Sanity appears to have finally prevailed among the three parties constituting the coalition government.
After what had become an embarrassing tiff between the parties, namely the All Basotho Convention (ABC), Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) and Basotho National Party (BNP), their leadership has agreed to meet tomorrow in an effort to resolve their differences.
At the centre of this row is ABC leader and Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, whom the LCD is accusing of not consulting the other parties when making key government decisions.
The BNP has not featured much in this row, although the party has also weighed-in with its observations regarding the tripartite alliance whose establishment in June 2012 was widely hailed by the generality of the nation, as well as the southern African region.
But developments over the past few weeks appeared to confirm what political analysts had predicted when the alliance was mooted as a strategy to ensure the Democratic Congress (DC) led by Pakalitha Mosisili did not retain power—that the three parties are so different ideologically that they cannot work together.
The LCD has been particularly scathing of Dr Thabane, and last week’s press conference, during which the party accused him of “trampling upon the spirit of the coalition agreement”, was a sad development that put a damper on what was arguably one of the best developments to have happened in this country.
Of-course, the LCD has every right to be angry with the prime minister based on the partners’ founding agreement, which states the parties should operate in good faith and never spring surprises on each other.
However, the LCD believes Dr Thabane has been making unilateral decisions regarding crucial governance issues, thereby undermining the other parties in the coalition.
However, we believe angry public outbursts is not the best way to resolve whatever differences the LCD might have with the prime minister or the other partner in government, namely the BNP.
And as reported elsewhere in this issue, a make-or-break indaba has been set for Monday in the capital, which is what we believe the three governing parties should have done without washing their dirty linen in public, first.
Hopefully, tomorrow’s meeting is the beginning of the restoration of the cordial relationship that marked the beginning of the alliance on that cold and rainy day of 8 June 2012, when Dr Thabane was sworn in at Setsoto stadium, as the country’s prime minister.
An unstable government is the last thing Lesotho needs, as it stalls the country’s economic development, without which the majority of our people will continue to wallow in poverty.
Lesotho’s attraction to foreign investors is its stability and this favourable outlook could be undone in the blink of an eye, if the country’s political leaders fail to demonstrate the mature leadership which is expected of them by the electorate.
Dialogue, it has been proven time and time again, is the only progressive way to resolve disputes and the three feuding parties should have been aware of this.
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