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IT’S over!
The tempestuous alliance between the All Basotho Convention (ABC) and the Lesotho Workers Party (LWP) has ended.
ABC leader Tom Thabane yesterday confirmed that the marriage is over.
Three short but stormy years is all it took for Lesotho’s biggest opposition alliance to fall apart.
Those who were close to the alliance say it was an acrimonious end to a marriage that had become more accustomed with dealing with allegations of factionalism and backstabbing than coming up with strategies to become the next government.
The well had been poisoned, they say.
It’s still early to establish the real impact of this split on both parties because the modalities of the divorce are yet to be finalised.
It’s also too early to predict who is poorer without the other although functionaries from both parties are likely to gloat about their stability outside the alliance for the next months.
“We are just fine without them,” are the words that we are likely to hear from both parties.
Yet one thing is already clear: Lesotho’s opposition movement is certainly poorer and miserable without the ABC/LWP alliance.
The alliance had its weaknesses but it still was a formidable force in the opposition movement.
A combination of the ABC, a broad church of mostly urbanites angry with the current government, and the LWP, a workers’ party, looked like a potent force.
The two had formed a strong platform that had the capacity to challenge the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) party in future elections.
Even if the alliance might not have grown to its full capacity there was still hope that it would provide a challenge to the LCD.
It is not good for democracy when a country has one dominant political party.
Democracy is therefore the biggest loser in this split.
What makes it particularly sad is that the alliance is crumbling with only two years before we go to the next general elections.
This is an alliance that recently suffered a drubbing in three by-elections.
Yet instead of regrouping to think up strategies for the next election they decide to split.
This shows how unfocused and impatient our opposition leaders can be.
Little wonder they remain in the opposition.
Lesotho’s opposition parties must accept that they cannot defeat the LCD as individual entities unless a major calamity befalls the ruling party.
Their inadequacies have been exposed many a time.
Their narrow support bases have been their biggest undoing.
Their capacities have been frail and their membership too small to propel them into government.
There are parties that don’t even have structures in other parts of the country and even where there is a semblance of their existence they are too weak to make a difference.
Given this reality it is clear that alliances, like the one that the ABC had with the LWP, are the only way to go.
By breaking the alliance the two parties are saying they have totally failed to work together.
They are saying they both believe either of the party had become a huge burden on the other’s ability’s to perform.
But we beg to differ.
What killed this alliance was the failure of the leaders from both parties to manage the culture mix.
And they did not define the real motive of their alliance.
There were never clear set goals to define the alliance.
What kept the alliance going was the belief that one day their numbers might be huge enough to garner enough votes to form the next government.
And when that failed mistrust grew, with each party thinking that it could do without the other.
The leaders of both parties must take the blame for failing to manage the egos of those around them.
There are people in both parties who have a destructive sense of entitlement.
koko matata is dead (committed suicide)
QUOTE:Lesotho’s opposition parties must accept that they cannot defeat the LCD as individual entities unless a major calamity befalls the ruling party. Their narrow support bases have been their biggest undoing. Their capacities have been frail and their membership too small to propel them into government, UNQUOTE. So TRUE, but Thabane does not see this glaring reality. Instead of making introspection (examining his partty’s strenghts and weaknesses), Tom always scapegoats his favourate whipping boy—the Independent Electoral Commision. E tla le terapa LCD, ha e bapalloe!!
Billy what you should do now that Mr. Thabane and yourself are over? call excutive meeting of LWP and make a new list of LWP to the parly and expel all ABC members that were on your list, those are LWP sits, to show Mr. Thabane that he needs you more than you do that Ntate takes people for granted,
In life, split of any sort it’s not good news and doesn’t come easy. Before the finality, it takes a lot of bitterness, threats, upheavals and terrible fights. Basotho lack “political tolerance” and Billy as a trade unionist and militant the way he is, there was no way he could tolerate such bullying characters more than he had done for the past years.
I never felt at ease to see Billy in the ranks of ABC for one reason, believe it or not, Mr. Thabane is an author and protagonist of what we see in LCD government today. He was there (if my memory serves me well) when Mr. Ntsu Mokhehle somersaulted in parliament and overthrew the BCP government to suddenly seize power. This debacle was a total destruction for our political legacy or history as a nation. Truly speaking: “It is not enough to change strategies, structures and systems unless the thinking that produced those strategies, structures and systems also change”. ABC has typical structures and thinking of LCD. If you don’t have a backbone you will amend, ratify, have memorandum to back up your stay longer in power and cannot afford to be opposed for whatever reason. Where is Tšehlana and others?
To comrade Billy, follow your heart bro; call your labor force and determine which way to go after this suicidal move. This tragic ending must have instructed (informed) you a lot; walk the talk.
To my former ABC compatriots, “introspection” is the only way to go before 2012.
Feela, Sehlabo, tsebong ea hau, Thabane u kile a sebetsa ka kutloano (in harmony) le mang? Sheba rekoto ea hae:
1- A na a tjolietsana le Maope Seealemoeeng;
2- A hlolana le Ts’ehlana;
3- A hlolana le Mokhanoi;
4- A hlolana le Monyalotsa;
5- A hlolana le Lekhoaba;
6- A hlolana le Chaltin;
7- A hlolana le Mookho Mathibeli le sehlopha sa hae;
8- Kajeno o hlolana le Billy le LWP!
Sehlabo, this record is horrrendous for a leader , to say the least!!
T. Sehlabo says:
“To my former ABC compatriots, ‘introspection’ is the only way to go before 2012″
My brother, this is a very sound advice had you not been dealing with people like Tom, who are so intransigent to the extent of commiting political suicide! You remember the Lesasaboli saga of Metsing Lekhanya versus Bereng (Selala) Sekhonyana?
Jonna oee, Lesasaboli re le tsebile ka LCD rona, joale moo Sebatalali u buoa ka eng? Ebile re ntse re utloa hore le ntse le halefile le se bile le iphuntse mpeng, joooooooooooo! A k’u etsa mohlala o betere hle, le hona o ntseng o phela, tlohela ho re etsetsa mohlala ka bafu, bo ntate Bereng, (moea oa hae o phomole ka khotso, mohaung oa Morena) buoa ka Lesasaboli la LCD.
Ntate Sehlabo re u utloa hantle le rona ba neng ba matha ka mora LCD re teng re batla moo re ka tholoang,.
‘Na ke ntse ke re ekaba u motho oa khale athe ke fositse?
Puo ea hore Lesasaboli le itomme mpeng e ne e hlahe Memorial Service ea Mofu Selala, ‘Manthabiseng Convention Centre,
ele ha Maneshenale a re Lefu la Selala ke lefu le bakiloeng ke e mong kapa ba bang ba litho tsa BNP. E ne ele ha Selala a ile a ea Botswana a ronngoe ke Speaker, Ntlhoi Motsamai, khahlanong le thato ea BNP leader.Puo eo e ile ea phetoa hape ha re ne re boloka Selala phupung e neng e ts’oaretsoe sekolong sa .Machabeng. Baby, ha u sa tsebe, u botse!!
‘Na, ak’u lebohe ha u fuoe tutorial ea mahala, ‘me u rutehe u rutehele ruri!!