Mohloai Mpesi 

Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) legislator, Mokhothu Makhalanyane, has warned his party risks failing to complete its full five-year mandate if it does not address its infighting and focus on improving the economy. 

The Mokhethoaneng member of parliament said Lesotho’s poor economic situation was directly attributable to instability within ruling political parties, whose regular infighting spilt into government, adversely paralysing sound decision making on economic policy. 

Mr Makhalanyane believes the trend of governments changing before completing their constitutionally prescribed five-year tenures, perpetuate economic instability which resultantly accelerated poverty in the country. 

He has warned his RFP not to repeat the mistakes of previous ruling parties that fell because of internal divisions.? He said the fact that the RFP had been ditched by two MPs, who had since crossed to the opposition, meant that all was not well in the party. Like others before it, the RFP could end up falling by the wayside, before completing its term unless it addressed the reasons of its infighting to focus on governance.

Mr Makhalanyane who is the chair of chairs of the National Assembly’s portfolio committees, vented his frustrations at Friday morning’s sitting of the National Assembly, before he sat for a brief interview with the Sunday Express. 

According to Mr Makhalanyane, the instability of Lesotho’s successive coalition administrations, the first of which was born in 2012, stemmed from unstable ruling political parties that were engulfed by infighting and power struggles. 

The internal party conflicts escalated into government, accelerating the collapse of coalitions. 

Even though Mr Makhalanyane did say it, but a typical example is the former ruling All Basotho Convention (ABC) whose internal squabbles and power strife led to its fall from grace. 

While the ABC had garnered 51 constituencies at the June 2017 elections, it emerged from the October 2022 polls with just eight compensatory seats and not a single constituency win. 

Even the party’s leader Nkaku Kabi, who succeeded founding leader and ex-premier Thomas Thabane, failed to retain his Qeme constituency. 

“When ruling parties are affected by internal squabbles, their subsequent collapse affects the entire nation and economy,” Mr Makhalanyane said. 

“Projects are not completed because the (collapsed) government ran out of time and others took over government, coming in with their own priorities. This has killed this nation. Basotho are suffering, they are dying.” 

The ruling RFP suffered a bloody nose last week, when two of its legislators, dumped Prime Minister Sam Matekane’s party for Official Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Mathibeli Mokhothu’s Democratic Congress (DC). 

Messrs Rethabile Letlailana and Lephoi Makara of Lithoteng and Malimong constituencies respectively, ditched Mr Matekane describing his RFP as “not a political party but a cult” adding “because the RFP revolves around Mr Matekane, if he were to die, the party would swiftly collapse”. 

In the brief interview with the Sunday Express after the house adjourned for its winter recess, Mr Makhalanyane cited the defections of the two RFP legislators to the DC as but one of the indicators of internal strife that led to Lesotho’s governments becoming dysfunctional and ultimately collapsing. 

That the two MPs had ditched government for the opposition, he said, was an indication that the ruling party was not stable. 

“Since 2012 the economy has not improved. When we talk about health, there is a crisis. Workers have not been paid (mountain allowances) …,” Mr Makhalanyane said. 

He warned that if the RFP failed to put its house in order, it would experience further turbulence and suffer the similar fate of other former ruling parties that failed to complete their full five-year terms. 

The tragedy about internal squabbles, he said, was that the affected party spent time trying to resolve its internal squabbles at the expense of governing. 

“That says our economy will remain weak all the time. There will never be enough money for the health sector, education and social responsibilities if the critical work of governance is neglected while focus is put on intra-party squabbles and governments collapse routinely. 

“But if a ruling party is stable and governs the country well, developmental projects would be completed and benefit the people,” Mr Makhalanyane said. 

“As usual, our politics are not stable right now. There are two people who have just crossed the floor from RFP to the opposition. That’s an indication that there is political instability within the ruling party. It shows that those people are not happy. 

“If some legislator of the RFP which is in government can cross to the opposition, then people can see that something is wrong. It is a fact, and if it is left like that, it will deteriorate further and people on the government’s side are not going to focus on the delivery of services but the survival of the ruling party. And everything else will revolve around its survival.” 

Three weeks ago, the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offence (DCEO), shared similar sentiments. 

The anti-corruption body’s officer, Director for Public Education and Corruption Prevention, Litelu Ramokhoro, stated during a one-day workshop, that premature regime changes in Lesotho often resulted in the spike in corruption in the country to the detriment of the economy. 

Once in power politicians and officials concentrated on stealing as much as they could before their government collapsed. No government in Lesotho has lasted its full five-year constitutional mandate since 2012. 

Executive chairman of Jempec Group, Jeffrey Mulabisana, also cautioned the lack of political instability in Lesotho was scaring away investors. He spoke at the mining indaba in Maseru in April 2024. He said investors were reluctant to invest heavily in any environment that was not conducive for their interests. Political instability was never conducive for investment.