Boitumelo Koloi MASERU — Prime Minister Tom Thabane says his coalition government is here to stay and those who wish it ill will be disappointed. Thabane said this on Thursday at ’Manthabiseng Convention Centre as he presented a report on the new government’s achievements in the first 100 days. He said his government proved “prophets of doom” wrong by holding strong in the first months of its formation.
Instead of faltering as anticipated, the premier said, the coalition government of the All Basotho Convention (ABC), the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) and the Basotho National Party (BNP)
has become stronger since its formation in June. “The ‘Prophets of doom’ prophesied that the coalition government wouldn’t last beyond 60 days, how many days are we now?” Thabane quipped.
Thabane seemed to be targeting that particular statement at the opposition Democratic Congress (DC) which had anticipated that his coalition government would collapse sooner rather than later.
Former Prime Minister and DC leader Pakalitha Mosisili is on record as having said the coalition which
replaced his party as government will falter soon.
Monyane Moleleki, deputy leader of DC, has described the coalition as unsustainable because it had a narrow majority of one seat in parliament. But Thabane said the first achievement of his government has been to strengthen the bonds of the three coalition parties. “We are much stronger than we were when we took over and we shall continue to grow from strength to strength as we are here to stay. After all, it is the will of the people and not ours,” said Thabane. He said the first task of the coalition “was to navigate through the workings of the government, set up and re-align the institutions to meet our type of government”.
He said the coalition government’s manifesto was to “strive for unity, peace and stability; eradicate hunger and poverty by encouraging the nation to engage in economic activities that contribute to economic growth and to fight theft and corruption”.
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