Monday is D- day for Lesotho

SADC’s agreement to the proposal of Lesotho’s Prime Minister, Dr Phakalitha Mosisili to extend the deadline of the release of the report of the SADC commission appears to be a bubble waiting to burst.

At present Lesotho awaits with bated breath the release of the report on which it has pinned all its hopes to justify demands by some quarters for fresh general elections.

Currently Lesotho Parliament has 120 seats. The unity government led by Mosisili and comprising of eight political parties has 65 seats, while the remaining 55 seats belong to the three opposition parties. Mosisili himself is a leader under siege. He is reported to be a very worried man as he even suspects that members of his coalition government want to topple him.

It is said that when he addressed his party elective congress over the weekend, Mosisili allegedly castigated his colleagues telling them that he has received information that some of the party members want to crossover and join forces with the opposition in order to dethrone him to form an opposition coalition government.

Further, even when he convenes parliament on Monday, Mosisili will still have to deal with the fact that three leaders of the opposition parties will be absent as they are in exile. Mosisili’s government asked for extension so that they could convene parliament which they feel is the best at which the report of the SADC Commission could be made public.

The Double Troika received and endorsed the SADC commission report that was chaired by former high court judge, Mpaphi Phumaphi over a fortnight ago and ordered the government of Lesotho to implement its recommendations, but not to publish the postmortem pictures of the late former Lesotho Defence Force Commander, General Maaparankoe Mahao who was assassinated by military agents – as a way of showing respect for his family.

The deadline for Mosilili was this Monday, but he has up to next Monday to fulfil his promise.

The opposition position
Former cabinet minister and deputy leader of Basotho National Party (BNP) and MP, Chief Joang Molapo who led a 12 men delegation of the Lesotho opposition parties to Gaborone to observe the SADC Double Troika told Botswana Guardian this week that they remain a worried lot because Mosisisli has publicly declared that he has the right to correct the report. However, they have decided to adopt the wait and see attitude until the report is formally tabled.

“At this moment we are kept in the dark and we do not know whether the government will table it in parliament directly, or if the report will be given to a statutory body - the Prime Minister Committee,” he said. The committee is made up of 15 members from different political parties with government having the majority of eight members.

Molapo said the primary role of the committee is to review the report(s) and report to the house their findings and recommendations before parliament can decide by way of voting. “We are not sure whether the report is going to be tabled simply for information or whether parliament has to take a decision on it,” he continued.

“However our position as the opposition is that if the report is tabled in order for parliament to comment on it then, we will not be interested as the three opposition parties because we know government will use its majority to pass the doctored document.” 
Molapo also mentioned they were currently weighing their options whether to attend or boycott parliament.

Speaking to the Botswana Guardian the spokesperson for BNP, Machesetsa Mofombe said they believe that SADC agreed for an extension in good faith thinking that the government is genuine, whilst this is not the case.

“SADC is not aware of the trick that the government may have pulled against them. We believed that government was just buying time because the case in which Lt. Col. Tefo Hashatsi wants the high court to nullify the Commission report continued this week Tuesday, and they were hoping that the court would deliver its judgement so that they can use their judgement to their favour.”

On a different note Mofombe said that Mosisili has also gone on record that he has agreed with SADC Chairman, President Ian Khama that he (Mosisili) has the right to remove any parts of the report which he feels are not suitable for public consumption.

“I doubt if Khama may have entered into that kind of agreement he was not handling this issue alone, but rather, he was part of the Double Troika which made the decision.”

He said that they are worried that as things stand, Mosisili could expunge the sensitive issues and, or parts that cover his close allies. “But our understanding is that SADC has only ordered that only the sensitive parts that will not be made public are Pictures of Lt General Maaparankoe Mahao as a way of showing respect to the family.”

Elective congress
Mofombe further confirmed that the results of the congress did not favour Mosisili as he is was the only one from his campaign camp that won the party presidency while the rest were won by the camp of his deputy president, the minister of Police and MP for Machache constituency Monyane Moleleki.