Mets’eliso Motsoane
MASERU — Social Development Minister ’Matebatso Doti on Wednesday rejected charges that her ministry is dishing out services on the basis of political affiliation. Doti was responding after a local civic group that helps orphans and vulnerable people marched to Prime Minister Thomas Thabane’s offices last week.
The Interactive Productive Association of Lesotho (IPAL) handed a petition to Thabane’s office claiming they had been informed that they would never receive help because its members were not affiliated to the ruling All Basotho Convention (ABC) party. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Doti, who is a member of the ABC, said the remarks were not true.
She said the coalition government led by Thabane does not provide social welfare services on the basis of political affiliation.
The minister said the only reason IPAL was not funded was because its leader, Reverend Tšepo Lipholo, had “failed to provide the necessary credentials of the people within his association”. The Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Social Welfare, Limakatso Chisepo, said they had asked Rev Lipholo to provide a complete breakdown of the people he had included on his application form.
The reverend however failed to provide such a breakdown, Chisepo said. She said they wanted the list to ensure that services are not “rendered to people who are already receiving government funding to avoid a duplication of services”.
Doti said they will have to include IPAL in the budget for next year. “The Ministry of Social Development would be very pleased to work with IPAL or any other organisation on a project such as this,” Doti said. She said the ministry is determined to provide services to Basotho irrespective of political affiliation.