Caswell Tlali
MASERU — Lesotho’s war veterans will from April this year start receiving M300 monthly pension from government.
Finance Minister Timothy Thahane said he has set aside M2.8 million for the 2012/2013 financial year to pay pensions to former Lesotho Liberation Army (LLA) combatants.
LLA is the defunct military wing of the former ruling Basutoland Congress Party (BCP).
Thahane is expected to discuss the allocation with the MPs as a new item in parliament tomorrow.
The ministry of defence principal secretary, ’Mamoroke Lebesa, announced on Thursday that the ex-LLA’s combatants would be paid M300 each per month.
Veterans of the two world wars would also get the same amount, Lebesa said.
“The government has decided that the LLA soldiers will be paid together with veterans of the first and second world wars,” she said.
The LLA was an armed wing of the BCP formed in exile after the late Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan refused to step down after losing the 1970 elections. He went on to suspend the country’s constitution and persecuted BCP members.
The government’s decisions to give the war veterans pension comes two months after the Lesotho Liberation Army Veterans Association (LLA-VETA) announced that its members would stand for election this year under the flag of the Lesotho People’s Congress (LPC).
The LLA-VETA chairperson, Fusi Koetje told a press conference that the association resolved to go to parliament through one of the congress parties after they got a cold shoulder from the ruling party when they wanted their plight discussed.
Koetje said they chose the LPC among congress parties because it was readily welcoming while others had either ignored their proposals or rejected them or dillydallied.
Koetje said in the understanding that the BCP was responsible for the formation of the freedom fighters’ organisation, it was the first to be approached with the proposal to stand for the 2012 election under its flag but the party leadership refused.
“We then approached the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) which accepted us but promised to formalise things only to dillydally until we realised that we have no space in their midst.
“We made several follow-ups with the LCD leadership but the promise was never fulfilled,” Koetje said.
“Since our conference had resolved that we could go to any congress party without singling out a party by name, we approached the LPC which welcomed us with wide arms.”
Speaking at the same conference, the LLA-VETA general secretary Khotso Morojele said they wanted to be represented in parliament so that they can discuss the plight of former freedom fighters and their families at government level.
Morojele said many of their members were old, sick, unemployed and they felt that the government should help them.
Efforts to get comment from the LLA-VETA on the new pensions were unsuccessful.