By Kabelo Mollo
Woosh! The political merry-go-round is in full swing. The horse trading has begun in earnest and a new party is born. A week is a long time in politics, and this week, one new formation emerged ready to offer Basotho a better life with running water, cheap electricity, and access in to a stagnant economy.
It’s almost as if we’ve seen this movie before. Over, and over again! Somebody on Twitter asked whether we hadn’t yet reached saturation point of political parties. She insisted the requisite five hundred signatures can No longer be in existence but alas here we are. One more hand gesture for us to familiarise ourselves with.
Politics is a funny old game. When Julius Mamela was being disciplined by the ANC he pleaded with them that he be given a periodic suspension which would allow him safe passage back in to the broad church that is “ikhongolose”. He had likely heard the saying “It’s cold outside the party” though to be fair, it was all he’d known since he was 13 years old, so it’s not being dramatic to suggest he would have been devoid of ideas how to begin post expulsion.
The ANC in its infinite wisdom decided not to spare the young firebrand and instead put him to pasture, hoping against hope that his influence would be diminished once he didn’t wear the party colours of Mokaba, Mandela and Sisulu. Malema has also gone on record saying he was all at sea upon hearing news of his permanent dismissal. He claims he was going to go farm in his hometown of Limpopo when a group of young revolutionaries confronted him and challenged him to take the revolution forward. Say what you will about the young man, but he is one shrewd politician, constantly scheming and constantly moving. Their trajectory was a really good one until the last election where voter apathy amongst the youth stunted their growth in local government elections.
Here in the kingdom there hasn’t been a more dramatic breakaway than Dr Ntsu Mokhehle leaving his own BCP to join a new party in LCD. As sitting Prime Minister at the time, it was unheard of that such a thing would happen. Imagine if you will, Mandela crossing the floor. It was a seismic shift in Lesotho’s body politic, perhaps one that continues to be felt to this day.
Once a sitting Prime Minister had abandoned ship for pastures new, it left the door ajar for any and all machinations in the future. That future is now the present, and in that present we have a prime minister who not only doesn’t appear in his party’s leadership structure, he is also a PM allegedly being actively sought to stand down by the incumbent deputy leader of the party. Political scientists will be scratching their heads at the dynamics at play but a layman’s diagnoses will tell you that political expediency fuelled by politics of the stomach is a dangerous combination.
Meanwhile parties led by the youth for the youth continue to implode and perhaps reveal the immaturity of my peers and those who come after us. With a median age of 25 and bucket loads of potential the youth continue to sit either idly by demanding jobs, or penning extended academic but impractical steps for their own development.
There is a small handful of young people who have taken the fight head on, but in the main the youth are happy to be agitated when discussing issues of employment and dormant when shaping a way forward politically. The youth may claim they are not being engaged but the question is why aren’t they engaging the politics of the day? Why aren’t they shaping their own destinies a la Malema and the gang in the republic? Lesotho could be ready for a female Prime Minister in her forties but we can’t know because such a candidate is yet to throw their hat in the ring with any real authority. Last week I lamented politicians’ inability or unwillingness to engage the youth vote, but I’m backtracking. Actually the issue is this sleeping giant called the youth that refuses to awaken from its slumber in spite of the access to information they have.
Yesterday a tweeter asked young Basotho whether they were going to vote. The apathy that has gripped the medium saw half-hearted responses, most of them in the negative. Coincidentally when the same tweeter asks about more controversial things like who’s seen who naked the responses are plentiful and detailed. Make of that what you will…
With the merry go round in full swing I want to remind parties and their leadership that we don’t need the bells and whistles (they aren’t even promising us). We just want decent infrastructure, good sanitation, quality (free) education and access to economic activity. Anything beyond that is gravy.
