Caswell Tlali & Nat Molomo
MOHALE’S HOEK — The incoming government has a mountain to climb if the expectations of voters who cast their votes in yesterday’s general election are anything to go by.
Voters who spoke to the Sunday Express said the next government should put top priority on improving the quality of education so that graduates can create their own jobs.
Voters in Mafeteng and Mohale’s Hoek said they were alarmed by the escalating rate of unemployment and poverty in the district.
“We are not living normal lives,” Thabo Mokhathali, 21, said after casting his vote in Qeme constituency in rural Maseru.
“I am here to elect a government that I hope will feel what I feel and work together with me to overcome my problems, not a government that will think of what I need and act according to what it thinks of me,” he said.
Mokhathali added he expects the new government to “listen to the people”.
In a country where the unemployment rate stands at a staggering 45 percent, Mokhathali’s concerns appear genuine.
Jobs are so scarce that hundreds of thousands of Basotho migrate to work in South African mines, many of them illegally.
Those lucky enough to get jobs in the sprawling textile factories mostly owned by the Taiwanese and Chinese earn a mere M900 a month.
Mokhathali is not alone in hoping for change.
’Mantipana Phelane from Tša-Kholo in Mafeteng said she expects the next government to empower youths with skills and capital to fight joblessness.
“This is urgent,” Phelane said.
“We have youths wandering aimlessly in villages, irrespective of whether they are university graduates or not,” she said.
“Our children need to be empowered to start projects to sustain themselves.
“Look at those plains below us; these are fields that lie uncultivated merely because youngsters are not empowered.”
Phelane’s village, Tša-Kholo, is on a hill from which there are uncultivated fields.
“We are facing unimaginable poverty this year,” she said after casting her vote.
In Mohale’s Hoek the cry was the same.
Youths from Ha-’Mapotsane, a village about three kilometres from Mohale’s Hoek town, said the past government had ignored their concerns.
Likhang Rathaba, 27, a student at Lerotholi Polytechnic in Maseru, said those who had not gone to school often laugh at those attending school because they seem to be better off than them.
“Some of those who only completed primary education or Form E and started small businesses immediately after leaving school are well off compared to those who spent time pursuing further education,” Rathaba said.
“Sometimes I feel like I am wasting my time working hard to attain a tertiary qualification.”
Rathaba said after spending a fortune on school fees many still struggle to find decent jobs after graduating.
“Once you are done with school, you don’t find a job in government or private sector because jobs are few and where there is a vacancy you do not have the required experience and at the same time you do not have money to start your own business,” he said.
Another youth from Ha-’Mapotsane, Thabo Selata, 28, said even if the government provided free education up to tertiary level, the problem of unemployment would still persist as long as the government did not empower people to start their own businesses.
“I want the next government to focus on job creation and all other things will follow,” Selata said.
A 69-year-old voter in Mekaling, ’Maleboea Mabea, told the Sunday Express after casting her vote that it is high time that Lesotho produced its own food and stop relying on donor aid.
“We are concerned with the decline in our agricultural yields.
“We do not get seeds on time despite that our land is fertile,” Mabea said.
“We do not want to depend on food aid.
“We want to produce our own food with our hands,” she said.
She said the area was also in desperate need of water and electricity as well as footbridges to enable people to cross flooded rivers.
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