WE are not huge fans of Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro because his 19 months in power have so far failed to yield the hoped-for socio-economic stability in the country.

It is not that we were expecting miracles but more than a year and half since his advent in May 2020, service delivery remains as poor as ever, if not worse. Service providers are still owed huge sums while his clueless government sits on the massive Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 66, 9 million allocation (about US$93, 6 million) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The money could be used in various developmental programmes but up to now the ministry of finance says it has not yet decided what to do with it!!!

Poverty continues to grip the nation while murders and other violent crimes have worsened. Hardened criminals, emboldened by the police and judiciary’s failure to punish them, have upped the stakes and they are now targeting police officers for elimination. Seven police officers were murdered in just three months up to August this year. We have gone to great lengths to present these grim details just to demonstrate that Dr Majoro’s government hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory.

Therefore, we will not be sad to see him eventually go. But having said that, we must hasten to add that we don’t support any attempts to prematurely unseat him before his tenure ends next year.

We would rather all the oversight institutions play their role and take him to task over his shortcomings without necessarily changing the government.

Even if a no confidence vote in parliament will not lead to costly snap elections, a change of government by any means will still be a drain on the fiscus.

It is a given that any incoming prime minister will choose his own new set of ministers and that cabinet will necessitate a huge financial outlay for salaries, vehicles and other perks.

Apart from a bloated cabinet, any new government will also see the appointments of new principal secretaries and heads of other government institutions.

All this will happen at the expense of service delivery.

For this reason, we call upon the All Basotho Convention (ABC) leader Thomas Thabane and his allies to reverse their decision to recall Dr Majoro. We urge them to allow him to finish his term. Not because we have any fondness for Dr Majoro but because cold hard logic shows that the decision to oust him is not premised on addressing long-suffering Basotho’s concerns about service delivery. It is simply about revenge and getting one over a political rival.

As we report elsewhere in this edition, the ABC’s national executive committee (NEC) heeded Mr Thabane’s call to remove Dr Majoro and voted to replace him with current deputy secretary general and cabinet minister, Nkaku Kabi.

Now 82 years, one can say that Mr Thabane has had his time and he should relinquish the ABC leadership which he continues to cling to and use to settle personal scores with his party rivals even at the cost of national stability.

He may have formed the ABC along with others in 2006. He is revered and rightly so as the party’s founding leader. But that does not give him the licence to treat the party and by extension the country as his personal fiefdom.

It has been said that age comes with wisdom and it is our sincere hope that Mr Thabane will quickly realise that the longer he stays on the political arena and even attempts one last shot at the premiership, the more he will ruin what is left of his legacy.

To borrow the words from the satirical song about former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe by South African band Freshly Ground, there was a time when Mr Thabane was “noble, a conqueror, and a supernova”.

But like Mr Mugabe who had to be dragged out of office kicking and screaming by his own army, Mr Thabane is no longer a spring chicken.

He must now leave the stage to much younger politicians who might possess fresh ideas to take Lesotho out of its quagmire. He must also desist from allowing avaricious power-hungry ABC politicians to hide behind his coattails and use him as a front when fighting their own battles.

Do the honourable thing Mr Thabane while you may. At least allow Dr Majoro to finish his term.