Maseru — Mophato Monyake, the MP for the Stadium Area, said government cannot give jobs to all thousands of unemployed Basotho who roam the streets.

Monyake, who is also the Minister of Law and Correctional Services, told a public gathering at the Pitso Ground this past week that 35 percent of (about 630 000 of the country’s 1.8 million population) Basotho are unemployed.

He said a way out of this fix would be for Basotho to engage in self-empowerment projects which would ease the burden on government to create employment for all unemployed people.

Monyake said the government does not have jobs adding that had it not been for assistance from donors many civil servants would have lost their jobs.

“Government is unable to employ all of you. As things stand, about 35 percent of the people are unemployed. It is the status quo and government has set aside M50 million for empowerment projects which I expect you to take advantage of,” he said.

He added that it is time Basotho started their own businesses and create jobs and stop watching and complaining while the Chinese work.

Meanwhile Member of Parliament for the Qoaling constituency Chalane Phori told the same gathering that the most reliable way for emancipation from the bounds of poverty is through cooperatives.

He encouraged Basotho to take advantage of the cooperatives project which was launched in the six urban constituencies in Maseru.

He said the project enables the electorate to gather their resources and improve their livelihoods.

He said through the project, they target about ten cooperatives in each constituency.

“However, the project has gained more momentum than initially anticipated. To date we have assisted about 6 000 cooperatives,” he said.

Phori said the initiative was started without any government support yet it was gaining awesome momentum. The project is called Hlaselang-Tlala Basotho Cooperatives.

The public gathering was a platform for the MP to report back to the residents of the Stadium Area constituency on the progress made by government in answering the public’s needs since it came to power last June.