Bongiwe Zihlangu
MASERU — Opposition parties have criticised the government for failing to deal with the passport backlog crisis.
They say the fact that thousands of people are still waiting for their passports despite promises by the Ministry of Home Affairs to deal with the crisis shows that the government alone cannot deal with the problem.
Parliament should be involved in finding a solution, they say.
On Friday, the parties wrote to the leader of parliament, Lesao Lehohla, requesting him to reopen the house to discuss the crisis.
Lehohla is also the deputy prime minister and the minister of home affairs.
The opposition parties said they had written the letter after Lehohla ignored their earlier request on June 9 to reopen parliament to discuss the crisis.
Parliament is currently on a three-month winter break until September.
The crisis intensified in June after South Africa barred Basotho holding temporary travel documents from entering the country.
With the Passport Services Department failing to clear the backlog of nearly 200 000 passport applications, chaos ensued.
A number of people, especially Basotho working in South African mines, were stranded in Lesotho after failing to get their passports.
Although the government says the department is working hard to clear the backlog, many people are still without their passports.
Majara Molapo, the spokesperson of the Lesotho Opposition Parties Forum, said opposition parties believed the government was not able to deal with the crisis on its own.
“They will not say or do anything substantial,” Majara said.
“They do not realise that we’re just trying to work together with them, to ease the burden.”
He said the opposition parties wanted Lehohla to tell parliament how he is going to deal with the crisis.
Molapo said if the government failed to resolve the problem, the MPs would request a meeting with South African authorities.
“Maybe they will be in a better position to give us a clear explanation because our government has failed in that department,” Molapo said.
Sello Maphalla, a Lesotho Worker’s Party MP, said it seemed there was no solution to the crisis “in the not-so-distant future”.
“Just last week people attacked passport officials in Leribe,” Maphalla said. “Soon they might decide to burn down the passport offices because they are not getting the services promised by the minister.”