If there’s one thing that Alliance of Democrats (AD) leader Monyane Moleleki is proud of, it is the party’s competent, tried and tested personnel to run a government. In this exclusive interview with theReporter, Mokola –as he is fondly known in political circles – reveals what the AD has to offer if given a chance to lead government after the upcoming September general elections. He also weighs in on a wide range of issues, some of which would make the average politician cringe with discomfort.
Please outline the vision of the AD for Lesotho, and why it deserves to be voted to govern the country.
The reason we are asking the electorate to choose the AD in the next general election is that AD is replete with experienced former ministers who have performed very well and have a track record of performing well in various ministries where they were ministers and heads of ministries. More than any other political party in Lesotho.
You take anyone you wish, they do not even have as much as one quarter of the number of former well performing ministers in the potential ministers, who could be appointable as experienced ministers, former ministers with a good track record. That is the crux of the reason. And there was a demonstration of that when my party, the AD was part of a four-party coalition. There were those who decided to force the AD out for fear, and they expressed it publicly and openly that they feared that our party was performing so well that at the end of the five years the electorate would be left with no choice but to vote for the AD.
We have already been provided unwittingly by others not by ourselves, by those who were in partnership with us, and who were the majority governing party.
An issue that has caused very visible divergence of views among political parties is the demarcation of constituencies. What is the position of the AD on the matters, and what are your reasons?
Our position of the demarcation of constituencies is two-fold. There is an existing legislation, the Electoral Act of Lesotho. It provides for only one consideration – that is the consideration of the number of registered electors in every constituency. That is the law as it stands. But our view is that in future, post the coming election, the country could have a rethink and review the considerations to be taken into account when delimitation of constituencies is done. One consideration could be the number of electors as is the case now. Another one could the size of constituency, area-wise. You see in the mountain areas of Lesotho, the population is very sparse and wide spread. So constituencies in the mountains of Lesotho could end up being inordinately large in order to capture the same population within each constituency. That would mean the IEC would have to set up a thousand voting areas in order to cover one single constituency. Also, imagine if we were to have more and more dense urban areas, storied buildings, apartment buildings. We could easily, theoretically, end up with just two or three streets delineated as a constituency.
There is an existing legislation now, which must be followed as far as we are concerned and the possibility of having a look at the various considerations to be taken into account when delimiting constituencies.
VIDEO INTERVIEW:
Poverty and unemployment, especially youth unemployment, have always topped the agenda. How does your part plan to handle them?
We believe that government should be the regulator, government should level the playing field and government should have no business in business, but leave it to the private sector. So if you want to address the issue of unemployment you need to have a conducive climate for the private sector to feel comfortable to invest in Lesotho, and that is only if the government behaves as a regulator, as an agent for levelling the playing field, easing taxation laws, giving a tax haven regime, creating special economic zones, so that the company taxes are close to zero. The whole private sector community would find it conducive to invest in Lesotho and provide the requisite jobs. Government is not a provider of jobs, and it should not take part in providing jobs. Government should be very lean and small and allow the private sector to provide jobs. That’s our position: government to regulate and the private sector to employ because they find a conducive environment.
We have seen an escalation of corruption in recent years. This has led to people losing confidence and trust in politicians, and interest in politics. How does the AD intend to restore voters’ interest in national affairs and elections?
The reasons there is so much corruption is that the politicians have a sense of insecurity of tenure because of the high turnover of governments. The coalition governments have hardly lasted three years. It is only the government in which I was deputy prime minister which lasted three years. Unless we have a government of national unity which provides security of tenure for public officers and ministers, if we have a government of national unity, that is the sine qua non, the condition necessary to provide stability and if there is stability for politicians and ministers to have a predictability of spending five years in ministerial positions, then they are less likely to be prone to the temptations of corruption. Now they are corrupt because people have a feeling … if you look at the current government they knew they going to last two years and no more; so they are frantically trying to take everything, line their pockets before they get out of office, and it’s disgusting. So we need stability of the government and security of tenure for government employees, ambassadors and senior officials, so it become less tempting to engage in corruption.
What about crime? We have seen an unprecedented rise in murder statistics, for examples, such that Lesotho is being referred to as the murder capital of Africa. Does the AD have a solution to the rampant crime in the country?
That is unfair. There is no way I can agree to the assertion that Lesotho is the murder capital of the world. There are countries with far worse crime statistics that Lesotho. Crime, violent crime, sometimes is done by people who should be protecting the populace. And domestic violence is borne out of social problems of unemployment for men, inadequacy of men, resulting in crime.
There is a belief that Lesotho’s education system has become irrelevant and out of touch with modern day needs and challenges. What’s your take on that?
That is not correct. We must invest in education that teaches life skills in technology, engineering and science subjects which are good for today. But we need to invest heavily in education more than any other sector. It is only through education, good training of our people and recognition of people with skills, even if they were not formally trained but.
There is growing discomfort, accompanied by mistrust, at the growing influence of the Chinese in Lesotho’s affairs. Do you share this sentiment?
No I don’t. The Chinese are friends of Lesotho of a long time, and we should avoid xenophobia against other nationalities. I am not uncomfortable with anyone. We have been influenced by Europeans for a good part of 200 years in Lesotho and 350 years in Southern Africa, and there were no Chinese. The Chinese have turned the tables on Europe in terms of development. We need to take a leaf out of their book and learn from them instead of being uncomfortable with them. We have been following the Europeans and that hasn’t paid off. So I hold a completely different view.
The thorny issue of amnesty for perpetrators of politically motivated offenses. What is the AD’s stand in this matter and what is the best way to handle it?
I attentively listened to the question, and you’ve said ‘politically motivated offenses.’ Our position is crystal clear, that anybody suspected of a politically motivated crime should be given amnesty but it should be preceded by truth and assurance that such a crime won’t be repeated. We have had politically related crimes committed since 1966. People were murdered, people were tortured, people disappeared for political reasons. We should have truth and reconciliation just like the South Africans did because, if it’s politically motivated, clearly the only solution is the truth and reconciliation and amnesty.
