Lesotho Teachers Trade Union, 15 July 2014
The 2014 Political Crisis in Lesotho Cde Vuyani Tyhali, Secretary General, Lesotho Teachers Trade Union The Provincial Chair of COSATU Free State The Provincial Secretary of COSATU Free State The delegates attending the provincial international relations meeting Comrades and Friends, The purpose of this paper is that after our discussion, participant will be able to, among others: a) Understand the causes of the political crisis in Lesotho. b) List the parties involved in the political crisis. c) Politics of numbers in parliament as a source of a coup. The causes of Crisis We are honored as Lesotho Teachers Trade Union (LTTU) to be invited to COSATU Free State international relations meeting. We observe that you want to have a feel of Lesotho Politics from the horse's mouth. Before we deal with the Crisis, it will be proper to deal with the economy of Lesotho that defines and determines its Politics. Lesotho is a labour reserve economy dependent on its migrant labour system to South Africa. Employment outside the state is very small. All class forces compete for the control of the state and its resources which are meager too. The size of our national Cake is small (Kuku ea Lesotho e nyane). Hence the stiff competition for its control by various class forces. Lack of a sound economic production in Lesotho has resulted in the emergence of a bureaucratic Petty bourgeoisie. Bureaucratic in nature because it doesn't produce anything but captures the state power in order to accumulate resources. Since 1993 when Lesotho returned to democratic rule under the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP), Lesotho has been planned by crass materialism or corruption. The bureaucratic bourgeoisie has been looking and plundering the national Cake. Cabinet Minister's and Principal Secretaries or Director General's take the lead in the looting of state resources. Control of and access to state resources has been a source of factionalism and lack of internal party democracy in most political parties. The BCP which won elections since 1993 and became the governing political party has given birth to political splinter groups like the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) Lesotho People's Congress (LPC) Basotho Batho Democratic Party (BBDP) the Democratic Congress (DC), and All Basotho Convention (ABC). One of our major political parties was the Basotho National Party (BNP) which gave birth to the following splinter parties - Basotho Democratic National Party (BDNP, / and National independent party (NIP) Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP) which is a monarchist party. There is no ideological difference that is major between these parties. We also have the left represented by their electoral Front the Popular Front for Democracy (PFD) and Trotskyites by the name of Lesotho Workers Party (LWP). Prior and post the 2012 general elections, our local news papers particularly Lesotho Times and Public Eye reported stories of greed and looting of state resources by Cabinet Ministers and their director generals / principal secretaries. It became clear that post the 2012 elections, Lesotho was going to experience political crisis. This problem was compounded by the motives of the Prime Minister and DC leader Pakalitha Mosisili who was not ready to surrender power. On the eve of the 2012 elections, Mosisili the then Minister of Defence and commander in chief of Lesotho Defense force (LDF) promoted Junior Officer of the LDF above their seniors. The DC leadership identified the LDF as a Key instrument to use when defending their loot. Newly promoted LDF commanders are loyal to DC which is the main opposition than the newly elected Coalition Government of Prime Minister ntate Thabane, while the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) is loyal to the prime minister. There is a standoff between our security agencies. The DC leadership motive is to degenerate the LDF into a Self-Protection Unit CSPU) of the DC as against a national army. To counter the DC Political motives in the LDF prior the 2012 general elections, the left approached the then South African High Commissioner Happy Mahlangu to intervene and stop the undue promotions that were carried out in the LDF by the DC government. South African High Commissioners are more powerful than Prime Ministers in Lesotho that's why they become governor generals (GG). GG Mahlangu's intervention stopped the whole sale change of the command structure of the LDF. The results of the 2012 General Elections There was no out right winner of the 2012 general elections. The 2012 general elections produced a hung Parliament with the following seats for each political party, ABC=30, LCD=26, DC=48, BBDP-1, LPC 1, BCP 1, BNP=5, BDNP=1, NIP=2, MFP=1, LWP=1 and the PFD=3. In terms of our Laws, a government is formed from a thresh hold of 61 seats and above. The ABC, LCD and BNP formed a Coalition Government and commanded 61 seats. The DC and BBDP formed an alliance and commanded 49 seats. The BDNP, MFP, NIP, LWP, LPC and PFD formed Blok which supported the government. The Coalition government did not have a Common programmed for the administration of Lesotho. Besides a common programmed, the Coalition government was very shaky. If two minister were not present in parliament on official duty and a motion of no confidence was tabled it would cause trouble in terms of voting. The Crisis The Coalition government of Ntate Thabane is pursuing an Anti-Corruption Policy. Lesotho has a declaration of assets law which has been implemented selectively. Only local government Councilors who are expected to declare their assets while members of Parliament (MPS) do not. The Thabane Coalition Government is pursuing all who have looted our national Purse. All MPS who have looted the national purse ganged up against the Coalition Government for its anti graft Policy. Thieves-Amasela-Masholu in Parliament from the DC, LCD and ABC mooted the motion of no-confidence in Parliament. This was a democratic coup. Its interventions were that should the coup succeed, the prime minister that will emerge will not pursue the looters in the law courts and they will be free to keep and eat their loot. The Politics of Numbers in Parliament Threatened by investigations the DC using small parties like the BBDP and other small parties in the Blok used them to stage a democratic Coup. Two MPS from the ABC floor crossed and its numbers decreased from 30 seats to 28 seats. Another Coalition Partner the LCD stated that it was pulling out of the Thabane Coalition and forming a new Coalition with DC and would become a new government. All congress parties announced a new reunion where they would govern Lesotho. Threatened by the Vote of no confidence, floor crossing, the prime minister prorogued parliament for nine months which is constitutional. Thabane has lost command of the 61 thresh hold. The suspension of parliament has raised an outcry. The LDF was also confused during this period. The special forces of the LDF convened a meeting for its units. The Special Forces were protesting against the perceived dismissal of the LDF commander real or imaged. One of the senior Commanders of the LDF advocate Maaparankoe Mahao tried to instil sanity to his junior in the LDF. He was court marshaled for his instilling sanity to his juniors. The commander in chief dissolved the Court Marshall while later the commander of LDF re-constituted the Court Marshall. It became clear that the Prime Minister and commander in chief had lost control of the LDF. The ABC think tank-the resource group advised brigadier advocate Maaparankoe to resign and accused him for being a source of troubles for the ABC Government. The LCD and DC did not like him either. There is a standoff between the Police and LDF. The LMPS supports the prime minister while the LDF supports the opposition. The opposition was calling on the Army to stage a Coup. It is at this juncture that we must thank COSATU Leadership, SACP and ANC in the Free State who influenced the ANC Government to send positive signals about the crisis in Lesotho. When the ANC Government issued a statement that it will not tolerate any Coup in Lesotho, sanity prevailed in Lesotho. The left in Lesotho called for a government of National Unity (GNU) as a temporary way of resolving the political crisis. The workers federations Particularly the Congress of Lesotho Trade Unions (COLETU) supported the position of the left. It was so because workers would lose the 4% salary increase and the 7% tax deduction particularly workers in the public service. We called for the preservation of the Coalition Government and the strive for a GNU because if the Coalition collapsed Lesotho Police Staff Association (LEPOSA) would lose their new salary structure Way out of the Crisis A representation of stake holders took a study trip to New Zealand to find out how the model we copied from New Zealand works which is expected to provide modified alternatives to our own. Thank you for your patience though you are not sick. Vuyani Tyhali -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. 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