THE new cabinet sworn-in on Friday has been received with mixed reactions from the public.
To some people it is a mixture of inexperienced and recycled ministers.
They say the new cabinet has little if any appreciation of the challenges the country is facing.
Others find the combination of the political parties, the young and the old, the novices and the veterans, as the strength of the coalition government.
What is however not debatable is that the cabinet is surprisingly thin on the gender balance.
While these arguments are valid what has not been answered by analysts and perhaps even by the coalition government itself, is the fundamental question of what value the opposition Democratic Congress (DC) will add to the new government.
The DC is now the opposition but we cannot disregard the fact that it has people who have the experience to run government.
Although those people might have made mistakes during their time in cabinet they can still help the new ministers.
Prime Minister Tom Thabane is an experienced civil servant and a seasoned politician who played a very critical role in the formation of the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) and survival of its government in the 1998 political turmoil.
He was popular for his delivery and ability to act to the expectations of the electorate. But has the question crossed the mind of Basotho on how effective he would be as the premier if he is closely checked by the former Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili who is now in the opposition after having headed the government for more than a decade?
LCD leader Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing is young and energetic with a vision.
It is good that he has been put in charge of the local government ministry.
His ability to reach out and engage with sectors is surely an asset to the decentralisation programme which needs cooperation between chiefs and councils.
Civil society initiatives such as the National Community Parliament aimed at enabling communities to speak on the national budget would be unavoidable to the new minister who himself has been so friendly to it.
But it would be extremely beneficial if DC was to form a shadow cabinet to use its experienced members of parliament to track the performance of ministries in the coalition government.
For example Pontso Sekatle, the former local government minister, can do well to keep the coalition government on track if allocated the position of a shadow minister for local government and chieftainship.
The coalition government has done well in introducing separate ministries of social development, police, development planning and mining.
While this comes at the risk of an increase in the overhead costs, it gives necessary focus on critical issues.
The challenge that remains however is what mandate will be given to the new ministries.
Social development should go beyond social welfare and safety nets.
Its task should be to develop the resilience of communities to deal with the abject poverty in the context of HIV and Aids and the weak local government structures. Giving development planning autonomy from finance is a commendable move.
Basotho are concerned with lack of safety which is key in the growing poverty.
Stock theft has eroded livelihoods of Basotho as those who would otherwise live on subsistence agriculture, of which stock is critical, have lost everything.
Placing police in the Prime Minister’s office and assigning it a special minister suggests that the coalition government understands what is at stake.
Mining has the potential to create employment and the focus should go beyond diamonds to explore other minerals.
Sandstone and quarrying can create thousands of jobs if managed well. It is good that mining is now a separate ministry.
The decision of the premier to assign a young social entrepreneur and activist, Temeki Tšolo, to the Ministry of Trade is saluted.
Giving young people the opportunity is the most rewarding yet feared approach in development.
While the cabinet has few women, the ministries they are holding have the
potential to put back this country on the development track.
By international standards tourism will be the next biggest employer after mining in the 21st century.
The public works ministry can maintain quality by giving tenders to experienced firms but it may equally improve the local and young companies by introducing and enforcing subcontracting incentives.
The placement of a renowned educationist ‘Makabelo Mosothoane at the Ministry of Education and Training is commendable but she is filling the big shoes of another educationist.
She comes after another educationist who made some strides particularly in school construction and teacher development.
What Basotho want to see is the transformation of our schools into a peaceful learning environment.
The coalition government should extend an olive branch to DC and recognise and respect it not only as an opposition but a well elected bloc.
On the other hand DC should give back to Basotho by becoming a well organised opposition to wage a sound policy engagement.
One way of doing that could be by establishing a shadow cabinet.