is registered just as we saw in Ntate Thotanyana’s party. Worse still if your party splits while on your way to register it?
If a month goes without factionalism in your party after its registration, you would have done exceedingly well. The challenge will then be on keeping it united for another month, then year or years before the next elections.
And now very lastly, you are a successful businessman partly because of your reputation of not dropping a penny to anyone despite your enormous wealth. You are one of very few politicians who is a principled family man, known to not keep numerous nyatsis around like most other politicians.
Except in those instances when you go about distributing shoes to poor Basotho in rural areas through your Foundation, you have a bad reputation for stinginess. That is nonetheless a virtue, not a vice. No one has ever gotten rich from splashing money around like confetti. You look after your resources well for your family, hence your bold statement that five generations of Mahlalas face no prospects of hunger if you drop dead today.
However, politics being politics will require you to loosen your wallets a bit. In Lesotho, it’s all about politics of the stomach. Which explains why the Moruo conmen were able to buy their way to power. You can always recoup your investment when you are in power. It will be foolhardy for me to believe you want power only because you are a nice handsome guy only wanting to serve. Scrutator knows of no stingy man or woman who has ever succeeded in politics. You will have to loosen your purse a bit.
When all is said and done, Scrutator wishes you all the luck in your ambition to become Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister or minister in a post 2027 coalition, should Ntate Sam’s current one last that far. If former British Prime Minister Harold McMillian was right in his prediction that a week is a long time in politics, in Lesotho it is eternity. It cannot be predicted how long Ntate Sam’s coalition will last.
Yours Comradely
Scrutator
p/s Let’s Make Lesotho Great Again (MLGA) Ntate Bothata. Let’s have more Zimbabweans serving us in restaurants, like they do in South Africa, while us Basotho sit and enjoy parsley, caviar and champagne. Let’s put every single Mosotho in a worthwhile job and leave car washes to Nigerians and Congolese. For us to achieve that, we need clear economic ideas, not fancy dreams masquerading as ideas. I anxiously wait to hear more viable ideas from you, Ntate Bothata.
Ache!!!
